What is the universal product code?

Universal Product Code (UPC) is a symbol that is commonly found on packaging of consumer goods and food. It uses barcode technology that allows the product number to represent the product number in format that machines can understand and increase the speed and accuracy of the cash register process. The concept of using machine -readable symbols for more efficient shopping dates back to the at least 1940s, but limited technology prevented this idea from being received up to 70 years. Since then, UPC has spread from its roots in the food industry to many industries and even became a cultural symbol.

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barcode technology from which UPC has been timely application allows the product numeric code to be represented by special symbols that are easily recognizable by automated scanners. Within the UPC system, the product number or items is coded as a range of vertical stripes with the rental and spaces of the lease and spacesy. These columns are scanned by the machine at the cash register and the computer or terminal on sale checks the product number compared to the database, which contains prices for all possible items in the store. This database can be updated at any time, allowing the store to change the price of the item without changing the barcode. The UPC system allows the products to be scanned faster and more precisely than the manual entry of a human official, an improvement that is estimated to save tens of billions of dollars since the 1970s, when the system was introduced.

Some very specific rules have been set, which controls the structure of the universal code of the product, which is usually 12 digits long. Manufacturers must apply for a six -digit company prefix that becomes the first six numbers of any universal product code assigned to the company's products. An additional five digits and the final number are used to identify a particular product or package, known as a control kopto to find any errors, which occurred during scanning. The first number in the company prefix also specifies the type of scanned product: 0.1.6 and 7 for general goods, 2 for variable weight items such as production, 3 for pharmacies, 4 for only in shop and 5 for coupons.

Automated scanning by means of machine -readable symbols was designed as early as the 40s of the 20th century, but the primitive technology of the era of thwarted attempts to commercialize the idea. In the 1970s, however, optical scanning technology has improved sufficiently so that food stores can be interested in this idea. IBM® in response to a consortium in the consortium in the food industry to automated scanning proposals, demonstrated a system that encoded the numbers in a series of vertical lanes, and in 1974 the universal product code on the chewing rubber package became the first product in history to be searched and purchased using technology. After slow introduction in supermarkets over 70 and 80.Nami to other retail areas and even became a cultural icon that was introduced in creative stores from art exhibitions to sci-fi television.