The first modern barcode was scanned 50 years ago on a pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the checkout of a supermarket in the US city of Troy, Ohio.

Taking inspiration from Morse Code, the barcode – with its series of narrow and wider lines – was first invented in 1948.

A few years later a ‘barcode reader’ was developed but it wasn’t until the 1970s when the technology was commercially feasible to be used in the public sector.

In the early 1970s, grocery executives hoping the barcode would provide an automated solution to rising labour costs through easily tracking their stores’ inventory, created a committee that developed the Universal Product Code (UPC) data standard. This committee chose the IBM barcode symbol over a half-dozen alternative designs.

The first ever barcode scanned on a pack of gum was in 1974. This simple act would soon revolutionise retail and distribution industries across the globe, and usher in a new age of global commerce.

Today, the barcode is used to identify over...