Method of tagging with color-coded microparticles
First Claim
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1. In a method of tagging individual units of production of a substance with microparticles for the purpose of retrospective identification including the steps of:
- (1) providing an inventory of batches of microparticles, each batch being uniquely coded, (2) maintaining a record of the unique code employed in each batch and (3) incorporating microparticles from any one batch with only one unit of production of a substance, the improvement comprising the use of microparticles which comprise compilations of, and are encoded according to, a particular orderly sequence of visually color distinguishable dyed and/or pigmented layers of organic materials, each said microparticle being 1 to 1000 micrometers at its broadest dimension across the color sequence, which inventory includes up to (C)(C-1)n-1 uniquely coded batches of microparticles where C is the number of available colors and n is the number of layers in the sequence.
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Abstract
An improvement in the known method of tagging individual units of production of a substance with microparticles for retrospective identification is disclosed. The improvement comprises the use of microparticles which are encoded with an orderly sequence of visually distinguishable colored segments. Decoding of the microparticles can be accomplished with a microscope or other magnifying device.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. In a method of tagging individual units of production of a substance with microparticles for the purpose of retrospective identification including the steps of:
- (1) providing an inventory of batches of microparticles, each batch being uniquely coded, (2) maintaining a record of the unique code employed in each batch and (3) incorporating microparticles from any one batch with only one unit of production of a substance, the improvement comprising the use of microparticles which comprise compilations of, and are encoded according to, a particular orderly sequence of visually color distinguishable dyed and/or pigmented layers of organic materials, each said microparticle being 1 to 1000 micrometers at its broadest dimension across the color sequence, which inventory includes up to (C)(C-1)n-1 uniquely coded batches of microparticles where C is the number of available colors and n is the number of layers in the sequence.
- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
- 13. A plurality of batches of microparticles to be used for tagging individual units of production of a substance to permit retrospective identification of those units the microparticles each batch comprise compilations of, and are uniformly and uniquely encoded according to, a particular orderly sequence of visually color distinguishable dyed and/or pigmented layers of organic materials, there being at least three colored layers in the sequence, and each microparticle being 1 to 1000 micrometers in its broadest dimension across the color sequence.
Specification