Like many good ideas and eventual multi-million-dollar companies, “the dot” started out as the hobby of a graduate student, Bob Dessing, earning his Ph.D in Computer Science. “Look at this,” Bob called to his then-girlfriend and later-wife, Sandra. He stuck an adhesive plastic dot, half the size of a dime, onto the recessed bottom of a bottle of wine on their kitchen counter. “Let me guess,” Sandra smiled. “That dot tells me if the wine has a bad cork or has turned to vinegar.” “Better,” Bob beamed. He pulled a simple hand-held barcode scanner from his briefcase. A couple protruding wires and assorted solder marks told Sandra immediately that this was no ordinary scanner.

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