Electronic indicia in bit-mapped form
First Claim
1. An item bearing an indicia, said indicia verifying the status of said item, and wherein said indicia represents an encrypted message and has the form of an array of pixels having a values selected from a predetermined set of values in accordance with a mapping of said encrypted message onto said array, whereby a person may scan said array to obtain said message and verify said status by decrypting said message.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An item bearing bit-mapped indicia with information encrypted by a public key which verifies a status of the item and a method and apparatus for applying such indicia. The indicia represents an encrypted message and has the form of an array of pixels, each pixel having a value selected from a predetermined set of values in accordance with a mapping of an encrypted message on to the array. Thus, a person having knowledge of the appropriate decryption key may scan the indicia to obtain the message and verify the status by decrypting the message. In one embodiment disclosed, the item is a mail piece and the status is the payment of postage. The indicia may have the form of a binary matrix transformed by matrix multiplication by a corresponding Hadamard matrix and the encrypted message may be encrypted using a public key encryption system.
145 Citations
19 Claims
- 1. An item bearing an indicia, said indicia verifying the status of said item, and wherein said indicia represents an encrypted message and has the form of an array of pixels having a values selected from a predetermined set of values in accordance with a mapping of said encrypted message onto said array, whereby a person may scan said array to obtain said message and verify said status by decrypting said message.
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8. An apparatus for applying indicia, said indicia verifying the status of items upon which said indicia are applied, comprising:
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means for applying an array of pixels, said pixels having values selected from a predetermined set of values; means for selecting said values for said pixels in accordance with a mapping of an encrypted message onto said array. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of verifying the status of an item comprising the steps of
(a) encrypting a message, said message being representative of said status; -
(b) selecting values for an array of pixels from a predetermined set of values in accordance with a mapping of said encrypted message onto said array; and
,(c) applying said array to said item. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification