Blog 2: Sabarcodes.co.za
ORIGIN OF BARCODES Nowadays, barcodes have changed nature of the business across the world. They have become mandatory in order to speed up our daily shopping. They allow companies to easily maintain the inventory as well as track and manage assets, and keep track of items. Barcodes, also called as zebra tags, represent a column wise pattern. The column is divided in different line sectioning. Every line represents a number from 0 to 9 which specifies stock of each product and helps shopkeeper to maintain inventory of that particular item. There are also dates mentioned on the barcodes which helps the shopkeeper to identify expiry date of the product. Let us now discuss about history of its origin to know about the importance of barcodes. The origin of the barcodes can be dated back to 1932 when Mr. Wallace Flint invented a check out system based on the marked cards. These cards helped the shopkeepers to check various products coming in and out of the shop. Thereafter, the next stage of invention took place in 1948 when Mr. Bernard Silver invented an automatic product reading system which was based on applying the ultraviolet light rays on products for printing a light-sensitive pattern on it. As this method was very expensive and less effective hence, it was no longer used with passage of time. In real sense, the barcodes were implemented finally in 1967 when Mr. David J Collins developed a linear coding method. These zebra tags were based on the linear patterned lines with vertical section wise distribution. The color of the barcode was kept black for avoiding printing problems. The people finally adopted and applied this significant invention in normal day life. With the passage of time, this method became significant in the industrial sector for production, stocking and distribution.