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The history of the barcode

Few people think twice about barcodes, but in the 75 years since they were first dreamed up, they have helped save lives, gone into space and stoked fears of the Antichrist.

Crucially, George Laurer and other members of the IBM team then took this pre-existing proposal for barcode-style markings and developed them into a neat rectangle of black, vertical lines corresponding to a number that could uniquely identify any supermarket item imaginable. And, in September, Lebanon-based armed group Hezbollah accused Israel of dropping leaflets containing a dangerous barcode, referred to in some reports as a QR code, that could "withdraw all information" from any device used to scan it. "I speak with clinicians and members of staff in hospitals responsible for managing inventory – they all report benefits," says Valentina Lichtner, a senior lecturer of digital health and decision making at Leeds University Business School.

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