code scanners
It may be hard to remember for some , but there was a time when barcodes , and barcode scanners were considered future technology . It wasn ’ t until 1952 when the first barcode patent was issued , and it consisted of a bullseye symbol made up of concentric circles .
Before this time , there was no real automated monitoring system , and tasks such as checking out groceries at the store or counting inventory were completed manually . Often this wasn ' t only time-consuming and laborious , but also inaccurate . It wasn ’ t until the 1970s when barcodes and barcode scanners first made their appearance in the public sector where they completely revolutionised the retail industry and distribution .
Barcodes wouldn ’ t be any use if you didn ’ t have scanners to read the data . That ’ s why when barcodes were first introduced a reader was also developed . Back in the late 1940s , a Philadelphia grocery store chain asked researchers at Drexel Institute of Technology to look into developing a method to read product information automatically during checkout . Drexel teacher Norman Joseph Woodland went to work on a solution .
For two years , he experimented with data collection techniques until he found one that worked . The first barcode invented used Morse code , and Woodland wrote out the dots and dashes that represented the product number and extended the lines of each vertically to make the linear code .
To read this barcode , Woodward made a device adapted from the Lee de Forest movie sound system . It was developed in the 1930s , and used a sensitive tube to help detect the movie projector ’ s light as it shines through the side of film . With films , the light detected is converted into sound . Woodward ’ s scanner converted the reflected light into numbers .
Woodward applied for a patent for the modern-day barcode and barcode scanner in 1949 , and it was approved three years later . While IBM was interested in purchasing this patent , it wasn ’ t until 1962 , when Philadelphia Storage Battery Co . ( Philco ), purchased the patent . A few years later , that company sold it to RCA .
Barcodes in Stores Long before Woodward devised a way to read barcodes , grocers knew they needed a way to keep track of the items coming in and going out of their shops daily . As stores grew larger , the problem of keeping track of inventory also got bigger . Punch cards , which were originally developed for the 1890 U . S . Census , offered a glimmer of hope . However , the card reading equipment was bulky and expensive , and with the country in the middle of the Great Depression , it just wasn ’ t feasible .
Fast forwrard to the summer of 1974 , and three supermarkets first used scanners for barcodes :
• In June 1974 , Marsh Supermarket in Troy , Ohio , installed a prototype system . The first barcode scanned item was Juicy Fruit chewing gum .
• A month later production scanning systems were installed at a Steinberg ’ s grocery store in Montreal , Canada , and a Pathmark store in South Plainfield , N . J .
These accomplishments were the culmination of three long years of work by the grocery industry to create a Universal Product Code ( UPC ) that eventually would turn into the modernday Point of Sale ( POS ) systems . After a trial period , the benefits of using this type of barcode system included :
• Checkout productivity increased . Stores reduced service desk hours because checks could be cashed at the register , and also because cigarettes were being sold at the register , since the store had a
KIOSK solutions 33