An Idea Drawn in the Sand
Norman Joseph Woodland, sketching on a Miami Beach shore, drags his fingers through the sand and forms concentric circles, imagining a code that could be read from any direction.
The Bullseye Patent Filed
Woodland and Silver file a patent for their 'Classifying Apparatus and Method,' describing a linear and a circular bullseye-style barcode symbol.
A Cumbersome Prototype
Woodland and Silver build a bulky working prototype of their bullseye scanner, powered by an oversized light source and using RCA components, proving the concept but revealing its impracticality for retail use.
The Grocery Industry Seeks a Standard
Facing rising labor costs and slow checkout lines, U.S. grocery trade associations form a committee to investigate automated product identification systems.
RCA Tests the Bullseye Code
RCA, having acquired rights related to the original Woodland-Silver patent, conducts a real-world trial of a bullseye-style barcode scanning system in a Kroger supermarket.
IBM's Linear Code Triumphs
An IBM team led by George Laurer, building on Woodland's own reengineering work, develops the rectangular linear barcode symbol that becomes the Universal Product Code, chosen over the original bullseye design.
The First Scan at Checkout
A pack of Wrigley's chewing gum becomes the first retail product scanned using the Universal Product Code, at a Marsh supermarket in Ohio.
Barcodes Reshape Retail and Logistics Worldwide
Through the late 1970s and 1980s, barcode scanning spreads globally beyond groceries into general retail, warehousing, shipping and manufacturing, revolutionizing inventory management.
The QR Code Emerges from Japan
Engineer Masahiro Hara at Denso Wave in Japan invents the Quick Response (QR) code, a two-dimensional matrix barcode capable of storing far more data than linear barcodes.
RFID Extends the Legacy of Automatic Identification
Radio-frequency identification tags, building on decades of parallel development, become widely commercialized for retail and logistics, allowing wireless, contactless tracking of goods without direct line of sight.
IBM's Linear Code Triumphs
Woodland, now at IBM, worked alongside engineer George Laurer to adapt the original patent's linear pattern into a more printable, more reliably scannable rectangular format of black and white bars. Laurer determined that a linear symbol, though not omnidirectional like the bullseye, was far more resistant to smearing and could encode sufficient data efficiently. The grocery industry's selection committee formally adopted this linear design as the Universal Product Code standard, a pivotal decision that set the visual template still recognized worldwide today.