Talk:Universal Product Code/Archives/2013

RCA bulls eye
I was working at the RCA Camden lab when the bulls eye scheme was being developed. By the time I saw it (probably in late 1973 or early 1974) the developers had resigned themselves to the fact that IBM would win the supermarket business, but they were still trying to sell it to the Post Office, for package tracking.

Among the odd things they had developed was a "printer" that consisted of a rotating cylinder containing about 2 dozen ball-point pen refills, one for each bar position. The end of the cylinder would be pressed against the surface to be printed and rotated, while actuators (don't recall if air or electromagnetic) would press the appropriate pens against the surface.

I never saw a real package bearing the bulls eye, so I suspect the project never got beyond the experimental stage.drh (talk) 03:08, 9 June 2011 (UTC)


 * An article in the February 1999 issue of Smithsonian shows the RCA bull's-eye in use on packaging, and reports that Kroger's Kenwood, OH, location was "fully automated" with RCA codes and scanners. According to the article, "When the Symbol Selection Committee met in San Francisco in early 1973, RCA alone could claim five months of successful in-store scanning." Interestingly, George Laurer says in the same article that IBM reckoned in 1971 that RCA was too far ahead already, and so he was told to focus on technology to support the bull's-eye. JABSwain (talk) 17:16, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

Reg. Inclusion of the following website
I would like to include the following site as its a specializing search dedicated to upc via various distributed sources.

http://www.searchupc.com

Also would like to demonstrate the dynamicity of barcode image creation via this website using simple HTML statements.

Please let me know if I can do that.

Thank You Gnsathu (talk) 19:49, 20 October 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't see many of these UPC search sites being appropriate. They sound more in ads for services rather than content about the UPC. Some sites appear to be be starting up or requiring login. The GS1 site appears to be authoritative at least down to manufacturer ID; why is more needed?
 * I would remove most sites -- yoopsie, for example.
 * Glrx (talk) 23:31, 20 October 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree, then we should the remove the following (Yoopsie UPC Lookup Tool, UPC ISBN Lookup Search,UPC Database and other little implementation and school project) except GS1. All these are private sources like the above site. The one thing i find it interesting on searchupc.com was the ablility to generate the barcode with simple html tag and in turn it can index a product to its database, which no one has. Even though GS1 is the authoritative, when you do a search they are not able to provide the online sources which carry the product, most of the time they can get is to the Manufacturer name, while today's mobile apps are scanning the barcode for products online. Encouraging these sites can be an initiative to improvise the data collection and organizing into a open resource.
 * Gnsathu (talk) 00:45, 21 October 2010 (UTC)


 * There have been some add/revert cycles recently, so others should get some time to comment. I also want to scan the whole list of EL. I believe I've used some UPC search sites that had broad item coverage. There can be some merit to that ability, but there's also a problem with advertising services. I want to reflect. WP is not in the business of helping someone prime a data pump. Glrx (talk) 01:02, 21 October 2010 (UTC)
 * What you are saying is very true and lets wait for other opinions.Gnsathu (talk) 14:08, 21 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Glrx, do you have the broad coverage sites?Gnsathu (talk)16:09, 25 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Not off hand. I've added section below to consider individual links. If you have any to add, then put them in. Glrx (talk) 17:20, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Non-database links
I don't believe these links are at issue...Glrx (talk) 17:20, 25 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Press release about 35th Anniversary of (UPC) Bar Code (June 3, 2009)
 * 25th Anniversary Review of U.P.C. Impact (pdf download) (1997)
 * Barcode scanners — find out who invented the UPC barcode.
 * George J. Laurer's personal web site — Extensive info from the inventor of the UPC barcode.
 * History of Identification Codes

As long as we are here...
 * UPC/EAN Check Digit Calculator
 * keep Commercial site, but explains the check digit calculation. Glrx (talk) 17:22, 25 October 2010 (UTC)


 * EAN MediaWiki extension, a MediaWiki extension, visualizing UPC-A/EAN-13/EAN-8/Code39/Codabar barcodes by specifying only the numbers/symbols in the wiki-text.
 * delete Appears to be an advertisement for code. Does not have content about bar codes. Glrx (talk) 17:20, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Database links at issue
If you find others, then add them....


 * Global Universal Product Code Database from GS1
 * keep This link is authorative, so I think it should stay. Glrx (talk) 17:20, 25 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Yoopsie UPC Lookup Tool
 * neutral I want to think about this now. No content, but is service reasonable? Passed test search. Glrx (talk) 17:27, 25 October 2010 (UTC)


 * UPC ISBN Lookup Search
 * neutral I want to think about this now. No content, but is service reasonable? Passed test search. Glrx (talk) 17:27, 25 October 2010 (UTC)


 * UPC Database
 * delete Advertisement for service. "Hobby". Has login. Another datapump? Failed test search. Glrx (talk) 17:20, 25 October 2010 (UTC)


 * http://www.searchupc.com
 * neutral I want to think about this now. No content, but is service reasonable? Failed test search. Glrx (talk) 17:27, 25 October 2010 (UTC)


 * upcScavenger
 * neutral Advertisements. Allows mediawiki tag editing and media content addition of wiki pages for registered users, and comment addition for any users. Contains UPC/EAN/QR Code generator tools. Briburrell (talk) 04:33, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

upcscavenger.com
Please consider adding this free barcode lookup service. I believe this site would be a good supplemental source for lookups, and also includes a QRCode/UPC/EAN/Code128 generator.

The site is: http://www.upcscavenger.com

I believe listing multiple lookup sites is important (if any are to be listed) as I do not see them as 'example lookups', but rather resources in order to find out product information based on UPC or other product code. To that affect only listing a couple of sites will prevent the user from being able to utilizing these links as a resource instead of an example. The main reason I am submitting this site is because I see other UPC search engines that are far less informative to the user being listed. The "milk server" page is essentially a donation page with a broken UPC image generator.

The argument I encounter on whether to list any upc search engines is between the potential monetary compensation for being a resource, and the potential information and access to desired goods reflecting those product codes. In other words, the sites providing information and access to the product itself becomes the reason to provide these sites as external references (or integrated into page) with any potential monetary compensation being a side affect. Taking a upcscavenger.com example: there are many product pages on the site which list no available means to obtain the product, but still allow for specification, comments, and media content to be added in relation to the UPC/EAN code.

Being a little bit purposely overly innovation; what I would like to see is information about these sites and how they relate to the UPC code. For example, the site listed below and upc-database.com both have API access. Even though upc-database.com has the smallest actual UPC record content of many "general" UPC look sites, the explanation of what and how a barcode API works allows for other users to understand and innovate new methods that could potentially one day be a link to publicly accessible global API (which GS1 does not provide).

The upcScavenger site provides supplemental information about the products, allows non-registered users to comment, and allows registered users to edit the product info wiki pages themselves (uses a Wikimedia proprietary clone wiki parser). This creates a unique 'spin-off' of Wikipedia itself as it directs the scope into a narrow subject (i.e. "things" represented by QRCode/UPC/EAN). This in itself has the potential to provide a large amount of information that would normally not be cataloged on Wikipedia, and provide a friendly 'media wiki' manner in which to add content. The most informative portion, besides the direct UPC to product relation, is the wikipedia page content that is available in relation to product information. The upcscavenger.com site contains a mirror of publicly available Wikipedia content in order to provide supplemental information to the user. With this in mind one has to also question how useful this would be to Wikipedia itself since the information would be a redundant copy, albeit linked in a relation manner to the UPC product info pages.

Briburrell (talk) 23:46, 25 July 2013 (UTC)