A METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION, VALIDATION OF STATUS AND CORRELATION OF BAR CODE INFORMATION INCLUDING SECURE IMAGE CAPTURE AND CHARACTER RECOGNITION

摘要

A system of identifying an instrument (210) with a high degree of accuracy includes capturing data from the instrument which has a multi-layered permanent or semi-permanent memory. The multi-layered memory includes data having a header including a field uniquely determining the format of stored identity data. The data, at least in part, preferably comprises bar coded data stored in an intermediate layer of said memory not visible to the naked eye. Also, the image capture unit retrieves otherwhere stored identity data, such as on the surface or reverse of the instrument for correlation with the intermediate layer data.