It's too bad that the video didn't explain anything about how the barcode works or how they got a 1D barcode to be read in any direction. "Reconfigured the laser" doesn't explain anything. That it can be big or small doesn't explain anything. It's never mentioned that nation wide databases and standard codes had to be created so that the same product is uniquely identified anywhere and no two products in the same industry have the same code. The video boils down to just: Someone had an idea about a magic code, a brighter light was needed, microchips were needed, the shape changed, then it became really popular, then more shapes were created to store more info. There isn't much that the viewer learns that they couldn't have guessed.

@TTTrouble

19 күн бұрын

This seems like very honest criticism and will hopefully help them improve.

@davidvd5000

19 күн бұрын

My thoughts exactly

@MrLegendra

18 күн бұрын

Thank you for this!

@karkitty202

18 күн бұрын

You should watch the half as interesting video on barcodes, he explains how they work

@antoy384

17 күн бұрын

Proof that you can squeeze *no information at all* in more than 20 minutes. Don’t forget to squash that subscribe button if you’re hungry for more.

I was a teenage grocery stockboy back in the 1960's and I can tell you, a grocer had to be a genius to keep up with inventory, you had to keep up with the replacement of inventory as items were sold and there were hundreds and hundreds of different items. Constantly, you either ordered too much or you were out of something else. While I wouldn't call it a nightmare, we found ways to get it done, today's people have no idea the mental powers it used to take to run a grocery store. The checkout girls were masters of memory and efficiency, too

@AshrakAhmed

20 күн бұрын

Every innovation in retail seems to destroy a lot of jobs and get rids of the good productive workers to be replaced by overworked drones.

@dannydaw59

17 күн бұрын

Did they use paper ledgers? I imagine grocers couldn't afford mainframe computers in the 60s.

My grandpa made the computer program that read the vertical barcode,, however he didn't work for IBM. He worked for the ARCO plutonium storage facility in Washington state. IBM wasn't alone in coming up with that "barcode", they picked up technology that ARCO was working on in 1971-73 to organize plutonium storage

@krashd

14 күн бұрын

I'm sure I saw that in a video here on KZread a few years ago, someone like Tom Scott did a video on how a nuclear processing company wanted a fool-proof way of tracking every object on site and their system played a part in the fledgling barcode industry. Hah, your grandpa helped change the world!

@R.B.

11 күн бұрын

I thought that idea was picked up from IDs on train cars. Not exactly a barcode yet, but key for considering how to design such a system.

@GiovanniLorenzo0

10 күн бұрын

Sounds like bs to me

As a long time retail vet, everything from cashier to frieght manager, bar codes are an incredible time saver. They have been ubiquitous during my lifetime but I cant imagine how much more time it would have taken to keep accurate inventory alone in addition to cashier speed and accuracy of individual entries. Neat little documentary! Thanks!

In my middle school, I helped the librarian put barcodes on every book and enter them into the library database. The PC was a Leading Edge 8086 with a whopping 384 kb of ram, a 20 mb hard drive, and one of those yellow monochrome monitors. This eliminated those little checkout cards that were glued inside the book covers.

@marshallwilensky7932

2 күн бұрын

Now libraries are replacing them with RFID tags.

0:42 _"…he often sat on the oceanfront…"_ This is one of those perfect examples that it is ok to be "bored", and just sit while doint nothing… It seems that nowadays, we don't allow boredom, and grab our smartphones to start scrolling through the socials or just play some game. While it is in those moments that our thoughts take over and come up with all sorts of things.

@gaaneshmujumdar

7 күн бұрын

I too noticed this recently. It is good to be bored sometimes, that's when creativity starts, ideas emergency.

I seem to remember learning about a barcode sorting system used by railroads as far back as the 1950's. The code card was on the side of the car and it was scanned by stationary television camera as the car passed by.

@davidminear

20 күн бұрын

There is a great documentary about that railroad barcode system on KZread somewhere.

