Barcode, distinctive black-and-white stripes that provide details relating to an object you purchase, has turned 60.
There are more than five million individual barcodes in use around the world, according to regulator GS1 UK.
Although barcodes were filed in the US on October 7, 1952, they did not make their first appearance in a US shop until 1974 — because the laser technology used to read them did not exist, the BBC News reported.
Barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data relating to the object to which it is attached. The first item to be scanned by a barcode was a packet of chewing gum in an Ohio supermarket in 1974, the report said. However, the black-and-white stripes did not get a universal welcome, with some wine manufacturers refusing to incorporate barcodes onto their labels for aesthetic reasons.
***
‘WOMEN ARE MORE ATTRACTED TO RUDDY-FACED MEN’
London: Ruddy-faced men score better with women as redness in facial skin can enhance attractiveness in a male, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Nottingham in a study allowed women to manipulate the facial colour of computer pictures of men to make them as attractive, dominant or aggressive as possible.
Red colouring in male primates, birds and fish has long been associated with social dominance and mate selection.
Researchers found that as the face gets redder it is increasingly seen as a sign of dominance: the colour is associated with testosterone, health and, in extreme cases, anger. The study found that increased redness enhanced the appearance of dominance, aggression and attractiveness in men’s faces viewed by women. — PTI