Scan This!

Barcodes have been around for a long time. Yet, it's one of those unique and important innovations that doesn't get near enough attention.

The technology was first introduced back in the 1950's and later used in the 1960's with Universal Product Codes (UPC) that you see in retail stores today. Barcodes, with their thin black lines and numbers at the bottom, bring order to the chaos for retail stores and libraries, but perhaps confusion and annoyance for everyone standing in line at the supermarket waiting for a price check when an item doesn't have one. 

In the past ten years, barcode technology has taken on a new life with airlines, movie theaters, and live events.  Each of these industries now allow you to print a boarding pass, movie ticket or seminar ticket to avoid long lines at the door.  But the fun doesn't stop there.  Websites like barcodesinc.com and kaywa.com allow you to create your own barcodes for everything from advertising to embedding data for websites.  The process is simple and what was only a big business technology can now be used by everyone.