The barcodes that appear on almost every product bought and sold in shops around the world were born 75 years ago on a beach in Miami (Credit: Alamy) Few people think twice about the barcodes on their ...

Few people think twice about the barcodes on their shopping, but in the 75 years since they were first dreamed up, they have helped save lives, gone into space and stoked fears of the Antichrist.

It was invented for labelling automobile parts - but now QR codes are used in a much broader context in everyday life. The two-dimensional matrix barcode, created by the Japanese company Denso Wave in ...