C4IP is honoring Norman Joseph Woodland (1921-2012) and Bernard Silver (1924-1963), whose invention of the barcode forever changed the way goods are tracked, sold, and managed worldwide.
- Woodland and Silver, who were both graduate students at Drexel Institute of Technology, developed the idea for their invention in 1948 when Silver overheard a food chain executive describing the need for technology that could quickly convey information about products.
- The pair developed a solution — a series of vertical lines printed in light-sensitive ink, which had varying thicknesses based on Morse code — which they patented in 1952.
- Due to limitations in laser scanning technology, the invention was not widely adopted right away — so Woodland continued to improve the technology until bar codes broke through in the 1970s.
- Woodland received the National Medal of Technology in 1992 in recognition of his invention, whose impact had by then become clear.
- Barcodes are a foundational part of global commerce today, with over 10 billion barcodes scanned each day around the world.
- The global market for automatic identification and data capture technologies, such as barcodes, is estimated to be worth nearly $70 billion.
- Woodland and Silver’s story exemplifies the importance of perseverance in developing revolutionary new technologies — and their legacy is felt every time a product is sold, shipped, or tracked on its way to a consumer.