The United States Army uses two-foot long bar codes to label fifty-foot boats in storage at West Point. The codes store information about the boats' previous travels.
Researchers have mounted tiny bar codes on bees to track the insects' mating habits. The information enables scientists to "tag" the specimens without using any material that would disrupt the insects' natural behavior.
Fashion designers are now stamping bar codes on their models to help coordinate fashion shows. The bar codes enable the designers to store information about what outfits each model should be wearing and when they should be hitting the runway.
A check out system in South Africa is being tested in which groceries are put through a tunnel that uses radio frequency instead of a laser scanner.
Early marketers of the bar code system told stores that one of the benefits of scanners and bar codes was health reasons. Without having to type in price after price on a cash register, there was less wear and tear on a grocery attendant's wrist, therefore, less chance of strain or injury.
Passengers are finding that greater airport luggage control is being made possible using bar codes. By having the bag bar coded at check in, the increased accuracy, speed and security of processing luggage benefits airline travelers.
TV talk show host, Phil Donahue, rallied his viewers against the bar code in 1974 because he saw the new system as a way to befuddle consumers. Donahue saw the bar code as a way for grocers to remove price stickers from products, label only the shelves and presumably leave consumers confused.
Bar coded lift tickets are now being used at more than 50 ski resorts throughout the United States. According to the resorts, the lines move more quickly and lift ticket fraud has been virtually eliminated through the introduction of the codes.
A September 1997 article in the Daily Yomiuri reported that the "latest fashion craze" among high school girls in Tokyo was temporary tattoos in the shape of a bar code. The trend, which began with a Japanese pop star, became so popular that a television commercial featured a close-up of a product's Universal Product Code to play on the popularity. The companies that produced the tattoos had sold 1 million packages in less than a year. Many of the bar codes contained secret messages, such as "I love you," or "super cool," which could be read by a scanner.
People use scanners in some stores to create their baby shower and wedding lists with ease. They simply scan the product and the item is automatically registered on their list.
