N. Joseph Woodland, Inventor of the Bar Code, Dies at 91

It's quite interesting to hear how the genius idea of a bar code was conceived by dragging four fingers in the sand. It's quite amazing that such an invention which I think is pretty revolutionary and is on everything these days is something not many people think about. "Who invented the bar code?" isn't a question that I've ever heard or seen anyone ask.

&#62; Mr. Woodland perfected a system for delivering elevator music efficiently.<p>This isn't directly on topic, but I don't like it when people say that someone "perfected" some sort of design/tool/technology. They may have made it much much much better than it was before, but is the new version ever really perfect?

One of my elementary school teachers use to tell us that her uncle invented the bar code... I wonder if this was him.<p>I remember I couldn't believe that someone actually invented that, as a little kid that made me think being a scientist was so cool.

<i>Had Mr. Woodland not been a Boy Scout, had he not logged hours on the beach and had his father not been quite so afraid of organized crime, the code would very likely not have been invented in the form it was, if at all.<p>...As a Boy Scout he learned Morse code, the spark that would ignite his invention....</i><p>-- Interesting note on the origin of invention.

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Also worked on the Manhattan Project.