Woodland, a Manhattan Project scientist, came up with the idea for bar codes while running his fingers through the sand, trying to figure out how to put a unique code on every item of merchandise that could be easily scanned by a mechanical device.

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Each item can be unique--"ideal for such documents as financial statements for retirement services investors, " says Lew Waltman of R.

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If you get out of the range of the GPS tracking system, it will help locate your item on a map with its unique last-seen map pin-drop feature.

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Zappos posts these reasons on the item's Web page to warn other customers about any unique qualities--such as a stated shoe size that's consistently too big or a color that doesn't exactly match its picture.

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