Method and apparatus for generating and decoding a visually significant barcode

Abstract

A barcode system for generating and decoding a barcode with visual significance. The barcode system of the present invention includes an encoding module for receiving a message and a logo and generating a visually significant barcode based on these inputs. A decoding module is also provided for receiving an acquired version of a visually significant barcode that may have been degraded in a typical document handling channel (e.g., through the printing, scanning, or copying process) and for recovering the message specified by the visually significant barcode.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A visually significant barcode system comprising: 
 an encoding module for receiving a message and a logo and based thereon for generating a visually significant barcode having the message encoded therein.    
     
     
         2 . The visually significant barcode system of  claim 1  further comprising: 
 a print engine coupled to the encoding module for receiving the visually significant barcode and based thereon for rendering a hard copy of the visually significant barcode.  
 
     
     
         3 . The visually significant barcode system of  claim 2  wherein the 
 print engine utilizes a halftone algorithm to render the hard copy of the visually significant barcode.  
 
     
     
         4 . The visually significant barcode system of  claim 1  further comprising: 
 a decoding module for receiving an acquired version of the visually significant barcode and based thereon for recovering a message encoded therein.  
 
     
     
         5 . The visually significant barcode system of  claim 4  further comprising: 
 an acquisition engine coupled to the decoding module for receiving a hard copy having a visually significant barcode, and based thereon, for generating the acquired version of the visually significant barcode.  
 
     
     
         6 . The barcode system of  claim 4  wherein the encoding module and the decoding module are embodied on a media.  
     
     
         7 . The barcode system of  claim 6  wherein the media is incorporated in an office machine in the form of a memory.  
     
     
         8 . The barcode system of  claim 7  wherein the office machine is one of a personal computer, an all-in-one office machine, a printer, and a scanner.  
     
     
         9 . The barcode system of  claim 6  wherein the media is a computer readable medium  
     
     
         10 . The barcode system of  claim 9  wherein the computer readable medium is one of a floppy disk and a compact disc.  
     
     
         11 . The barcode system of  claim 1  wherein the message is one of an electronic mail address, a uniform resource locator web address, authentication information, a facsimile number, and a file name and location.  
     
     
         12 . The barcode system of  claim 1  wherein the logo includes a user input feature for allowing a user to provide information.  
     
     
         13 . The barcode system of  claim 12  wherein the user input feature is one of a circle selection form, check box form, and fill-in form  
     
     
         14 . The barcode system of  claim 1  wherein the visually significant barcode is utilized in one of an automatic fax-back application, an automatic email-back application, copy from electronic version application, and a most-recent document application.  
     
     
         15 . A method for generating a visually significant barcode comprising: 
 receiving an M×N pixel image;    receiving a message having a plurality of fields;    partitioning the M×N pixel image into a plurality of K×K image matrices; and    converting the K×K image matrices to K×K barcode matrices by utilizing one of a predetermined set of L distinct maps; wherein the selection of the particular map is based on a corresponding field of the message.    
     
     
         16 . The method as in  claim 15  wherein the pixel image is one of a black and white image, a color image, and a gray-level image.  
     
     
         17 . The method as in  claim 15  wherein the barcode matrices are multi-level barcode mat rices that includes one of gray level barcode matrices and color barcode matrices.  
     
     
         18 . The method as in  claim 15  further comprising: 
 defining an image area for predetermined fiducial marks.  
 
     
     
         19 . The method as in  claim 15  wherein the predetermined set of L distinct maps includes a predetermined set of halftoning algorithms that can be one of cluster dithering, disperse dithering, and error diffusion.  
     
     
         20 . A method for decoding a visually significant barcode comprising: 
 receiving the barcode image;    partitioning the barcode image into a plurality of sub-images;    comparing each sub-image with a set of L possible barcode matrices; and    decoding a message based on a match estimation of each sub-image to each one of the L possible barcode matrices in a sequence of P symbols over {1, 2, . . . L}.    
     
     
         21 . The method as in  claim 20  further comprising: 
 receiving an image having a barcode image; and  
 locating the barcode image in the received image.