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Carrie Tillett
Calculus I - Math 130
Prof. Seme
5 September 2010
Uncovering the Code
Do you ever wonder what barcodes really are? As a kid did you think they had some sort of magic power? How about now? They seem to hold so much information inside the mix of thick and thin lines with an unknown message of numbers beneath. The rectangle of lines can tell a machine the product, price, weight, and whether or not it is on sale. Not to mention how the store can view the products sold, and how the database knows exactly what is being sold as well as when. I never thought much about barcodes until I could check out for myself. It was the most exciting thing about the store when I was younger and shopping with my parents.
Then, the barcode was the magic spot which had to be shown to the machine in order to pull up a magic price. Another fond memory of barcodes was when the game, Scannerz, came out. For this game, you had to swipe different barcodes and battle whatever monster the code hid beneath the lines. The game even included separate barcodes for health and power. Although barcodes cover almost every product I purchase, now I never think much about them while shopping.
They are just on the package. Had I grown up in a time without barcodes or automated scanners,
I might value their importance more. I do enjoy the time they save at the checkout, and I have respect for the work of George Laurer and his colleagues who accomplished a great feat in a time where barcodes were nonexistent.
Small grocery store clerks had to spend countless hours pricing and labeling products for sale. This price lacked information about inventory and popular sale items, which had to be

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In the early 1970s, seven companies began competing for a laser-scannable icon to automate checkout at grocery stores. I doubt they knew what would happen once this icon was released to the public. Many styles and differences were proposed to become the icon of choice.
One which was a close competitor of the traditional barcode was known as the RCA's bull's-eye.
This proposal was made by Norman Joseph Woodland while he was staying at his grandparents' apartment in Miami Beach. He put his four fingers in the sand and drew four lines and then a circle. Instead of his original idea of dots and dashes, similar to Morse code, he decided on thick and thin lines. The circle allowed the icon to be presented to the scanner in any direction and still be identified (Leibowitz). Another main competitor was the rectangle of thick and thin lines presented by IBM's senior engineer George Laurer. This towered over the bull's-eye design because it was not as distortion-prone and could be reduced in size to fit on smaller items like candy bars and gum packages. These two symbols battled it out until Woodland went against his own design in favor of the rectangle.
The next task on hand was creating the laser system to scan the barcodes. Woodland first completed a working checkout stand; however, the system proved to be way expensive and did not cut the costs of the clerk and bagger. The system added additional fees for the store that bought the machine. Later on, Francis Beck, an engineer, led the team that built the automated checkout stand. Beck coauthored the patent design for a checkout stand that has proven to be much like the ones which we use today. Beck's stands included a stationary laser that clerks could drag items across. After much consideration and many prototypes, the Universal Product

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Code, also called the barcode, was unveiled on April 3, 1973. Today, thirty-eight years later, the product is still covers almost every item on shelves and in production. A prototype of the checkout stand was donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in the winter of 1973 (Leibowitz). This icon changed shopping as consumers knew it and brought about an easier and faster shopping experience sure to please everyone.
Although the Universal Product Code appears flawless, a protest began that challenged the way companies wanted the effective code to work. Carol Tucker Foreman headed the protest against the barcode because she was agitated with the replacement of barcodes for prices. The price of a product became unknown. The companies who initiated the barcode and scanning idea had "never preoccupied themselves much with customer satisfaction" (Leibowitz). The "sticker shock" that once daunted consumers and made them concerned about paying high prices on products was masked with barcodes. Nevertheless, Carol Tucker Foreman gave in and became a believer in the barcode.
Today, barcodes simplify life in a technically savvy world. One example of this is illustrated in gift registry for a bridal shower or baby shower. The store usually loans the consumer a remote scanner which allows them to walk around the store and scan in what they would like to add to their wish list. This provides the consumer some privacy in choosing their items and conversing with their friends about different products instead of employers trying to convince the consumer into products that are unnecessary or overpriced. Toys-R-Us even took part in the barcode evolution. Kids are allowed to walk around the store with barcode scanners and scan what they would like for Christmas or birthdays. With this up and coming technology, many consumers are enjoying the free time and lack of stress at stores worldwide.

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The perfect system of Universal Product Code insures a match when looking for an item because no two items have the same code. All the lines make up a unique code individualized to one specific item. The small, unnoticed sticker marks every product with more information than one could think about hiding inside a cluster of thick and thin lines.

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Works Cited
Leibowitz, Ed. "Bar Codes: Reading between the lines." Smithsonian 29.11 (Feb. 1999): 130.
Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 10
July 2009
<http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=1474761&site=ehost
-live>.