@yangtse55

15 күн бұрын

In Bristol UK in the 70s they experimented with giant barcodes at bus stops scanned by helium-neon lasers on the buses.

16:14 "It always blows my mind barcodes are scanned 6 billion times a day". I find this fact to probably be a very low estimate because my wife alone buys 1 billion new items a day.

@jameshodgetts7541

19 күн бұрын

You jest, but I also thought this. 6 billion is less than the population of the earth. I buy probably 30 items each week doing my grocery shop for two people, estrapolating just that across the worlds population (assuming everyone was working class birtish people buying 30 items a week) thats around 17 billion scans a day - just for grocery shopping! Then add all the other places they're used. 6 billion seems a gross underestimation, even when being sensible, and even if counting for the third world where barcodes dont really feature in daily life.

@alvinnorin8820

14 күн бұрын

😂

@alan_davis

10 күн бұрын

​@jameshodgetts7541 I think you need to depart your western developed world bubble and learn more about the world around you. On the other hand, I tend to agree 6B is low.

As a former cashier in the old days I took pride in accurately and quickly entering prices into my register. Barcodes still make errors at times, but significantly fewer than hand entered. Plus the fact that the receipt tells you what you bought, rather than just being a string of numbers. Fun fact: I remember when Mad Magazine came with its first bar coded volume. It was on the front cover with an arrow pointing to it and the caption “the world’s first computer-generated joke.” (If memory serves). Guess they thought it would be a fad.

@beckysam3913

22 күн бұрын

I hated being cashier😂 useless job in capitalistic world. Imagine, healthy customers with healthy arms wait so another adult push the goods from side to side, its insane 😢😂 self check out is great and i live in a country with no university tuition, yes such thing exist, along with affordable transparent healthcare, i became a scientist, biologist. Imagine all the women who could have been engineers, lawyers, teacher, doctors etc if they had the chance and not forced by economic reason to work in a mind dumbing job as cashier.

@tookitogo

22 сағат бұрын

Bar codes themselves make practically zero errors, since they have error-detection built in. (Read errors simply result in a failure to scan at all.) The real source of errors is the databases where the UPC codes are looked up in the POS software.

@cindystrachan8566

3 сағат бұрын

@@beckysam3913 Maybe nowadays. But we live in a very different world now. In1973 while I was still in high school I went to the teacher who coordinated coop education activities. Asked to be given a job. He pulled out my course list and told me there was nothing I could do because I had not taken typing and shorthand classes. Back then, that was all a girl could do. I rejoice that women now are offered so many more opportunities. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Unless you enjoy being a secretary. Then do it and be happy.

I remember in the 60s that the grocery checker had to not only punch in the price but also the department in the store selling it. The largest department key on the keyboard was “Grocery.” The lazier checkers would often use that key for everything. Thus merchandise sold from the meat department would be credited to the grocery department. It was a real headache.

@christinafidance340

9 күн бұрын

Those keys have a lot to do with tax as well since in some places, groceries aren’t taxed, but things like hot/prepared foods are or flowers or paper products, pet food, etc. I currently work in a small market in Pennsylvania and if the barcode isn’t working correctly on an item, I still need to use these buttons and while it has an inventory function, it’s also for tax purposes.

1974 paying 67¢ for gum would have been insane. Something is off here. Maybe it was a giant pack of gum. A small pack of gum like that pictured retailed for a quarter well into the 90s.

@kenmore01

18 күн бұрын

It was space gum.

What a wonderful video... This is something I have always wondered, you could say I was, "curious," about barcodes, and now I know the origins (Physically I got how they worked, and how QR codes evolved from them). Great video. Liked, subscribed.

The older I get, the more I wish I could go back to the days when things were slower and more personal. I know it's all rose-coloured glasses, and the "good ol' days" weren't that good, but I hate when speed and efficiency are prised above all else. It feels like humanity gets lost in the race to go ever farther and faster.

I remember as a kid watching the checkers at the grocery store with the old style cash registers. Some of them could really fly over the keys, but even the fastest weren't as fast as the scanners. A lot of checkers didn't like the bar codes at first though. Being able to quickly enter prices was a skill people that were good at it were proud of. But it's a hard to argue with the advantages of the technology.

Narrator sounds clueless

@tekvax01

3 күн бұрын

Agreed, horrible narration. The speaker has terrible diction and annunciation.

@agbook2007

2 күн бұрын

It’s “up talk.”

@lukealadeen7836

Күн бұрын

@@agbook2007 it's annoying

This video had a lot of "fluff" in it. Not many details, probably could've finished the video in 3 mins

I had a neighbor who was a bit excentric. Prior to the bar code coming to our rural area all items had a priced affixed to each item. When an item changed price all existing inventory (of that item) had to be restamped with the higher price. My neighbor would dig toward the back of a shelf as there might be an item that didn't get repriced with a new pricing sticker. He said he was successful more often than not in getting a bit lower priced item, usually canned goods.

Curiosity Stream being promoted everywhere. Glad I found out how shallow it really is without giving my card info!!

It did eventually start making my life easier letting me shop with more independence. 😎 I do remember working as a cashier without it being in use for several years though,even when many items had them printed on. The first happy use of it I got with my personal cinder block sized scanner, suddenly being able to scan my cassette tapes and several record albums. Saved my hands from making so many, braille labels, with a slate and stylus, on dymo tape. 😊

Amazing and well researched docuementary and greatly informative. The most Amazing part you never mentioned at all the consultative firm McKinsey and Associates. The Firm seems to boast that they created the bar code. But your docuementary gives the credit to not only the engineers but two opposing firms namely RCA and IBM to have started this modern convenience which has made our modern world today weather in commerce or retail.

I remember when they started scanning barcodes at the Holiday Mart in Honolulu some 50 years ago. The prices were wrong and you constantly had to alert the cashier to make sure you weren't overcharged.

Absolutely awesome documentary. I loved every minute of it.

I live over in windsor and I would love to see you do a video on the E.C. Row Expressway in Windsor. It's a short expressway we have that is very unique cause it goes from one side of the city to the other but dosent really connect to anything.

Informative and interesting watching thanks

Barcode itself is not so innovative, but the system that reads barcode is more interesting. I am impressed by the machine that reads those data with accuracy, which has actually revolutionised the world.

Great video... So interesting. Easily overlooked yet critical technology.

We need a movie about this, asap!

Big Box stores really were the death knell for department stores. They offer many of the same product categories, but in an even more convenient manner and the only two things they don't offer (large furniture and appliances) can be found in other stores, where it is more appropriate to go for a larger selection anyway. It used to be that big box stores just didn't have the same selections of things like clothing and kitchen or housewares and were still more focused on the grocery section, but that hasn't been the case since the late 90's. Nowadays, you're lucky if your big box store still has a quarter of the store devoted to grocery. Not that the selection has diminished, but that the size of modern big box stores has really ballooned over the years into truly gargantuan proportions. And, unfortunately, department stores just can't compete with that convenience or the broader selection of more specialized stores. Particularly when most developers go to the trouble of soliciting companies with offerings that fill in the gaps of their anchor stores to rent store fronts in their shopping centers for more comprehensive offerings. My local shopping center has a Target as the anchor store, a BJ's for bulk purchases, a Michaels for arts and crafts specialization, a Kohl's for clothing specialization, a Dick's Sporting Goods for sports specialization, a Rack Room Shoes for footwear specialization, and a Best Buy for electronics and appliance specialization. The developers really did try their best to make it a one-stop shopping location, despite the fact that the need for substantial parking means that you still need to drive around the shopping center unless you want to be very tired from walking.

The white is the data, the black separates each number. I wrote software for a manufacture that had to print UPC numbers on their price tags in the early 90s.

22:04 the picture kind of suggest that QR codes are from 2020, when in fact they are from 1994.. I have used them for more than a decade and in Japan they have apparently used them for decades

A related and interesting story is that of Jerome Schwartz and Symbol Technologies of Long Island, New York. Symbol developed rugged barcode laser scanners for retail and industrial applications. Toys R Us and United Parcel Service (UPS) were early adopters of Symbol’s innovative hand held scanners and portable/mobile data terminals.

Could it be that bar codes could be the segway into image identification? I have seen stores that can cash you out based on what you put on a table or hold in your hand. ( Circle K gas station IE )

Interesting that you completely missed speaking about the micr magnetic ink in the banking industry.

I'm fascinated that the pair applied for a pa-unt at 5:05. Most inventors prefer patents.

Fun fact: Walmart, Target, K-Mart, and Kohl's were all founded in 1962

This is a lot like Leonardo da Vinci inventing the helicopter. The inventor/invention had to wait for the technology to catch up with it. It's crazy to think that this guy invented something that would not be practical to use for at least another 20 years.

So glad we adopted Yoopsie. She's been a big help.

The 13 numbers of the barcode actually has a meaning. The first 7 numbers are the territory's number, the other 6 are the product and the companies numbers

What a fascinating journey behind one of the most ubiquitous innovations of our time! 🔍 Joseph Woodland's creativity and persistence in developing the barcode exemplify how simple ideas can have profound impacts on industries worldwide.

@CuriosityStreaming

21 күн бұрын

Couldn't agree more! Simple ideas make the best solutions.

I guess this makes it easier for us to check out our own groceries now

I didn't hear anything about rtp in nc research triangle park

Yes, an experience economy can reduce theft by offering intangible experiences that are less susceptible to theft compared to physical goods.❤🎉

The humble barcode revolutionized the entire planet!

THE DESCENDENTS OF ONE OF THESE GUYS HAS A RIDICULOUS MANSION LIKE 10 MINUTES FROM MY HOUSE

Check out the 1979 album cover of "Duty Now for the Future" by DEVO. The spud-boys had some opinions on the then-new UPC codes on their product... 😉

"Whosoever wants to buy & sell ought to be marked with the barcode number bumper of the beast" & such ....

What a genius!

4:50 Maybe that's the reason mall "Target" is named "Target"

I don't know that having a lot of information in the barcode really matters, except maybe in very special cases. Generally it only needs to identify the item-the product, or in some cases the serial number as well. You don't need a lot of bits to nail that down. The other information can be retrieved online, more or less instantaneously. Of course, that wasn't the case in the early years of the UPC.

@natelevy1040

13 күн бұрын

Uhhhhh.... the barcode does only contain a number that can be looked up for manufacturer and product, with less "data" we would have run out long ago.

@ronaldgarrison8478

13 күн бұрын

@@natelevy1040 Pretty much what I was saying. Barcode generally is just to identify the item. We can do without the affectation.

@natelevy1040

13 күн бұрын

@ronaldgarrison8478 Uhhhhhh.... not pretty much, it is just the item number encoded into scanable lines. There is no hidden information about the product.

@ronaldgarrison8478

13 күн бұрын

@@natelevy1040 Please start making some sense. First, "Uhhhhhh...." is frankly condescending. Don't say it again. Second, we both know what the barcode contains, so why are you even saying this? Just tell me what the actual point of disagreement is, or quit wasting everyone's time.

@natelevy1040

13 күн бұрын

@ronaldgarrison8478 Uhhhhhhh... you said "I don't know that having a lot of information about the product really matters..." but a UPC bar code does not contain ANY information ABOUT the product aside from the manufacturer and product ID. It is literally a different way to represent a number that can be easily scanned to be referenced to their database. The problem with the quantity of numbers being finite is it limits the number of products. If it were smaller we would have run out a long time ago, but with the ever growing number of products available it is a problem we're facing today.

Born 1951, so we did inventory the old way!

@dannydaw59

17 күн бұрын

What did you use? Paper ledgers?

Not sure if true.but a friend tdnme her grampa help invent the bar code. Maybe as in the machine or something. I was to young to ask her to clarify at the time.

Somehow the script feels like a highschool essay,, the presentation is still good tho..

So the answer to "who invented the UPC" is Woodland?

Why can't I print out a giant barcode or maybe just chain a bunch of smaller capacity barcodes together and store data this way? I'm aware of how much less dense it's going to be than the much more standardized methods like a memory card or something, but I feel like there's some potential in at least making something like this a standard. I'm sure a very large or lots of chained together barcodes would still be more data dense than say base64 encoded data

@vicaya

23 күн бұрын

Hopefully they'll do a follow up on QR code :)

@tfkdandsvkc

23 күн бұрын

We use qr code on our phones

@timharig

22 күн бұрын

1. Nothing is stopping you from creating a giant barcode. The only question is why you would want to do so. The alternating field lines of a magnetic data tape (or floppy disk or hard disk...) and the pits and lands of a compact disc are essentially just bar codes imprinted in a different medium. 2. Base64 and bar codes have very different purposes. Base64 (and similar formats such as uuencode) are already a binary based encodings that are meant to be stored on electronic media. They are simply meant to make data binary safe for protocols that would otherwise require escaping for special characters. Meanwhile, the strength of bar codes is that they offer a machine readable form of data that is easy to attach to physical items that would otherwise offer no other electronic connectivity. Very different purposes.

It is good that IBM still exist today.

@templar1694

22 күн бұрын

While barcodes is still being use. QR codes will likely be its successor.

10:33 Fun fact: His full name is George Joseph Laurer - His first, middle & last name all have 6 letters. Leading to the urban legend that barcodes are the mark of the beast 666.

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Pretty good video, but should have left out the recap at the end in favor of actually explaining how it works, it's not that complicated

Who says bar codes can't be adulterated and glue is perfect.

4:59. Yes. That is anatomically correct. ;)

There are “t” sounds in patent. Diction is key if you’re are performing voice over. It’s “paTentT” not pa’ en

@tookitogo

22 сағат бұрын

Yeah. While I recognize that that usage is growing in younger American speakers, especially (but not exclusively) women, that particular thing annoys me. The other is the pitch rise at the end of sentences that aren’t questions.

And now it is being replaced by radio frequency tags.

@timharig

22 күн бұрын

Bar codes are not likely to be replaced anytime soon. They're just too cheap and easy to create. All you need is a printer. Meanwhile RFIDs require special equipment and materials to manufacture and encode.

The Bar Code was first developed to play the home organ for children. It was developed by Casio for their home organ players.

@tookitogo

22 сағат бұрын

Uh, no, not even close.

The History Guy did this documentary better 2 years ago. He actually explains things and doesn't shy away from technical information or dumb down facts: kzread.info/dash/bejne/fGF1269ynaaqiZc.html&ab_channel=TheHistoryGuy%3AHistoryDeservestoBeRemembered

except for hobby lobby!

Great ideas, real forward thinking from the Boomers. Great breakthroughs and real innovation came from the "Boomer" & "X" Generations , which is still in use today. It's bite sizes documentaries like this one that allows people to appreciate the sometimes mundane, around uas a Simple thing like a barcode, the unbelievable impact it had worldwide. After watching this short documentary, I realized that in an era of instant information, that we do not have enough knowledge.

Is crazy that the improvement, just increased profits... no lower prices

@tookitogo

22 сағат бұрын

Adjusted for inflation, some items have gotten more expensive, others have gotten cheaper.

Sadly Marsh no longer exists.

the bar code didnt really take off until the 1980s or 1990s at all. even then most consumers didnt like it and some would avoid buying products that had barcodes in favor of ones that did not if they had a choice. even now over 40 years since the 1980s when it was prevalently adopted in 2024... it hasnt lived up to its potential or expectations its still not standardized or uniform, each store or company or warehouser or distributer has their own bar code or bar code system or way of reading barcodes, back in the 1980s you could find multiple barcodes on a single product and clerks had to try to remember which one to scan/read or you had 4 layers of stickers where each step in the supply chain put a different barcode sticker on you can still sometimes today find 2 occasionally 3 layers of barcodes on some products you still can't get barcode stickers or printers or labels or software/inventory management programs to barcode and keep track of your own things or a program that can read the existing barcodes on your books and other belongings to keep track of them and help you organize things.

@isabellarhoslyn1579

12 күн бұрын

qr codes are magic when they work...more often then not they dont work or you dont know how to or cant figure out how to scan them.

left out the train car barcodes .... this is only 1/2 the story of the barcode

Knowing how it works, this video is a bit lacking

...

Crop circles 😂

The video is interesting. The added background noise ("music") is 70% too lound and generally bloody annoying and distracting. What's the purpose of it? Thumb down. If I want to hear music, I use spotify.

wel,,,the 3 unnumbered lines in all barcodes represent teh number 6 so thats how it became an integral part of our lives

I liked the old way. Life was slower then and a lot more enjoyable. You interacted with real people in the real world.

@JohnJohn-ts6ux

22 күн бұрын

Yes I agree, and most of all, the cast register gets lazy here and lazy don't use their brain calculating how to give change most of them don't these days and the old days in the 70s and 80s they were more smart the cash registers they now to count give out change today almost nothing, because it's written on the computer on the monitor for them how much change to give out

@beckysam3913

22 күн бұрын

😂😂😂😂 yeah live with fear of third world war, women had less rights, children and wives were beaten to death at homes and schools bc it was legal, stuff was not available unless people had to sew, bake, knitt, build, clean themselves when you had a wive as free slave of course no problem , pousonous, toxic stuff was sold as helpful tools while male producers protected their genitals but factory female worker died horrible deathes, people couldnt get information as its available as today. Women worked in mind dumbing job like cashier, while they could be lawyer, scientist, doctors, engineers, teachers and more. I worked as cashier, its one of the useless jobs on earth, pushing goods from side to side all day long while healthy customers could have been self check out themselves for decates ago. 😂😂😂 live in past feels better bc its the biologic, physical best time of the own body before decay and aches creep up and even males go through hormonal change.

@dondrap513

22 күн бұрын

You'd prefer store owners lose untold time and money on an antiquated system just so you have a cashier to talk to once in a while?

@HigherQualityUploads

22 күн бұрын

Sounds like you're pretty needy or lonely if you need a cashier to interact with you for your day to be worthwhile.

@HigherQualityUploads

22 күн бұрын

You need a cashier to speak with you to make your day worthwhile?

this is just a repackaged video from cheddar and i’m mad

@geeksdo1tbetter

21 күн бұрын

It's a collab, yo

Lol so no one is gonna credit Japan for creating the QR code wow

@n9wox

22 күн бұрын

You mean Japan.

@danielmakhubela250

22 күн бұрын

@@n9wox oh was it Japan? My bad then credit Japan

What the hell is this new thing sweeping America that I absolutely despise. More and more people, especially young people, have stopped pronouncing the t in the middle of words. Like when she pronounced patent as “pah-ent” or Colton is pronounced “Cole-in” with that aweful glottal stop. It’s like people are actively trying to sound stupid.

This is OK... but not that detailed. Also, being narrated by someone with 'valley girl' inflections is painful to the ears...

Filling for a pa in 😂 pronouncing the t must be sacrilegious to youth today.😂 patent became pa ' in or important became imporan. On and on. 😂

Did Wendover guy learn intonation from this lady?