A brief history of bar code technology development

Barcodes first appeared in the 40s, but they were actually applied and developed in the 1970s. Barcode technology has been widely used in various countries and regions in the world, and it is rapidly spreading to the rest of the world. Its application areas have become more and more widespread and have gradually penetrated into many technical fields. As early as in the 1940s, engineers Joe Wood Land and Berny Silver began to study the use of codes to represent food items and corresponding automatic identification equipment. They were acquired in 1949. U.S. patent.

The pattern is much like a miniature archery target and is called the "bull eye" code. The target concentric circles are circled by round bars and blanks. In principle, the "bull's eye" code is very similar to the later bar code. Unfortunately, the technology and commodity economy at that time was not yet able to print this code. However, 10 years later, Joe Woodland, as an IBM engineer, became the founder of the North American UPC code. Several inventors, represented by Girard Fessel, filed a patent in 1959 describing that each of the numbers 0-9 can consist of seven parallel bars. However, this code makes the machine hard to read and makes it inconvenient to read. However, this concept did promote the development of bar codes later. Soon, E.F. Brinker applied for another patent, which identifies the bar code on a tram. A system invented by Sylvania in the 1960s was adopted by the North American railway system. These two can be said to be the earliest applications of bar code technology. In 1970, the American Supermarket Ad Hoc Committee developed the Universal Product Code UPC code, and many groups also proposed various bar code symbol schemes, as shown in the lower right and left figures of the above figure. UPC codes were first tried in the retail grocery industry, which laid the foundation for the uniform and widespread adoption of bar codes in the future. In the following year, Blysee developed a Bracey code and a corresponding automatic identification system for inventory verification. This is the first practical application of barcode technology in a warehouse management system. In 1972, Monarch Marking and others developed the Code bar code, and U.S. bar code technology has entered a new stage of development.

In 1973, the UCC established the UPC bar code system and realized the standardization of the code system. In the same year, the UPC code was adopted by the grocery industry as a common standard code for the industry, which has played an active role in promoting the wide application of bar code technology in the commercial circulation and sales field. Dr. Davide Allair of Inte rmec Company developed 39 yards in 1974 and was quickly adopted by the US Department of Defense as a military bar code system. 39 yards is the first letter, digital bar code to be combined, and later widely used in the industrial field.

In U.S. and Canadian supermarkets in 1976, the successful application of UPC codes gave people great encouragement, especially the Europeans have great interest. In the following year, the European Community worked out UPC-A codes to produce Euro-coded EAN-13 and EAN-8 codes, signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the European Article Code, and formally established the European Association for Article Numbering (EAN). In 1981, because EAN had developed into an international organization, it was renamed the "International Association of Article Numbering," or IAN for short. However, due to historical reasons and habits, it is still called EAN. (later changed to EAN-international)
From 1974, Japan began to establish a POS system to study standardization, information input methods, and printing techniques. On the basis of EAN, the Japanese article code JAN was developed in 1978. In the same year, he joined the International Association for Article Numbering and began to register with the manufacturers, and he fully entered the development of bar code technology and its series of products. After 10 years, he became the largest user of EAN.

Since the early 1980s, people have conducted a number of studies focusing on increasing the information density of bar code symbols. 128 yards and 93 yards are the research results. 128 yards was recommended for use in 1981, while 93 yards was used in 1982. The advantage of these two codes is that the bar code symbol density is nearly 30% higher than 39 yards. With the development of bar code technology, the types of bar code coding system are increasing, and the standardization problem is very prominent. For this purpose, the military standard 1189 has been established; 25 yards, 39 yards, and Kudaba yard ANSI standard MH10.8M have been interleaved. At the same time, some industries have also begun to establish industry standards to meet development needs. Since then, David Allier has developed 49 yards, which is a non-traditional bar code symbol, which has a higher density (ie, a prototype of a 2D bar code) than the previous bar code symbol. Then Ted Williams introduced the 16K code, which is a code system suitable for laser scanning. By the end of 1990, there were more than 40 kinds of bar code systems, and the corresponding automatic identification equipment and printing technology had also achieved considerable development.

Since the mid-1980s, some colleges and universities, scientific research departments, and some export enterprises in China have gradually brought the research and promotion of bar code technology to the agenda. Some industries such as books, post and telecommunications, material management departments and foreign trade departments have begun to use bar code technology. On December 28, 1988, with the approval of the State Council, the State Bureau of Technical Supervision established the "China Article Numbering Center." The mission of the center is to research and promote bar code technology and agree to organize, develop, coordinate, and manage our country's bar code work.

In the information economy when globalization, information networking, internationalization of life, and culture became a reality, barcode and barcode technologies that originated in the 40s, studied in the 60s, applied to the 70s, and popularized in the 1980s, and This kind of application system has caused great changes in the world circulation field to be sweeping the world. Barcodes are used as a printable computer language and futurists call it "computer culture." In the international circulation field in the 1990s, bar codes were regarded as "identity cards" for commodities entering the international computer market, and they were widely appreciated by the world. The bar code printed on the outer packaging of goods is like a piece of economic information link that organically connects manufacturing manufacturers, exporters, wholesalers, retailers and customers around the world. This link, once linked with the E DI system, forms a multi-dimensional and multi-dimensional information network. The information related to various commodities is like an invisible, non-stop, automatic-oriented transmission mechanism that flows to all parts of the world and is active. The world of commodity circulation.

Attachment: Major events in the development of barcode technology.

In 1949, NJWoodland of the United States applied for a circular bar code patent.
In 1960, a bar code identification mark scheme for railway wagons was proposed.
In 1963, an article describing various bar code techniques was published in the "Control Engineering" magazine, October 1963.
In 1967, a supermarket in Cincinnati, United States, first used a bar code scanner.
In 1969, the Belgian postal industry adopted a zip code that used a fluorescent bar code to represent the letter delivery point.
In 1970, UCC was established in the U.S.; the U.S. Post Office used a long and short bar code to indicate the zip code of the letter.
In 1971, some libraries in Europe adopted the Plessey code.
In 1972, the U.S. proposed Kurdish yards, crossed 25 yards, and UPC codes.
In 1974 the United States proposed 39 yards.
In 1977 Europe adopted the EAN code.
In 1980, the U.S. military department adopted 39 yards as its item code.
In 1981, the International Association of Article Numbering was founded; a bar code decoding technology for automatic identification; 128 yards was recommended.
In 1982, the handheld laser bar code scanner was put into practical use; the United States military standard military standard 1189 was adopted; 93 yards was used.
In 1983, the United States developed the ANSI standard MH10.8M, which includes crossover codes of 25, 39, and Codebar.
In 1984, the United States established a bar code standard for the healthcare industry.
Dr. David Allairs of the United States proposed 49 yards in 1987.
In 1988, laser diodes were successfully developed; Ted Willians of the United States proposed a novel 16K code for laser systems.
In 1986, China Post decided to adopt a bar code letter delivery system.
At the end of 1988, China established the "China Article Numbering Center."
1991.4 “China Article Numbering Center” represented China to join the “International Article Numbering Association”.