The Untold History of Where Barcodes Come From

The Untold History of Where Barcodes Come From

When George Laurer goes to the grocery store, he doesn’t tell the check-out people that he invented the barcode, but his wife used to point it out. "My husband here’s the one who invented that barcode," she’d occasionally say. And the check-out people would look at him like, "you mean there was a time when we didn’t have barcodes?"

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Acoustic Barcodes Are Probably Super Popular In Some Alternate Universe [Video]

With technology like NFC on the rise, you might think the humble barcode might not be long for this world. As it turns out, that old medium has at least one more trick up its sleeve. Going tactile and operating with sound just might be what it takes to make barcodes cool (again?). More »

Acoustic barcodes store data in sound, go on just about anything (video)

Acoustic barcodes store data in sound, go on just about anything

Technologies like NFC, RFID and QR codes are quickly becoming a normal part of everyday life, and now a group from Carnegie Mellon University has a fresh take on close-quarters data it calls acoustic barcodes. It involves physically etching a barcode-like pattern onto almost any surface, so it produces sound when something’s dragged across it — a fingernail, for example. A computer is then fed that sound through a microphone, recognizes the waveform and executes a command based on it. By altering the space between the grooves, it’s possible to create endless unique identifiers that are associated with different actions.

It’s easy to see how smartphones could take advantage of this — not that we recommend dragging your new iPhone over ridged surfaces — but unlike the technologies mentioned earlier, not all potential applications envisage a personal reading device. Dot barcodes around an area, install the sound processing hardware on site, and you’ve got yourself an interactive space primed for breaking freshly manicured nails. We’re pretty impressed by the simplicity of the concept, and the team does a good job of presenting scenarios for implementing it, which you can see in the video below. And, if you’d like to learn a little more about the idea or delve into the full academic paper, the source links await you.

[Thanks, Julia]

Continue reading Acoustic barcodes store data in sound, go on just about anything (video)

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Acoustic barcodes store data in sound, go on just about anything (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Oct 2012 00:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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