Coding method, coding equipment and resulting coded product

• US 6,273,340 B1
• Filed: 07/19/1999
• Issued: 08/14/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique
• Original Assignee: Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique
• Inventors: Rivailler, Jacques
• Primary Examiner(s): Frech, Karl D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): St. Cyr, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US09/308,951
• Time in Patent Office: 757 Days
• Field of Search: 235/494, 235/456, 235/462.01, 235/375, 235/376
• US Class Current: 235/494
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06018 one-dimensional coding
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06037 multi-dimensional coding

Abstract

A process for data coding on any type of support (object, document, plant, animal, any material or materialized surface) calling for affixing on a surface a marking constituted by a plurality of elementary signs belonging to at least two different types, the marking being broken down into a plurality of coding zones each corresponding to coded information of a different nature. At least one configuration zone has content specific to the type of application and determines a characteristic of at least one of the other zones.

Claims

1. A process for coding information comprising

(a) providing an object bearing unencoded information,

(b) providing a numerical seal,

(c) processing at least a portion of the unencoded information with an encoding function using the numerical seal as a key to produce encoded information, and

(d) affixing on the object a marking constituted by a plurality of elementary signs belonging to at least two different types, the signs being grouped in coding zones in the form of a matrix of elements arranged in a series of columns, each zone corresponding to coded information different from other coding zones, in which the marking comprises (i) at least one configuration zone containing coded information specific for a type of object on which the marking is affixed and determining at least one characteristic of at least one of the coding zones other than the configuration zone, and (ii) a central field zone containing the encoded information produced from the unencoded information and the numerical seal.

2. The process of claim 1 in which the numerical seal is based on at least a part of the unencoded information.

3. The process of claim 2 in which the numerical seal is based on all of the unencoded information.

4. The process of claim 1 in which the marking further comprises a zone corresponding to information consisting of a public key associated to an encoding function.

5. The process of claim 1 in which the unencoded information consists of an image and the processing step further comprises breaking the image into strips and analyzing the strips as ECO characters.

6. The process of claim 1 in which the unencoded information consists of writing on a check.

7. The process of claim 1 in which the elements are defined by optical characteristics selected from the group consisting of black and white binary, color, optical density and a combination thereof.

8. The process of claim 7 in which the matrix comprises odd ranked columns of black and white binary elements and even ranked columns of black and white binary elements corresponding to the inverse of the element in the preceding column.