N. Joseph Woodland, Inventor of the Bar Code, Dies at 91

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/business/n-joseph-woodland-inventor-of-the-bar-code-dies-at-91.html

by jericsinger • 14 years ago

27 8 14 years ago

DigitalSea• 14 years ago

It's quite interesting to hear how the genius idea of a bar code was conceived by dragging four fingers in the sand. It's quite amazing that such an invention which I think is pretty revolutionary and is on everything these days is something not many people think about. "Who invented the bar code?" isn't a question that I've ever heard or seen anyone ask.

cynwoody• 14 years ago

>It's quite interesting to hear how the genius idea of a bar code was conceived by dragging four fingers in the sand.

In 1920, fourteen-year-old Philo Farnsworth was tilling his family's Idaho potato field. He'd been thinking of how to transmit motion pictures electronically. Observing the neat parallel lines of the potato field, it occurred to him that a frame to be transmitted could be broken down into parallel lines, transmitted, and reproduced at the remote end, line by line, in synchrony.

http://www.gladwell.com/2002/2002_05_27_a_televisionary.htm

001sky• 14 years ago

Had Mr. Woodland not been a Boy Scout, had he not logged hours on the beach and had his father not been quite so afraid of organized crime, the code would very likely not have been invented in the form it was, if at all.

...As a Boy Scout he learned Morse code, the spark that would ignite his invention....

-- Interesting note on the origin of invention.

habosa• 14 years ago

One of my elementary school teachers use to tell us that her uncle invented the bar code... I wonder if this was him.

I remember I couldn't believe that someone actually invented that, as a little kid that made me think being a scientist was so cool.

yakiv• 14 years ago

> Mr. Woodland perfected a system for delivering elevator music efficiently.

This isn't directly on topic, but I don't like it when people say that someone "perfected" some sort of design/tool/technology. They may have made it much much much better than it was before, but is the new version ever really perfect?

noonespecial• 14 years ago

Usually, in this context, "perfected" means "made good enough to actually use for practical purposes". Lots of neat ideas languish in obscurity at the edges of innovation because they're not quite "there" yet.

Most people understand this use of 'perfected' and do expect more improvements, probably at a much greater rate now that the idea finds widespread use.

Perfected might be better said "brought to the practicality tipping point?"

kiskis• 14 years ago

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ColinWright• 14 years ago

Also worked on the Manhattan Project.

N. Joseph Woodland, Inventor of the Bar Code, Dies at 91

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