Barcodes are about to go extinct
The article explores the history of the barcode and its potential displacement by QR codes, which offer significantly higher data capacity. It traces the evolution from the first UPC scan in 1974 to the invention of the QR code by Denso in the 1990s.
Why it matters
Understanding the shift in data-tracking standards provides insight into how supply chain logistics and consumer interactions are evolving through digital transformation.
QR codes are here. Barcodes should be very afraid.
In 1992, on a factory floor in a Toyota auto-parts subsidiary in Japan, workers were drowning in barcodes.
They were everywhere: some components on the line needed ten barcodes just to capture all the tracking data. Employees scanned them, one by one, hundreds of times a day.
Masahiro Hara , an engineer on the barcodes team at Denso, the subsidiary, tackled the problem. What if, he reasoned, you could build a barcode in two dimensions instead of one? You could pack it with information, cutting the number of scans from ten to one on every item.
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