Norman Joseph Woodland, who co-created the barcode, has died at his New Jersey home at the age of 91.

Woodland worked with university classmate Bernard Silver to create the now ubiquitous thick-and-thin-line system in the 1940s.

The system was patented in the US in 1952, a patent that was later sold for just $15,000 (£9,300).

The modern-day barcode is estimated to be scanned more than five billion times every day.

But in 1952 £9,300 would buy lots of homes in the UK.

The way things are going, it soon will again!