Bernard Silver (September 21, 1924 – August 28, 1963) was an electrical engineer and early developer of barcode technology alongside Norman Joseph Woodland.
[1] In 1948 Silver paired with Norman Joseph Woodland to come up with an automated way to read product data after overhearing the conversation of a local grocery store president.
Their initial results, a system of lines and circles based on Morse code, was replaced with a bulls eye pattern so it could be scanned from any direction.
"[5] During his career Silver served as a physics instructor at Drexel and as vice-president of Electro Nite Inc.[6] He died August 28, 1963, of bronchopneumonia due to acute myelogenous leukemia[7] at the age of 38.
[9] Google featured a doodle of their logo as a barcode to recognize the anniversary of Bernard Silver at October 7, 2009.