On 20 October 1949 Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver filed a patent application for "Classifying Apparatus and Method", in which they described both the linear and bull's-eye printing patterns, as well as the mechanical and electronic systems needed to read the code. The patent was issued on 7 October 1952 as US Patent 2,612,994 that later became known simply as a Barcode.
Barcodes such as the UPC have become a ubiquitous element of modern civilization, such as keeping track of objects and people; they are used to keep track of rental cars, airline luggage, nuclear waste, registered mail, express mail and parcels. Barcoded tickets allow the holder to enter sports arenas, cinemas, theaters, fairgrounds, and transportation, and are used to record the arrival and departure of vehicles from rental facilities and to find a Geocache.
Barcodes have evolved to present day and have several styles:
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QR Code (Most Japanese mobile phones can read this code),
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Code 39 (1D. aka Code 3 of 9. Self checking),
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EAN (Used in retail across Europe),
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Codabar (Used in a variety of applications),
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Code 128 (Widely used 1D-barcode, aka. ISO15417),
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Code 16K (Stacked symbology based on Code 128),
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UPC-A (12 digit standard UPC, aka. UPC 12),
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MSI Plessey (Common in former times in the British industry),
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Maxicode (Developed by UPS for courier industry),
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Data Matrix (ECC 200, Aka. Semacode, Aka. ISO16022),
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PLANET (Used for sorting and delivering of mail in the US),
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PDF417 (2D barcode popular in the courier industry),
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Aztec Code (Matrix symbol with a bulls-eye finder pattern),
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Aztec Runes (Minified Aztec Code for numbers) and
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Channel Code (Simple 1D Barcode.).
