The world now experiences over 6 billion barcode scans every day, according to an estimate from GS1, the organization that oversees global barcode standards, as reported by NPR. This translates to more than 69,000 beeps per second, around the clock, somewhere on the planet. The barcode, a now-ubiquitous symbol of modern commerce, was first conceived in a rather unorthodox way. In January 1949, Joe Woodland, a young mechanical engineer, traced the dots and dashes of Morse code in the sand of Miami Beach. His idea was to transform a code that could be read by the ear into one that a machine could read visually. The 1952 patent, filed by Woodland and his collaborator Bernard Silver, described a circular target, known as the "bull's-eye," rather than the vertical bars that are familiar today. This design was intended to be readable from any angle, which was a significant advantage at the time. However, the necessary technology to make this vision a reality was not yet available. The patent, titled Classifying Apparatus and Method, was granted in 1952, and it marked the beginning of a long journey toward practical application. It would take another 22 years before the first barcode scan occurred in a store, due in part to the lack of suitable scanning equipment. The breakthrough came in the early 1970s, when Woodland joined IBM. There, his colleague George Laurer developed a rectangular version of the barcode that was easier to print, leading to the creation of the Universal Product Code (UPC). This design eventually became the standard used in retail stores worldwide. On June 26, 1974, at 8:02 a.m., the first UPC scan took place at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio. The item scanned was a package of Juicy Fruit chewing gum, and the "customer" was Clyde Dawson, a researcher at the store. This moment marked the beginning of the barcode's widespread use in commerce. Today, the legacy of Woodland's original idea is evident in the billions of scans that occur daily. The familiar vertical bars, direct descendants of the Morse code dots and dashes, have replaced the circular design described in the original patent. The first scanner used in that historic moment is now preserved at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, a testament to the journey from a drawing in the sand to a global system that underpins modern retail.