114results about "Digital marking by photographic/thermographic registration" patented technology

A system of bill presentment and bill payment. The parties to the process, which typically include the bill presenter, bill payer, and bank, credit card company or other intermediary, select from a number of choices in the selection of information to include in the bill, preparation of the bill, acceptable payment methods, means to send the bill and bill payment instrument, means of signing the bill, bill payment instrument, receipt acknowledging deposit and payment, method of recording and reconciling payments, and further actions. An accumulation of choices by the involved parties can include digital information in each step that represents all of the significant data accumulated up to and including that step. That digital data preferably includes digital signatures of each party at each step so as to provide an audit trail in purely digital form. Where digital data is chosen for each step, the digital data can be electronic or, using machine readable code, printed on paper, regardless of the form chosen in prior or later steps.

A method of radiantly marking substrates including metals, plastics, ceramic materials, glazes, glass ceramics, and glasses of any desired form, which comprises electrostatically applying to the material to be marked a variable thickness layer of marking material containing energy absorbing components and/or enhancers, then irradiating said layer with a radiant energy source such as a laser or diode based energy source such that the radiation is directed onto said layer, optionally in accordance with the form of the marking to be applied, preferably using a laser or diode based energy source of a wavelength which is sufficiently absorbed by the marking material so as to create a bonding of the marking material to the surface of the workpiece at the irradiated areas.

A laser marking apparatus has a number of individual laser devices (1) mounted at angles to one another. The output ends (2) of the laser devices are disposed closely adjacent to one another and a number of laser beam redirectors (5) are disposed to intercept the laser beams (3) emitted from the laser output ends (2) so as to extend the length of the laser beam paths and to decrease the angle between said laser beams (3).

The present invention provides a system and method for the verification of the purchase of a retail item wherein an encoding device provides a machine-readable post-purchase indicia on the label for a retail item at the point of sale of the retail item. When a customer returns the retail item for a refund or exchange, a detecting device analyzes the label for the presence of the post-purchase indicia. Presence of the post-purchase indicia indicates a legitimate exchange whereas the absence of the post-purchase indicia signifies a fraudulent exchange.

A method of formatting digital data and a method of decoding the formatted digital data. User selectable format parameters vary the dimensions and other attributes of spots and the cells containing those spots as well as other features which the formatting process formats into a pattern. A method of encoding the formatted digital data using these format parameters allows for encoding a substrate optimally for any given printer or scanner. One embodiment provides for markers to facilitate determination of cell locations. In one embodiment the decoding process achieves a pyramid gain of knowledge by locating a landmark (801), which is located in a known position relative to a metasector (802), which contains information about the encoding process used to encode the main body of data (803), which the decoding process decodes to recover the original digital data. Further embodiments include encryption, transmission by facsimile, inclusion of human readable information, and automatic launches of computer files.

A plastic product such an animal ear tag (1) is laser marked with indicia (2). The contrast between the indicia (2) and the surrounding surface of the tag (1) is enhanced by the heated of the indicia following laser marking to a temperature at which the indicia and the surrounding surface have melted. In the preferred embodiment the indicia (2) is provided as a raised surface (3) and with a plurality of spaced apart peaks (4) with gaps (6) therebetween. The heating of the tag (1) is preferably by the application of a hot plate to the indicia surface of the tag and simultaneaouly or subsequently to the non-indicia surface of the tag.

The present invention includes forming a coding symbology by disposing a plurality of light-reflecting segments separated by spaces on a substrate. The coding symbology represents fixed information and variable information.

A method and apparatus for labeling plant products based on laser activation of a color-changing compound is disclosed. In the preferred embodiment, a nozzle sprays a coating of photosensitive material containing color-changing chemical component. An optional drying station is set up to optimize homogeneity and adhesiveness of the color-changing coating. A laser equipped with beam steering optics is used to image the desired mark on the plant product by inducing a change of color in the photosensitive coating, without contacting the plant product skin and at a high speed. An optional nozzle sprays a sealant coating after printing, for extended durability of the imaged label. In addition, an optical sensor detects the incoming plant product, determines its size and sends information for selecting the proper label to be imaged. An additional optical sensor can be placed at the end of the process to verify the quality and legibility of the imaged label. The apparatus described can be extended to multiple marking stations, which can be controlled by a central computer to allow for dynamic updating of the desired label(s).

