What is a barcode?

News: Recently, engineer-scientist George Laurer, co-developer of Barcode, passed away.

Facts:

About Barcode:

  • A barcode, consisting of bars and spaces is a machine-readable representation of numerals and characters. It is also known as Universal Product Code (UPC). It is used to efficiently identify and track objects and people.
  • Barcode was co-developed by George Laurier and Norman Joseph Woodland in 1973.

Types of Barcode:

One-dimensional barcode:

  •  Numeric-only barcodes: barcodes consisting of only numbers.
  • Alpha-numeric barcodes: contain a combination of numbers and alphabetic characters.

Two-dimensional Barcode: It is in the shape of a square or rectangle and contains many small dots arranged in a unique pattern. It is also known as Quick Response (QR) code.