The first UPC, or Universal Product Code, ever scanned was on a pack of Wrigley's chewing gum. It all happened in Troy, Ohio, on June 26, 1974.
One of the first scanners introduced in 1974 was a helium-neon laser called the “Spectra-Physics Model A price scanner.” The device projects beams that go through a rotating mirror and into a glass plate. A photodiode detects light that reflects from the code and then identifies the product, so long as it’s in the database.
The man behind the great invention was Norman Joseph Woodland. What made his marvelous creation even more fascinating is the fact that he came up with the concept when he was at the beach. Woodland was a military veteran from World War II who worked on the Manhattan Project. He became an expert in Morse code as a means of transferring information electronically. As the idea came to him, Norman sat down on the sand and started drawing dashes of varying width and length. The pattern appeared quite similar to the Morse code he worked with during the war. However, there were some key differences.
