Barcode turns 50 but its days might be numbered

The patch of irregular vertical strains that revolutionised testing on the grocery store and facilitated the globalisation of retail is popping 50.

But because the barcode celebrates its birthday at this time, its days may be numbered because it faces competitors from the youthful QR code, the information-filled squares utilized in smartphones.

The trademark beep as a product is scanned is heard about six billion occasions per day internationally as round 70,000 gadgets are offered every second.

It has turn into so built-in into the buying expertise that it’s straightforward to neglect how a lot expertise revolutionised retail by dashing up the checkout course of and giving retailers the flexibility to hint merchandise and higher handle stock.

The barcode not solely identifies a product, however “gives professionals in stores access to other functionalities”, mentioned Laurence Vallana, head of France de SES-Imagotag, an organization that specialises in digital tagging.

READ MORE: Smart graves: A Turkish entrepreneur builds QR-coded tombstones

Chewing gum to fruit 

Barcodes had been initially patented by Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver within the United States in 1952.

But it wasn’t till practically 20 years later, in 1971, that US engineer George Laurer perfected the expertise and strikes in the direction of its commercialisation started.

On April 3, 1973, the usual to establish merchandise was agreed upon by a variety of giant retailers and meals firms. It later turned often called EAN-13, which stands for European Article Number and the variety of digits within the barcode.

The following yr, on June 26 within the US state of Ohio, the primary product was scanned: a pack of chewing gum that’s now within the National Museum of American History in Washington.

Today, the non-governmental organisation Global Standard 1 manages the barcode system and counts about two million companies as members.

It offers firms with a singular “global trade item number” for every product, which is then translated into the barcode. Each agency should pay an annual payment primarily based on their gross sales, as much as practically $5,000 per yr.

From bars to QRs 

But the standard barcode will quickly give option to one other commonplace developed by the organisation, mentioned Renaud de Barbuat and Didier Veloso, the respective heads of GS1 Global and GS1 France.

The new commonplace, primarily based on QR, or Quick Response code, might be launched round 2027.

If barcodes have been in comparison with jail bars by critics of the over-commercialisation of society, the Chinese recreation Go with its white and black items on a sq. board was the inspiration for the QR code’s Japanese creator, Masahiro Hara.

Developed in 1994, QR codes can maintain way more data as they’re learn each horizontally, like barcodes, and vertically.

Instead of getting to look a database for data to associate with a product, the QR code can combine data straight, such because the composition of the product and recycling directions.

GS1 believes shifting to the QR code format permits the sharing of way more details about merchandise in addition to content material, enabling new makes use of that might be accessible to shoppers in addition to retailers.

As smartphones can learn QR codes, they’re a simple option to ship folks to web sites to get extra data, resulting in their widespread adoption by firms, artists and even museums. They are even utilized by fee methods.

But barcodes are more likely to stay in place for years to come back because the world regularly transitions to QR codes.

READ MORE: Chinese social media large surpasses Facebook in market worth

Source: AFP