Material coding using lasers
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of laser marking, coding, and decoding, comprising:
- using a laser to mark information on an article, said article being an article of clothing, leather or fabric, which information represents some characteristic of the article, said information being marked by using the laser to change the material in a way that changes the physical appearance of the article;
imaging the information from the article; and
decoding the imaged information to determine the characteristic of the article.
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Abstract
A laser marking system encodes a code on an article, eg an article of clothing. The code is detected by a camera or other imaging system that does not require reflectivity for its proper operation.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of laser marking, coding, and decoding, comprising:
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using a laser to mark information on an article, said article being an article of clothing, leather or fabric, which information represents some characteristic of the article, said information being marked by using the laser to change the material in a way that changes the physical appearance of the article;
imaging the information from the article; and
decoding the imaged information to determine the characteristic of the article. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method of marking a code on a garment, comprising:
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obtaining a code to be marked on the garment; and
using a laser to change a material of the garment in a way that selectively changes physical appearances of different portions of the material in a way that represents the code. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
obtaining information about the garment; and
digitally encrypting said information to form code information.
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9. A method as in claim 6, wherein said using comprises controlling an output of said laser to have an energy density per unit time that fades a color of the garment at desired modified locations, without undesirably burning or punching through said garment.
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10. A method as in claim 6, wherein said code identifies a geographic region of sale of said garment.
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11. A method of reading a code from a garment, comprising:
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using an image acquisition device to obtain an image of a portion of the garment;
comparing said portion with specified image references, to determine non-altered portions of the garment whose appearance has not been altered, and altered portions of the garment whose appearance has been altered; and
extracting a code from the pattern of altered and nonaltered portions. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of detecting whether a garment is authentic, comprising:
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reading a code from the garment which includes encrypted authentication information;
decrypting the authentication information; and
using the decrypted authentication information to determine if the garment is authentic. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification