It all began with lipstick. In the mid-1990s, a young British professional named Kevin Ashton got a job at consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble, where he helped launch a line of cosmetics. The ambitious computer scientist noticed that a popular shade of brown lipstick was rarely in the stores that he visited, something that P&G’s logistics department assured him was a fluke. The lipsticks are in the warehouses, they said, and it’s just bad luck that these were not in the stores when he was there.

Ashton wasn’t happy with the answer, and sought a better way to track the inventory. After trying barcodes, but finding they don’t provide information on a product’s current location, Ashton started experimenting with radiofrequency tags, using the chip from a credit card to test his concept. These tests soon gave him an opportunity to present the idea to P&G executives, a moment when he unknowingly gave a name to a nascent revolution.