Reading between the lines: RFIDs confront the venerable bar code

摘要

Three decades ago, a 10-pack of Juicy Fruit gum and a cashier at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, OH, were the participants in the first successful test of what we now know as the UPC (universal product code) barcode system. Evolution of the barcode system continues; for example, US and European standards-group representatives recently agreed on a common 14-digit format that, beginning this month, bar-code readers worldwide must support. But, all in all, bar codes today are mature, pervasive, and well-understood. (Some ex-presidents may beg to differ on that last point, though. Remember George HW Bush's befuddlement when, on the 1992 primary-campaign trail in New Hampshire, he unsuccessfully attempted to use a bar-code scanner in a grocery store?)