The Origins of The Barcode Design Belong To Ohio

Everywhere we go, we see barcodes as they have been incorporated into every part of our lives. From the things we buy at the store, membership cards, and other products to the packages that we find on our doorsteps, they all have barcodes. For as long as we can all remember, the barcode was a series of lines and numbers inside of a box that represented the product.

The barcode design that we all know now was not the original design of the barcode, creating a long history of one of the most pivotal inventions in our modern-day society. The first barcode design was similar to a bulls-eye target but quickly many different companies got in on the fight and a new design would reign supreme. This is where Ohio comes into the picture to would help cement this into history as the first Universal Product Code was scanned in the Buckeye state.

In the end, RCA and IBM would be the two front runners who were battling for the rights to creating the barcode that would be used by companies all over the world. RCA was the owner of the Bulls-eye design while IBM had the traditional design, we are all used to seeing but there were 5 other finalists who were filtered out. In celebration of national barcode day, we are remembering Ohio's part in history.

IBM's design would become the industry standard and a grocery store in Troy, Ohio would be the first to scan the barcode that would later be known as the Universal Product Code (UPC) on June 26, 1974. These barcodes are still running strong almost half a century later as many of the barcodes we see today are the same ones someone would have scanned in the 1970s.

Beyond making buying products easier the creation of the barcode inspired ideas in the following areas:

• architects’ building designs,
• dystopian conformity in science fiction,
• popular tattoo
• online fan communities.