Who invented the bar code and why?

Tim Harford (with some liberty)

[SamAdams76]

[2banana]

And then - it became mandatory.

[alfa6]

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mad+magazine+bar+code+image&t=h_&ia=images&iax=images

See the first image.

Ah the days of my mis spent youth:-)

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Steely Tom]

He had planned to launch it commercially but had been warned away by his father, who was convinced that mobsters controlled the music elevator racket.

I heard about jukeboxes, cement delivery, fresh fish, and vending machines, but not this one.

[beethovenfan]

A forerunner of the mark of the beast.

[PROCON]

In high school, '68-'69, I worked in a supermarket where we checkers would have to use the old keyboard cash register to ring-up groceries.

Slow process, the bar code reinvented and improved the grocery/retail industry.

[SuperLuminal]

The way things are going, in 15-years, an image like that will be tattooed onto everyone's private parts as part of a voter ID system...

Or on the forehead so all those street cameras will increase their ability to track everyone... Everyone in the caliphate except our moslem masters...

[Deaf Smith]

So who invented the SKU?

[SamAdams76]

It was a man called Stu.

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

Bar Codes... what fun.

BarcodeClass.SetBarcodeType PROCEDURE(BYTE BarCodeType)
!——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
CODE
IF SELF.BCType <> BarcodeType
IF ~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL
SELF.BCHandler.Kill
DISPOSE(SELF.BCHandler)
ASSERT(SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
END
CASE BarCodeType
OF BARCODE:CODE39
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW CODE39
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:CODE39x
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW CODE39x
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:CODE128
OROF BARCODE:CODE128A
OROF BARCODE:CODE128B
OROF BARCODE:CODE128C
OROF BARCODE:UCC128
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW CODE128
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:UPC_A
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW UPC_A
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:UPC_E
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW UPC_E
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:EAN13
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW EAN13
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:EAN8
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW EAN8
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:INT2OF5
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW INT2OF5
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:CODE2OF5
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW CODE2OF5
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:CODABAR
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW CODABAR
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:CODE93
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW CODE93
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:CODE11
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW CODE11
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:MSI
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW MSI
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:UPC_ASUP2
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW UPC_ASUP2
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:UPC_ASUP5
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW UPC_ASUP5
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
OF BARCODE:POSTNET
SELF.BCHandler &= NEW POSTNET
ASSERT(~SELF.BCHandler &= NULL)
SELF.BCHandler.Init(SELF)
END
SELF.BCType = BarCodeType
END
RETURN FALSE !OK

[mrsmith]

Fascinating.
Worhed at a packaging company. The code determined everything.

[irishjuggler]

amazes certain presidents,

That was an early bit of "fake news." Media painted Bush 41 as hopelessly out of touch after supposedly being amazed by a supermarket scanner at a trade show circa 1992. The truth was that ol' man Bush was mildly impressed by a then-new scanner that could read bar codes that were torn or shredded.

[moovova]

I always thought the bar code was...as long as you “don’t touch the dancers” and you’re good to go...

[Larry Lucido]

Three coders walk into a bar...

[AlaskaErik]

Coming soon to your body, courtesy of the one-world elites.

[waterhill]

Home Depot

[waterhill]

Universal Product Code. Its kinda handy for trade.

[SMGFan]

Then comic book covers were ruined with the addition

[Freedom4US]

In a similar vein the way that Dan Quayle was smeared with the “Potato” thing (it was the teacher that had it spelled wrong, who was he to argue, she was using flashcards), the story about George Bush and checkout scanner didn’t happen, at least the way it was portrayed.

He knew of checkout scanners just like everybody else.

He expressed some amazement at a then new type of scanner, that no longer needed to be held up close at a 90° angle to read the code.

Fake News, indeed.

[ak267]

Bar code: The rules of drinking.