Original title: the inventor of bar code died, he changed almost every industry in the world
According to foreign media reports, George J. laurer, an American engineer, CO inventor of barcode and former IBM employee, died last week at the age of 94.
According to an obituary issued by his family, Laurel's funeral took place on Monday in his hometown of Wendell, North Carolina. Laurel died at home last week.
Laurel is considered as the co inventor of universal product code (UPC), or bar code. Now this bar code has been used in numerous products, services and other projects. People can quickly identify products and their prices by scanning it.
According to a memorial article posted on IBM's website, Laurel was promoted to IBM's senior engineer and scientist in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1969.
IBM's memorial article says: 'just a few years later, in 1973, laurel took the lead in developing today's ubiquitous bar code, a symbol that has changed almost every industry in the world. '
Norman woodland, Laurel's colleague at IBM, is considered to be the first to propose the concept of bar code. He first invented barcode based on Morse code. Woodland died in 2012.
Woodland patented the concept in 1952, but it was still years before the advent of low-cost laser and computer technology, and he was unable to further develop the concept.
Twenty years later, laurel developed a scanner that could read code digitally. He also used stripes in barcodes instead of the circle pattern previously used by woodland, which proved unsuitable for printing.
IBM launched the product in 1973, and on June 26 of the following year, it made the first barcode transaction in a supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
The first product to use barcodes was Wrigley's juicy fruit chewing gum, which is currently on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American history in Washington.