Tag Archives: barcode

Google Puts Bar Codes On Favorites

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These barcodes are not those Google was celebrating back in October.  That marked the 57th anniversary of the first patent on the bar code.


Its inventors were Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver, who filed the patent in October 1949, which was granted in October 1952. The original patent suggested encoding data in circles (a bulls eye pattern), so that it could be scanned in any direction.

Now Google has moved on to squaring that circle and is offering stickers bearing Google’s logo and a QR code.  QR stands for Quick Response.

What could be easier.  Your phone must be able to scan a QR code with its camera, either with an application that you download or via software that’s already installed on your phone.

When you see a QR code, you can then use your phone’s application to scan it. If you’re scanning a QR code on one of the window decals that Google has sent to thousands of U.S. businesses, you’ll quickly be taken to that business’ mobile Place Page on Google.

This is a way in which Google is promoting its local business listings in storefronts around the U.S. with QR codes.

favorite barcode

Stickers have been distributed to 100,000 of the most popular businesses in Google’s Local Business Center database.  Starting this week consumers will be able to use code-scanning applications on modern phones to look up the Google listing for a particular restaurant, store, or dry cleaner. The stickers will be prominently displayed in store windows of participating businesses, and represent a shot across the bow of companies like Yelp which offer similar branded services.

As Bill Slawski points out there is one question that needs to be asked.  Why would Google rely upon stickers for a system like this instead of using something like Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) information, or cell phone triangulation, or some other method that would avoid the need to use your phone’s camera to take an actual picture?

According to a Google patent just filed, GPS systems have some limitations, such as:

  • Subscription to a GPS navigation system may be expensive, and difficult to use
  • GPS Functionality requires unobstructed skyward views, which may not be possible in some places, like metropolitan areas with skyscrapers
  • Privacy concerns with GPS may keep some people from using a device that permits precise tracking of their location without their consent

Barcodes stickers are not limited to just the windows of businesses.  They could also be located on the pavement of parking lots or on signs associated with those lots, near the entrance to an office building, on a traffic light pole, at or near the base of a monument, or in many other places. … and of course they can be of any size.  It’s all just another way that mobile world is becoming so very much easier.

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Frozen Fish And Chips

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Universal Product Code
Image via Wikipedia

… or perhaps that will soon be Frozen Fish and Data Chips. This month marks the 35th anniversary of the universal product code (UPC) and the associated bar code, that we are all accustomed to see on every item we purchase in a grocery store. A bar code was officially swiped for the first time on June 26, 1974, at a supermarket in Ohio and brought to Canada a year later.

The bar code has been recognized by the Smithsonian as one of the great breakthrough technologies in history. Such bar codes are now scanned more than 10 billion times a day. However UPCs will shortly be replaced by electronic product codes (EPCs), which will become the new industry standard. They can hold much more data and can be stored on radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, which don’t require direct scanning but can be read by a sensor.

GS1 Canada, is the not-for-profit organization that manages this technology. Here is how they describe the new EPC:

EPC is designed to provide a unique serial number for each item in the supply chain. In contrast, bar codes only identify a group of products. For instance all Coke cans have the same bar code whereas with the EPC technology, every single Coke can would have a one-of-a-kind identifier.

This one-of-a-kind identifier will provide greater visibility of items in the supply chain. Having more detailed and accurate information on products will improve movement of goods in real-time, inventory management and replenishment practices, resulting in a reduction of lost sales due to out-of-stocks. It could help reduce theft and prevent counterfeit goods. Readers could also capture the EPC number stored in a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag and transmit and report the item’s location, condition and status to an on-site information system or to a remote database via the internet.

The advantages and benefits of this EPC/RFID technology are so striking that its take-up should be rapid. If they do put one of these tags on your frozen fish and chips pack, then you can be assured that it has been handled correctly all along the supply chain until it reaches you.

It may have taken 35 years for the bar code to get the wide acceptance it has but it seems clear that over the next 10 years the EPC/RFID will likely become the accepted standard.

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