First, here is a quick UPC primer. A UPC bar code is a series of 59 alternating black and white lines of different widths. This combination of lines, when read by an optical scanner at the ...

The first modern barcode was scanned 50 years ago this summer – on a 10-pack of chewing gum in a grocery store in Troy, Ohio. Fifty is ancient for most technologies, but barcodes are still going ...

The roots of bar codes go back decades before the UPC came on the scene. One U.S. patent, No. 1,985,035, was granted on Dec. 18, 1934 for a card sorter device to read a simple code consisting of ...