Digital watermarking and data hiding with narrow-band absorption materials
First Claim
1. A printed package for a retail product, the printed package comprising a substrate, the substrate comprising a first area and a second area, in which the first area and the second area comprise adjacent non-overlapping areas, the first area comprising a first offset ink or a first flexography ink printed thereon, the printed package comprising a non-contiguous coating, the non-contiguous coating comprising a narrow-band absorption material with a spectral absorbance peak or maximum in a range of 630 nm-710 nm, the coating applied over portions of both the first area and the second area in a 2D pattern representing an encoded digital watermark signal, the 2D pattern being redundantly applied on the printed package, in which the printed package comprises more area within the first area and the second area without the coating than area within the first area and the second area with the coating, and in which one or more instances of the 2D pattern are detectable from machine-analysis of imagery, in which the imagery corresponds to illumination of the printed package, the illumination comprising an illumination peak or maximum in the range of 630 nm-710 nm.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present disclosure relates to signal processing such as digital watermarking and data hiding. A sparse or dense digital watermark signal can be conveyed with a narrow-band absorption material corresponding to a center wavelength of a Point of Sale (POS) barcode scanner. The POS barcode scanner typically captures 2D imagery. Since the narrow-band absorption material absorbs over a narrow-band it is relatively imperceptible to the Human Visual System (HVS) but can be seen by the POS scanner.
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Citations
34 Claims
- 1. A printed package for a retail product, the printed package comprising a substrate, the substrate comprising a first area and a second area, in which the first area and the second area comprise adjacent non-overlapping areas, the first area comprising a first offset ink or a first flexography ink printed thereon, the printed package comprising a non-contiguous coating, the non-contiguous coating comprising a narrow-band absorption material with a spectral absorbance peak or maximum in a range of 630 nm-710 nm, the coating applied over portions of both the first area and the second area in a 2D pattern representing an encoded digital watermark signal, the 2D pattern being redundantly applied on the printed package, in which the printed package comprises more area within the first area and the second area without the coating than area within the first area and the second area with the coating, and in which one or more instances of the 2D pattern are detectable from machine-analysis of imagery, in which the imagery corresponds to illumination of the printed package, the illumination comprising an illumination peak or maximum in the range of 630 nm-710 nm.
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14. A printed package for a retail product prepared by a process comprising:
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providing a sparse pattern of elements at coordinates within a two-dimensional block, providing a signal component, the signal component being modulated to carry a variable data signal, and generating a sparse, variable data carrying signal by distributing the signal component within a two-dimensional block based on the location of the sparse pattern of elements; applying a first ink on a surface of the printed package, the surface comprising a first area and a second area, the first ink applied only in the first area; applying a non-contiguous coating over portions of both the first area and the second area according to a pattern representing the two-dimensional block, the coating comprising a narrow-band absorption material with a spectral absorption having an absorbance peak or maximum in a range of 630 nm-710 nm, the two-dimensional block being redundantly applied on the printed package, in which the printed package comprises more area within the first and second areas without the coating than area within the first and second area with the coating, in which one or more instances of the two-dimensional block are detectable from machine-analysis of imagery, in which the imagery corresponds to illumination of the printed package, the illumination comprising an illumination peak or maximum in the range of 630 nm-710 nm. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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- 21. A printed object associated with a retail product, the printed object comprising a substrate, the substrate comprising a first area and a second area, in which the first area and the second area comprise non-overlapping areas, the first area comprising a first offset ink or a first flexography ink printed thereon, the printed object comprising a non-contiguous coating, the non-contiguous coating comprising a narrow-band absorption material with a spectral absorbance peak or maximum in a range of 630 nm-710 nm, the coating applied over the printed article in a 2D pattern representing an encoded signal, the 2D pattern being redundantly applied on the printed object, in which the printed object comprises more area within the first area and the second area without the coating than area within the first area and the second area with the coating, and in which one or more instances of the 2D pattern are detectable from machine-analysis of imagery corresponding to the printed object, in which the printed object is illuminated with illumination during image capture, the illumination comprising an illumination peak or maximum in the range of 630 nm-710 nm.
Specification