What is Barcode?
[[File:UPC A.svg|thumb|A UPC-A barcode symbol]] A '''barcode''' is a way of storing numbers printed in a way that a computer can easily read. The first barcodes stored the numbers using lines (bars). [[File:Wikipedia barcode 128.svg|thumb|300px|right|The word ''Wikipedia'' represented in a barcode]] The first use of barcodes was to label railroad [[rolling stock]]. They became a big success when they were used in supermarket checkout systems. The first product that used a barcode was a pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit Gum sold on June 26, 1974.<ref>{{cite news|title=Alan Haberman|newspaper=The New York Times|date=16 June 2011|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/business/16haberman.html|access-date=2013-02-10|last1=Fox|first1=Margalit}}</ref> It was invented by [[IBM]] engineer [[George J. Laurer]]. Barcodes are now used for many purposes. == History == [[Norman Joseph Woodland]] and [[Bernard Silver]] developed the modern barcode, and were granted a [[patent]] for it in 1952. The idea was to make the checkout of articles easier, using a code which was inspired by [[Morse code]]. In 1959, David Collins developed a system for tracking railroad carriages which used barcodes. This system was unreliable, because of dirt on the barcodes. In the 1970s, the system was abandoned, but in the 1980s, a similar system which used [[RFID|radio tags]] was introduced.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Graham-White|first=Sean |date=August 1999|title=Do You Know Where Your Boxcar Is?|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_trains_1999-08_59_8/page/48|journal=Trains |volume=59 |issue=8 |pages=48–53 |publisher=Kalmbach Publishing }}</ref> ==Design== There are different barcode types, which use different designs: * The first designs used the width and spacing of lines; these types are known as one-dimensional barcodes. Examples are the [[European Article Number]] or the [[Universal Product Code]]. * Some designs use two dimensional codes. In these codes, dots that are either white or black are used. Such codes can store more information