Method and apparatus for using a limited capacity portable data carrier

• US 9,317,792 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2012
• Issued: 04/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LTT Limited
• Original Assignee: LTT Limited
• Inventors: Berkun, Kenneth
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Ahshik
• Application Number:
  US13/535,095
• Publication Number:
  US 20130175348A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,392 Days
• Field of Search: 235/462.12, 235/462.1, 235/426.16, 235/462.25
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 1/12 otherwise than by punching
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06037 multi-dimensional coding
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/14 using light without selection of wavelength, e.g. sensing reflected white light G06K7/10831 - G06K7/1097 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1491 the method including a reconstruction step, e.g. stitching two pieces of bar code together to derive the full bar code

Abstract

A method for reading and using partial data from a portable data carrier includes reading data from a portable data carrier, determining if any data is missing, and if any data is missing, restructuring the data for use, such as for running an audio decoder and expander. A method for writing data to a portable data carrier having limited capacity includes receiving a data file and optimizing at least one encoding parameter to fit at least a portion of the data file into the portable data carrier.

Claims

1. A method for writing data to a bar code symbol having limited capacity comprising:

receiving a data file encoding a human perceivable signal;

reducing the size of the data file; and

bitmapping a 2D bar code symbol to include the reduced size data file.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining an amount of data to be removed from the received data file to fit in a bar code symbol; and

wherein

the size of the data file is reduced by the determined amount of data to be removed.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the size of the data file is reduced by at least one selected from the group consisting of:

cropping the data file, decreasing a sampling rate, removing least significant bits, reducing a frequency range, decreasing harmonic content, converting to a higher compression file format, omitting data segments, reducing dynamic range, and reducing error correction.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

transducing an audio signal to a corresponding electrical signal; and

converting the electrical signal to the data file.

5. A method for writing data to a bar code symbol having limited capacity comprising:

receiving a data file; and

optimizing at least one encoding parameter to fit at least a portion of the data file into a bar code symbol;

wherein optimizing at least one encoding parameter includes selecting the at least one encoding parameter to fit a fixed symbol size.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

generating a 2D matrix bar code bitmap using the at least one optimized encoding parameter.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

printing a 2D matrix bar code using the at least one optimized encoding parameter.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein optimizing at least one encoding parameter includes selecting at least one selected from the group consisting of:

data file error correction, eliminated data file error correction, reduced data file error correction, symbol error correction, reduced symbol error correction, eliminated symbol error correction, and data reduction from the data file.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein optimizing the at least one encoding parameter includes selecting a plurality of encoding parameters that balance the probability of symbol reading against the quality of an audio file encoded in the data.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein optimizing at least one encoding parameter includes selecting a size of a plurality of data segments.

11. The method of claim 5 wherein the data file includes an audio file.

12. A system configured to output a bar code symbol carrying audio data comprising:

a memory configured to receive an audio data file; and

a processor configured to optimize at least one encoding parameter to fit at least a portion of the audio data file into a bar code symbol;

wherein optimizing at least one encoding parameter includes selecting the at least one encoding parameter to fit a fixed symbol size.

13. The system of claim 12 further comprising:

an audio codec configured to receive an audio signal and output the audio data file to the memory.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein optimizing at least one encoding parameter includes selecting at least one selected from the group consisting of:

data file error correction, eliminated data file error correction, reduced data file error correction, symbol error correction, reduced symbol error correction, eliminated symbol error correction, data reduction from the data file, and a size of a plurality of data segments.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein optimizing the at least one encoding parameter includes selecting a plurality of encoding parameters that balance the probability of symbol reading against the quality of an audio file encoded in the symbol.