George J. Laurer, whose invention of the Universal Product Code at IBM transformed retail and other industries around the world, has died. He was 94. He died on Thursday at his home in Wendell, North Carolina in US. His funeral was held Yesterday.<br />''<br />''Laurer was an electrical engineer with IBM in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park in the early 1970s when he spearheaded the development of the UPC, or bar code.<br />''<span style="color: #222222;"><br />''The now-ubiquitous marking, composed of unique black bars and a 12-digit number, allowed retailers to identify products and their prices as they are scanned, usually at checkout.</span><br />