The Barcode celebrates its 57th anniversary and we look at weird uses for this litte logo

Google has changed its logo into a barcode to celebrate the 57th anniversary of the invention of the barcode.

The little icon, which appears on all sorts of food, fashion and magazine packaging was created by Norman Woodland, Bernard Silver and Jordin Johanson after a supermarket executive asked the dean of the Drexel Institute of Technology if it were possible to create a system that could automatically read information about products.

Using the principles of morse code, the system was tested on railroad cars, a toll bridge in New Jersey and the US Post Office with varying degrees of success.

It was first used in the retail industry by Whiskas, which used the first used the system for keeping track of its inventory and this led to interest from other manufacturers and retailers.

To mark the celebration we look at some weird and wonderful ways that the barcode has been used in the past few years.

Click on the picture below to begin the gallery.