Printed media products including data files provided in multiple layers of encoded, colored dots
First Claim
1. An apparatus for displaying information including a machine-readable, encoded data file containing a set of information, comprising:
- a substrate; and
an encoded data element containing the set of information applied to the substrate, wherein the encoded data element comprises a first data layer including dots of a first color in a first pattern defined by a binary encoding scheme and a second data layer including dots of a second color differing from the first color in a second pattern defined by the binary encoding scheme, the first and second patterns of the dots of the first data layer and the second data layer being machine-readable to retrieve the set of information of the encoded data file.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A printed media product, such as a trading card, that has a substrate and an encoded data element applied to a surface of the substrate containing information. The encoded data element includes first, second, and third data layers with first, second, and third patterns of encoded, colored dots defined by a binary encoding scheme. The dots of the first, second, and third layers are different colors separately resolvable by a scanner with decoding software. The colors of the dots are cyan, yellow, and magenta, and the layers are printed so that the dots overlap. The binary encoding scheme includes a two dimensional run length limited code. The printed media product includes a graphics element that can be interpreted by a human user, and typically, the information encoded in the encoded data element layers is related to the information in the graphics element.
106 Citations
26 Claims
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1. An apparatus for displaying information including a machine-readable, encoded data file containing a set of information, comprising:
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a substrate; and
an encoded data element containing the set of information applied to the substrate, wherein the encoded data element comprises a first data layer including dots of a first color in a first pattern defined by a binary encoding scheme and a second data layer including dots of a second color differing from the first color in a second pattern defined by the binary encoding scheme, the first and second patterns of the dots of the first data layer and the second data layer being machine-readable to retrieve the set of information of the encoded data file. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A printing device for printing a data file of information in multiple layers of encoded colored dots, comprising:
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a data formatting module processing the data file to create an encoded data file, wherein the data formatting module includes an encoder defining a first pattern of dots of a first color for a first color plane of the encoded data file, a second pattern of dots of a second color differing from the first color for a second color plane of the encoded data file, and a third pattern of dots of a third color differing from the first and second colors for a third color plane of the encoded data file; and
a printing mechanism processing the encoded data file to print the dots on a surface of a substrate in three data layers corresponding to the first, second, and third patterns in the first, second, and third color planes. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for producing a data element containing binary information represented by encoded dots that is readable by a scanner, comprising:
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providing a data file of information;
dividing the information of the data file into a first data set and a second data set;
encoding the first data set and the second data set according to a binary encoding scheme;
assigning a first color to the encoded first data set and a second color differing from the first color to the encoded second data set;
printing dots having the first color in a first layer on a substrate surface in a pattern defined by the encoded first data set; and
printing dots having the second color in a second layer over the first layer in a pattern defined by the encoded second data set. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A scanner for use in decoding information encoded in multiple layers of colored dots, comprising:
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means for optically reading an encoded data element on a substrate comprising a first layer of printed dots of a first color encoded in a first pattern according to an encoding scheme, a second layer of printed dots of a second color encoded in a second pattern according to the encoding scheme, and a third layer of printed dots of a third color encoded in a second pattern according to the encoding scheme, the first, second, and third patterns comprising encoded binary data representing a set of information from a data file;
means for resolving the printed dots in each of the layers separately to create three encoded data files corresponding to the first, second, and third layers, wherein the first, second, and third colors differ from each other;
means for decoding the three encoded data files based on the encoding scheme to create three decoded data files corresponding to the first, second, and third layers; and
means for combining the three decoded data files into a decoded data file including the set of information from the data file. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26)
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Specification