TWO-DIMENSIONAL COLOR BARCODE, GENERATION METHOD AND DECODING METHOD OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL COLOR BARCODE AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase capacity of a two-dimensional color barcode and improve its reproducibility.

SOLUTION: The two-dimensional color barcode using color gradation values includes a black and white configuration block that encodes configuration information about the barcode and a plurality of color data blocks that encodes data. Each tile in the data blocks has one of predefined reproducible gradation values of the RGB, CMY or other color sets. The number of reproducible gradation values for each color used in the color data block is specified by the configuration block. The barcode also includes a corner marker consisting of a column and a row of black tiles abutting the configuration block which is located in a top left corner, three additional corner markers and a plurality of block separators along sides of barcode. Also described are methods for generating and decoding such a two-dimensional color barcode. The methods include encoding data values to be encoded into a color space value and vise versa.

COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT