The first modern barcode was scanned 50 years ago this summer—on a 10-pack of chewing gum in a grocery store in Troy, Ohio.
Fifty is ancient for most technologies, but barcodes are still going strong. More than 10 billion barcodes are scanned every day around the world. And newer types of barcode symbols, such as QR codes, have created even more uses for the technology.
While the barcode didn't herald the end times, as conspiracy theorists once fretted, it did usher in a new age in global commerce.
Barcodes were a grocery-industry invention
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