George Joseph Laurer III (September 23, 1925 – December 5, 2019) was an American engineer for
IBM at
Research Triangle Park
Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the largest research park in the United States, occupying in North Carolina and hosting more than 300 companies and 65,000 workers.
The facility is named for its location relative to the three surrounding cities ...
in
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...
. He published 20 bulletins, held 28 patents and developed the
Universal Product Code
The Universal Product Code (UPC or UPC code) is a barcode symbology that is widely used worldwide for tracking trade items in stores.
UPC (technically refers to UPC-A) consists of 12 digits that are uniquely assigned to each trade item. Along wi ...
(UPC) in the early 1970s. He devised the coding and pattern used for the UPC, based on
Joe Woodland's more general idea for
barcode
A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or o ...
s.
Early life
George Laurer was born on September 23, 1925, in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. His family moved to
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...
, so his father, an electrical engineer, could work for the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
.
Laurer recovered from
polio
Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe sy ...
which he contracted as a teenager,
nonetheless, while in 11th grade, he was drafted into the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
After being discharged from the military, he attended
technical school
In the United States, a technical school is a type of two-year college that covers specialized fields such as business, finance, hospitality, tourism, construction, engineering, visual arts, information technology and community work.
Associa ...
where he studied radio and television repair. Upon completion of his first year at the technical school, his instructor convinced him that he should not continue that course of study, but that he should go to college.
Laurer graduated from the
A. James Clark School of Engineering
The A. James Clark School of Engineering is the engineering college of the University of Maryland, College Park. The school consists of fourteen buildings on the College Park campus that cover over . The school is near Washington, D.C. and Balti ...
at the
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
in 1951.
He was still interested in radio and kept up his
amateur radio licence.
[
]
Career
Laurer was a 36-year employee of IBM until his retirement in June 1987. He joined IBM in 1951 as a junior engineer. By 1969, he had been promoted to senior engineer / scientist and moved to the company's offices in Research Triangle Park
Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the largest research park in the United States, occupying in North Carolina and hosting more than 300 companies and 65,000 workers.
The facility is named for its location relative to the three surrounding cities ...
in North Carolina
North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...
.
At IBM, Laurer was assigned the task of developing barcodes
A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or o ...
for use in grocery stores.[ Initially, IBM envisioned a circular bullseye pattern as proposed by Joe Woodland in 1940s.] Laurer realized that the pattern was ineffective because of smearing during printing. Instead, he designed a vertical pattern of stripes which he proposed to his superior in 1971 or 1972. This change was accepted by IBM management and Laurer then worked with Woodland and mathematician David Savir to develop and refine the details.[ These included the addition of a ]check digit
A check digit is a form of redundancy check used for error detection on identification numbers, such as bank account numbers, which are used in an application where they will at least sometimes be input manually. It is analogous to a binary parity ...
to provide error correction.[ In 1973, the IBM proposal was accepted by the Symbol Selection committee of the Uniform Grocery Product Code Council,][ a consortium of grocery store companies.]
The Universal Product Code
The Universal Product Code (UPC or UPC code) is a barcode symbology that is widely used worldwide for tracking trade items in stores.
UPC (technically refers to UPC-A) consists of 12 digits that are uniquely assigned to each trade item. Along wi ...
has bit patterns at the beginning, middle and end of the barcode called "guard bars" and these have been interpreted as the digits 666. When he first developed the code, Laurer noticed that the digit 6 appeared several times and that this might be interpreted as the number of the Beast, as his daughter was studying the Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of ...
. When the codes started to appear in stores, there were protests and an urban legend
An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
developed. Laurer addressed this on his website:
:Answer – Yes, they do RESEMBLE the code for a six. An even parity 6 is:
:1 module wide black bar 1 module wide white space 1 module/ wide black bar 4 module wide white space.
:There is nothing sinister about this nor does it have anything to do with the Bible's "mark of the beast" (The New Testament, The Revelation, Chapter 13, paragraph 18). It is simply a coincidence like the fact that my first, middle, and last name all have 6 letters. There is no connection with an international money code either.
Legacy
Laurer was the holder of 25 patents and authored 27 published Technical Disclosure Bulletins. In 1976, he was given the Raleigh Inventor of the Year Award. In 1980, he received the Corporate Technical Achievement award from IBM.
As of 2019, UPC barcodes were being scanned more than 6 billion times each day, according to GS1.
Personal life
Laurer lived in Wendell, North Carolina
Wendell is a town in Wake County, North Carolina, United States. It is a satellite town of Raleigh, the state capital. The population was 5,845 at the 2010 census.
History
Incorporated in 1903, Wendell was settled in the 1850s, when farmers in ...
until his death in December 2019. His wife, Marilyn Slocum Laurer, died in 2013. They had four children.
Published journal articles
*
References
External links
*
Innovation Hall of Fame Inductees
Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland in 1991.
Alumni UMD Hall Of Fame Members
in 2000
How the barcode changed retailing
(2017) BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...