Code reading and recording apparatus

• US 6,116,510 A
• Filed: 05/07/1998
• Issued: 09/12/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Olympus Optical Company Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Olympus Optical Company Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Nishino, Hirokazu
• Primary Examiner(s): Hajec, Donald
• Assistant Examiner(s): St. Cyr, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US09/074,283
• Time in Patent Office: 859 Days
• Field of Search: 235/494, 235/454, 235/456, 235/462.01, 235/462.13, 235/462.15
• US Class Current: 235/494
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 1/121 by printing code marks applying code marks to labels B65C9/46; marking or coding completed packages B65B61/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06037 multi-dimensional coding
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/02 Control of operating function, e.g. switching from recording to reproducing
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/12 by sensing distinguishing features of or on records, e.g. diameter end mark
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 7/0033 with cards or other card-like flat carriers, e.g. flat sheets of optical film

Abstract

A code pattern image printed/recorded on a recording medium and adapted to be picked up and read is electronically taken up and read and then processed by a decoder to restore the original data, which is then transformed into an image data of the code pattern image by an encoder and printed/recorded on another predetermined recording medium to reproduce the code pattern image by a printer. The code pattern image printed/recorded on the recording medium is made to contain an operation control data for permitting or prohibiting the operation of the encoder and the operation control data is extracted from the code pattern image by an operation control data extracting unit so that encoding operation control section permits or prohibits the operation of the encoder according to the extracted data.

Claims

1. A code reading and recording apparatus comprising:

a reading section for picking up and reading a code pattern image printed and/or recorded on a recording medium as data adapted to be picked up and read and containing at least one of an audio data, a video data and a digital code data;

a decoder for decoding the code pattern image read by said reading section and retrieving the original data;

an encoder for transforming the data retrieved by said decoder into an image data of a code pattern image; and

a recording section for printing and/or recording the transformed image data on a predetermined recording medium as code pattern image adapted to be picked up and read, wherein

the code pattern image contains an operation data for permitting or prohibiting the operation of the encoder, and

the code reading and recording apparatus further comprises;

an operation control data extracting section for extracting the operation data from the code pattern image read by said reading section; and

an operation control section for permitting or prohibiting the operation of said encoder according to the operation data extracted by said operation control data extracting section.

2. The code reading and recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said operation control data extracting section extracts physical structural characteristics from the code pattern image as operation control data.

3. The code reading and recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the code pattern image is realized by arranging a plurality of adjacently locatable blocks, each comprising a data dot pattern of a plurality of dot arranged according to the data to be transmitted, a marker for recognizing the block and a block header pattern containing a block address data for indicating the address of the arranged block, the data dot pattern, the marker and the block header pattern being arranged with a predetermined positional relationship, and

physical structural characteristics of the code pattern image are used as information indicating how addresses are allocated to the blocks of the code pattern image.

4. The code reading and recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the information indicating how addresses are allocated is extracted at least by using as a unit of operation a deinterleaving process of restoring the original arrangement of the data for dispersing them according to a predetermined rule in the interleaving process performed at the time of printing and recording the code pattern image.

5. The code reading and recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the code pattern image is realized by arranging a plurality of adjacently locatable blocks, each comprising a data dot pattern of a plurality of dot arranged according to the data to be transmitted, a marker for recognizing the block and a block header pattern containing a block address data for indicating the address of the arranged block, the data dot pattern, the marker and the block header pattern being arranged with a predetermined positional relationship, the block header pattern containing information on restoration parameters necessary for restoring the encoded data and commonly used for the block header patterns of the blocks, and

the differences among the data restoration parameters contained in each block header pattern are used as information indicating how addresses are allocated to the blocks of the code pattern image.

6. The code reading and recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the data is a data modulated to include predetermined redundant bits and the code pattern image is printed and/or recorded as an image adapted to be picked up and read and corresponding to the values of the bits of the modulated data, and

the data on the physical structural characteristics of the code pattern image is a data on the mode of modulation relating to how predetermined redundant bits are added to the bits of the proper data.

7. The code reading and recording apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the code pattern image is realized by arranging a plurality of adjacently locatable blocks, each comprising a data dot pattern of a plurality of dot arranged according to the data to be transmitted, a marker for recognizing the block and a block header pattern containing a block address data for indicating the address of the arranged block, the data dot pattern, the marker and the block header pattern being arranged with a predetermined positional relationship, and

the modulation is one of such that the modulated data does not contain a number of at least consecutive "1"s or "0"s exceeding the largest number of consecutive "1"s or "0"s of the markers and such that the predetermined bit arrangements of the modulated data combining "1"s and "0"s do not contain any of the predetermined bit arrangements of the markers combining "1"s and "0"s.

8. The code reading and recording apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the code pattern image is realized by arranging a plurality of adjacently locatable blocks, each comprising a data dot pattern of a plurality of dot arranged according to the data to be transmitted, a marker for recognizing the block and a block header pattern containing a block address data for indicating the address of the arranged block, the data dot pattern, the marker and the block header pattern being arranged with a predetermined positional relationship, the block header pattern containing information on restoration parameters necessary for restoring the encoded data and commonly used for the block header patterns of the blocks, the address data and the restoration parameters being unmodulated, and

the information on the mode of modulation contains information on the restoration parameters.

9. The code reading and recording apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

the code pattern image is realized by arranging a plurality of adjacently locatable blocks, each comprising a data dot pattern of a plurality of dot arranged according to the data to be transmitted, a marker for recognizing the block and a block header pattern containing a block address data for indicating the address of the arranged block, the data dot pattern, the marker and the block header pattern being arranged with a predetermined positional relationship, and

the modulation is one of such that the modulated data does not contain a number of at least consecutive "1"s or "0"s exceeding the largest number of consecutive "1"s or "0"s of the markers and such that the predetermined bit arrangements of the modulated data combining "1"s and "0"s do not contain any of the predetermined bit arrangements of the markers combining "1"s and "0"s.

10. The code reading and recording apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the information on the mode of modulation is determined from the bit arrangement pattern for each of "1"s and "0"s contained in the data to be demodulated in order to retrieve the original data by deleting the redundant bits added to the original data.

11. The code reading and recording apparatus according to claim 10, wherein

the code pattern image is realized by arranging a plurality of adjacently locatable blocks, each comprising a data dot pattern of a plurality of dot arranged according to the data to be transmitted, a marker for recognizing the block and a block header pattern containing a block address data for indicating the address of the arranged block, the data dot pattern, the marker and the block header pattern being arranged with a predetermined positional relationship, and

the modulation is one of such that the modulated data does not contain a number of at least consecutive "1"s or "0"s exceeding the largest number of consecutive "1"s or "0"s of the markers and such that the predetermined bit arrangements of the modulated data combining "1"s and "0"s do not contain any of the predetermined bit arrangements of the markers combining "1"s and "0"s.