Happy Birthday! Barcode turns 60

Barcode, the 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.