The development history of UPC codes

UPC Code is the abbreviation of Universal Product Code. It is a commodity bar Code formulated by the Uniform Code Council (UCC) and mainly used in the United States and Canada. The UPC code can represent only 0-9 digits and can be divided into five versions: UPC-A, UPC-B, UPC-C, UPC-D, and UPC-D. The UPC-A code is most commonly used.

The development history of UPC code:

UPC codes are based on ring codes developed by Norman Woodland, an engineer at IBM. In 1966, the National Association of Food Chains (NAFC) required the development of a kind of equipment to speed up the acceptance of goods, IBM developed a new type of concentric ring code to replace Woodland Bull's eye code in 1967.

In the summer of 1970, at the request of the National Food Chain Association, Logicon developed the Universal Grocery Products Identification Code (UGPIC), based on a design by George J. Laurel of IBM. The UPC code was soon created by Ad Hoc, an American supermarket group, at the suggestion of Logicon. The United States Uniform Code Council established the UPC code system in 1973 and standardized it. UPC codes were first tested in the grocery retail industry, and on June 25, 1974, Marsh Supermarket in Ohio installed the first UPC scanner manufactured by NCR.

The first item to be scanned by cashier Sharon Buchanan of the 27 items using the UPC barcode was a 10-pack of Wrigley's gum priced at 69 cents. Within a decade, barcode scanners were in half of America's supermarkets. To 62 percent of the nation's grocery stores.

In 1992, Wellcome Supermarket (known as "Ding Hao" in Taiwan) became the first supermarket in Hong Kong to use the UPC system, providing customers with faster and more convenient payment services. According to the 2004-2008 report, the number of stores of Wellcome Supermarket increased as a result.

The above is the development history of UPC code, and at present the most widely applicable universal commodity bar code (EAN code) is developed on the basis of UPC code.