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Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver, USA, patent 2,612,994 of 1952. A bullseye of lines that took decades to pay off.

Overview

Woodland, a graduate student, sketched the idea by drawing Morse code dots and dashes in the sand of Miami Beach and stretching them into lines. He and Silver patented a circular bullseye code in 1952, but reliable scanners needed lasers and cheap computers that did not yet exist. The patent expired before the Universal Product Code, which Woodland helped develop at IBM, was adopted in 1973. The first UPC scan, a pack of Wrigley's chewing gum in an Ohio supermarket in 1974, began the checkout revolution.