George Laurer (September 23, 1925, New York – December 5, 2019, North Carolina, United States). An American engineer and one of the creators of the Universal Product Code (UPC), better known as a barcode.
Summary
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- 1 Data
- 2 Awards and decorations
- 3 Death
- 4 Sources
Data
- Graduates from the University of Maryland.
- He joined IBM for more than three decades.
- Served in the military during World War II
- In the 1970s he would develop the UPC ( barcode ), which revolutionized the world of commerce.
Consisting of black stripes of varying thickness and a 12-digit number, these barcodes help identify products and transform the world of retail. The idea was developed by a colleague at IBM, but it wasn’t until Laurer developed a scanner that could read codes digitally that he took off and used stripes instead of circles that weren’t practical for printing.
IBM partner Norman Woodland , who died in 2012, is considered the pioneer of the barcode idea, which was initially based on Morse code. Although he patented the concept in the 1950s, he was unable to develop it. It would take Laurer a few more years to realize the idea with the help of laser technology and low-cost computing.
- Company centennial celebration where IBM identified George Laurer as a contributor to one of the company’s 100 iconic moments.
- He owned twenty-five patents.
“When I see these employees squeezing things in the scanners and I keep thinking to myself …” It can’t work that well. ”
George Laurer referring to the barcode
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Awards and decorations
- Raleigh Inventor of the Year Award.
- IBM Corporate Technical Achievement Award
Death
He passed away on December 5, 2019, at the age of 94, at his home in Wendell, North Carolina, USA.