Authentication systems, apparatus, and methods authenticate an identification marking including a nanocrystalline material. One or more properties of the marking are ascertained to provide a measured profile. The measured profile is compared to at least one member of a closed set of reference profiles. Each reference profile has predetermined values of one or more properties. Each reference profile is unique within the set. At least one reference profile is characteristic of an indicator material in a nanocrystalline morphology and non-characteristic of the same indicator material in a bulk morphology.

Laser processing data based on which a laser processing system scans a work with a laser beam adjustable in focal distance in two dimensions is generate by specifying a two-dimensional pattern in an X-Y coordinate plane and a shift pitch at which the two-dimensional pattern is shifted in a Z-axis direction and repeatedly shifting the two-dimensional pattern at the shift pitch in the Z-axis direction in synchronism with the scan with the two-dimensional pattern.

An optical disk having a first recording area for recording information; and a second recording area having auxiliary information including disk identification information unique to that optical disk recorded therein, wherein the second recording area including circumferentially arranged multiple stripe patterns each strip extending along a radius of the disk; and indicator indicating the presence of auxiliary information.

It is judged whether a marking unit formed on a material becomes a bright mark or a dark mark. Based on this judgment, for the work W of a material in which the marking unit becomes a bright mark, the code symbol of the 2-dimensional code of the original image is bright/dark-reversed to generate a reversed code symbol 1R. By doing this, a laser marker 10 is controlled so as to apply a laser beam to the cell of the background portion without applying the laser beam on the cell of the code portion. On the other hand, in the case of the normal material in which the marking unit becomes a dark mark, the laser marker 10 is controlled to apply the laser beam to the cell of the code portion without applying the beam to the cell of the background portion.

A method for printing is described. The method includes providing a printing system for printing a code on a product moving in a direction. The code is constructed from a plurality of pixels in a first data set indicating the positions of the pixels and generates a corrected data set indicating the position that each pixel would occupy if each pixel was moved at the velocity of the product until the pixel was printed. The method also includes printing the code according to the corrected data set.

Individual two-dimensional barcodes 30, 91 and 173 are provided for individual chips 31 arrayed on a wafer 50, individual lead frames 93 to each of which chips 92 are bonded and individual packaged products 171 constituted of resin sealed semiconductor chips based upon chip ID information to enable information management to be implemented separately for individual chips 31, individual frames 93 and individual chip products 171. Thus, a higher degree of efficiency and a higher degree of accuracy in the information management for semiconductor devices are achieved in all processes of semiconductor production including the individual manufacturing processes, the physical distribution process, the shipping process and the claim handling process.

Manufacturing steps for a cathode ray tube or a glass bulb for the cathode ray tube are controlled in such a manner that a two-dimensional matrix code 3 comprised of a plurality of dots is marked by laser in an outer side surface of a glass bulb 1, 5, the two-dimensional matrix code 3 containing the information which can identify individually glass bulbs, and the manufacturing steps are conducted by using a computer and the particulars specified by the serial information.

A disclosed marking control device controls a marking device to mark a target image on a thermoreversible recording medium by applying a laser beam includes a marking position determination unit dividing the image into plural marking lines, and determining their marking positions; a marking order determination unit determining a marking order to mark the marking lines in mutually opposite directions; an adjusting unit adjusting a distance between a first ending point and a second starting point to be longer than a distance between a first starting point and a second ending point, or adjusting laser power applied to a second starting point side of the second marking line to be lower than the laser power applied to a second ending point side of the second marking line; and a marking instruction generator unit generating marking instructions including the marking positions of the marking lines and the marking order thereof.

A display and record medium includes a digital information record section, which is implemented as an IC memory and can record record information in noncontact, and an information display section implemented as a liquid crystal display medium of light write type into which display information can be written. A digital information rewrite section of an information writer communicates with the digital information record section of the display and record medium by electromagnetic waves to rewrite record information as required. A display information rewrite section of the information writer irradiates an optical pattern to the information display section of the display and record medium to rewrite display information. It is possible to rewrite both digital information and display information concurrently in noncontact.

The invention relates to a method for producing a data carrier having a laser-markable layer and a transparent optically variable layer overlapping therewith at least in certain areas, wherein visually visible markings that at least partly overlap with the optically variable layer are produced in the laser-markable layer after the application of the optically variable layer. The invention further includes a data carrier produced by the method and a semifinished product, such as a data carrier blank, that is provided for processing by the method.

A method for generating optically machine readable code is provided. The method includes capturing an image with a user device, automatically generating, by the user device, an optically machine readable code comprising information about the image recorded during the capturing of the image, and associating the optically machine readable code and the image. A computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs and an apparatus are also provided.