CN101540004B - Mechanical barcode nameplate - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a mechanical barcode nameplate. It solves the current problem of informatization in the manufacturing industry. It has a simple structure and is easy to use, so that the mechanical barcode nameplate can be well used in harsh environments such as machining and manufacturing industries. Its structure is as follows: it includes a nameplate body, and there are blank areas on both sides of the nameplate body. There is at least one one-dimensional or two-dimensional barcode binary data area between the blank areas. The data area consists of concave or convex vertical bars and vertical bars. The number of spaces between vertical bars is adjustable.

Description

Mechanical barcode nameplate

technical field

The invention relates to the bar code technology used in the fields of mechanical processing and automatic identification, in particular to a mechanical bar code nameplate.

technical background

Product nameplates are widely used in all aspects of production, and are indispensable and important signs for most mechanical and electrical products, steel products, etc., and contain important information such as product performance, specifications, factory code, national standards, and production dates. It is an inevitable requirement for the development of informatization to realize the whole process of product information logistics management from production, warehousing, sales to users. To complete this process, not only the product itself must be identifiable (nameplate information production), but also the product must be automatically Identification (nameplate information is automatically entered). At present, the recording work of the production, warehousing, warehousing and market of mechanical and electrical products in my country is basically done manually, and the workload is huge. Therefore, after the nameplate information is collected, it is of great significance to realize the automatic entry of nameplate information for information logistics management.

Automatic identification technology is a comprehensive technology based on information technology and automation technology, with data collection, identification, analysis, and transmission as the main content. It is an important method and means to realize information data identification and input. At present, bar code technology is the most widely used automatic identification technology. There are more than 1 million products marked by bar code in China. Although barcode technology has been applied in many fields, there are still deficiencies, such as easy to scratch and need outer layer processing protection, easy to uneven printing plane, easy to dust pollution, base paper or curl after printing, and different scanner specifications, etc. , limiting its wider application. Especially in the manufacturing industry with strong information requirements, the application of barcode technology is limited due to the special circumstances and application conditions of the industry itself, such as the harsh manufacturing environment and storage environment of the steel industry, traditional barcode technology is no longer applicable. Use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to directly perform character recognition on the nameplate image. Since the nameplate embossed characters are directly embossed on the surface of the nameplate by the character mold, there is no color difference between the character area and the background area, and the character area and the background area are different. The height of the character is not imaged by color difference, but by the different reflection of light between the character area and the background area. It causes problems such as low recognition rate, correct rate and recognition speed, which limits the direct application of such technologies.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art, solve the problem of informatization in the manufacturing industry, and provide a simple structure, easy to use, so that the mechanical barcode nameplate can be well used in harsh environments such as machining and manufacturing industries. Mechanical barcode nameplate.

To achieve the above object, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions:

A mechanical barcode nameplate, which includes a nameplate body, blank areas on both sides of the nameplate body, at least one one-dimensional or two-dimensional barcode binary data area between the blank areas, the data area consists of concave or convex vertical bars As well as the space composition between the vertical bars, the number of spaces between the vertical bars is adjustable.

The mechanical barcodes of the one-dimensional data area are arranged in a row, and the mechanical barcodes include the vertical bars of the initial character, the vertical bars of the data characters, the vertical bars of the check character and the vertical bars of the terminator arranged in sequence separated by several spaces; wherein,

The vertical bar of the start character is the first one or several character vertical bars in the mechanical barcode, which is used to identify the beginning of a mechanical barcode;

The data character vertical bar is located behind the start character vertical bar, which is the area where the mechanical barcode stores coding information, and the number of data bits in the data character area can be arbitrarily defined according to actual needs;

The vertical bar of the check character is located at the vertical bar of several characters behind the vertical bar area of the data character, and verifies the correctness of the data character recognition during recognition;

The terminator vertical bar is the last one or several character vertical bars of the mechanical barcode, which is used to identify the end of a mechanical barcode.

The two-dimensional data area includes two or more rows of mechanical barcodes, and each row of mechanical barcodes includes vertical bars of start characters, vertical bars of data characters, vertical bars of check characters and terminators arranged in sequence separated by several spaces. vertical bars; of which,

The vertical bar of the start character is the first one or several character vertical bars in the mechanical barcode, which is used to identify the beginning of a mechanical barcode;

The data character vertical bar is located behind the start character vertical bar, which is the area where the mechanical barcode stores coding information, and the number of data bits in the data character area can be arbitrarily defined according to actual needs;

The vertical bar of the check character is a few characters behind the vertical bar area of the data character, and the correctness of the data character recognition is verified during recognition;

The terminator vertical bar is the last one or several character vertical bars of the mechanical barcode, which is used to identify the end of a mechanical barcode.

The two-dimensional data area includes a matrix mechanical barcode composed of several vertical bars and spaces between the several vertical bars; wherein, the first row and the first column are the initial row and initial column of the mechanical barcode;

From the second line to the penultimate line, each line is separated by a number of blanks and arranged in sequence with vertical bars of the start character, data character, check character, and terminator. Among them, the starting character The vertical bar of the start character is the first character or several characters in the mechanical barcode, which is used to identify the beginning of a mechanical barcode; the vertical bar of the data character is located behind the vertical bar of the start character, which is the area for storing the coding information of the mechanical barcode. The actual demand defines the number of digits of the data in the data character area arbitrarily; the vertical bar of the check character is located at the several characters behind the vertical bar area of the data character, and the correctness of the data character recognition is verified during recognition; the vertical bar of the terminator is mechanical The last character or characters of the barcode are used to identify the end of a mechanical barcode;

The parity of the last row from the second column to the last column is calculated according to the binary characters of each column in the second row to the penultimate row.

The space is the distance between the smallest vertical bars that can be embossed or identified in the mechanical barcode.

A character area for people to read/input is provided below the data area, which is composed of at least one of concave or convex Arabic numerals or characters, and is a hexadecimal reading corresponding to a binary mechanical barcode.

The difference between the present invention and common signboards and license plates lies in: different purposes: mechanical barcode nameplates are for machine identification purposes; and license plates are directly used for human reading. The purpose is different: the mechanical barcode nameplate is for identification and provides high reliability recognition rate; the license plate is only for identification. The direct relationship between the characters is different: there is a close relationship between the characters on the mechanical barcode nameplate and the characters derived from a strict mathematical algorithm; the relationship between the license plate characters is loose. The character structure is different: the mechanical barcode nameplate has a barcode structure such as data character, check character, etc.; the license plate does not have it. The representative information is different: the two-dimensional mechanical barcode directly represents the detailed information of the product; the license plate only represents limited identification information. The generation of characters is different: the characters on the mechanical barcode nameplate are reflective difference characters formed by concave and convex characters; the license plate is color difference characters.

The beneficial effect of the present invention is that it refers to the well-developed bar code technology, analyzes the existing technology, and combines the actual application background to invent a brand-new nameplate manufacturing technology—mechanical bar code nameplate. The technology of the invention can be widely used in industries and enterprises with extremely harsh environmental conditions, high reliability requirements and informatization requirements with very little added cost. Compared with the existing bar code technology, the production of mechanical bar code nameplate is to use the method of mechanical processing to make the bar on the nameplate. This approach is currently unique. The encoding and decoding of mechanical barcode nameplates has strict and measurable recognition rate, error rate and rejection rate with the help of encoding technology. Different from the existing nameplates or signs, the symbols processed on the carrier are in the form of simple bars and spaces. One-dimensional mechanical barcode nameplates do not directly represent product information.

The characteristics of enterprise nameplate information technology are analyzed, and the advantages of barcode technology are absorbed, and the mechanical barcode nameplate production technology realized by mechanical processing technology is invented. Using the method of product coding, give each product an independent code, and use optical character recognition technology for code recognition, so as to achieve product recognition and automatic entry. The technology has the characteristics of simple method, easy implementation, intuitive readability, high reliability, anti-counterfeiting and the like. Fast and accurate identification can be achieved without increasing the cost, with high reliability and a bit error rate of less than one millionth. Compared with other barcode automatic identification technologies, it has stronger adaptability and wider application fields, especially in industries with harsh storage environment, difficult inventory and high reliability requirements.

While the invention has been shown and described in what is presently considered to be its most practical and preferred implementation, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many modifications may be made within the scope of the invention, which scope is consistent with the appended claims broadest interpretation, thereby including all equivalent methods and products.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a structural representation of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is the binary data area of one-dimensional bar code;

Fig. 3 is the binary data area of two-dimensional barcode;

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an empty structure;

Fig. 5a is a structural schematic diagram of different start characters and terminators with different numbers of spaces between vertical bars;

Fig. 5b is a structural schematic diagram of different starting characters and terminators with different numbers of spaces between vertical bars;

Fig. 5c is a structural schematic diagram of different starting characters and terminators with different numbers of spaces between vertical bars;

Fig. 5d is a structural schematic diagram of start symbols and stop symbols with different numbers of spaces between vertical bars.

Detailed ways

The present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

1. Mechanical barcode structure

It consists of blank areas on both sides, vertical bars of start characters, vertical bars of data characters, vertical bars of check characters (self-checking), vertical bars of terminators and vertical bars of human-readable characters. The basic structure of the mechanical barcode is shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2 below:

The blank area, also known as the quiet area, is an area without any character vertical bars or mechanical barcode information. It is usually the background of the mechanical barcode carrier or the same as the blank character in the mechanical barcode, and is located on both sides of the mechanical barcode. It acts as a prompt for the recognition instrument, that is, it prompts the mechanical barcode recognition instrument to prepare to scan the mechanical barcode symbol.

Start character vertical bar: the first one or several character vertical bars in the mechanical barcode, which are used to identify the beginning of a mechanical barcode by a special character vertical bar or bar space mechanism. The recognition instrument first confirms the existence of the vertical bar of this character, and then continues to recognize the subsequent information.

Data character vertical bar: located behind the start character vertical bar, it is the area where the mechanical barcode stores coding information, and the number of data bits in the data character area can be arbitrarily defined according to actual needs.

Verification character vertical bar: several character vertical bars located in the data character area and terminator area, determined by performing certain arithmetic operations on the data character vertical bar, and verifying the correctness of the data character vertical bar recognition during recognition .

Terminator vertical bar: the last one or several character vertical bars of the mechanical barcode, which are composed of special character vertical bars or bar spaces, and are used to identify the end of a mechanical barcode. The recognition instrument recognizes and confirms the existence of this character, so as to confirm that the mechanical barcode has been scanned and avoid incomplete information input.

The vertical bar of the data character, the vertical bar of the data character, the vertical bar of the check character and the vertical bar of the terminator together form the data area of the mechanical barcode.

For human reading/input characters: located in the lower area of the mechanical barcode, it can be used to identify the mechanical barcode by manual input when the mechanical barcode cannot be recognized. This item is not required to appear in the mechanical barcode, and may not appear in the mechanical barcode.

There is also a certain blank area above and below the area where the mechanical barcode is printed. In order to ensure the mechanical positioning of the imprint and the need for identification,

2. Symbol structure of mechanical barcode

The symbol composition of the mechanical barcode can design two or more symbols according to the actual situation. The mechanical barcode symbol is a vertical bar of concave-convex symbols imprinted on the nameplate by mechanical processing, which is different from the printed symbols of ordinary barcodes. The definition of symbols must be based on the premise of being easy to identify by the identification device. For example, the vertical bar or the Arabic numeral 1 symbol is used, which has the characteristics of simple production, fast printing speed, and high recognition accuracy.

3. Encoding of mechanical barcode

Any kind of barcode is composed of bars and spaces according to the pre-specified coding rules and relevant standards. The code sequence composed of numbers, letters, and numbers and letters compiled for the management object is called code. Mechanical bar code is a kind of information code arranged according to certain coding rules.

The coding method of the mechanical barcode refers to the logical setting of bar and space coding rules and binary signs in the mechanical barcode. There are two main encoding methods for one-dimensional mechanical barcodes: module assembly encoding method and width adjustment encoding method. The module assembly coding method means that in the barcode symbol, bars and spaces are combined by modules of standard width. The information of the mechanical barcode is realized by different combinations of different bars and empty modules. The width adjustment coding method is a method in which barcodes are formed by setting different bar space modules with different widths.

The length and encoding method of the mechanical barcode can be changed according to actual needs.

3.1 Size of mechanical barcode embossed symbol area

In Figure 4, the so-called empty is the minimum distance of the mechanical barcode: the distance between the smallest symbols that can be imprinted or recognized in the mechanical barcode, referred to as the minimum distance or the minimum resolution distance. Mechanical barcode safety distance: defined in mechanical barcode as twice the minimum distance of mechanical barcode, referred to as safety distance. Guarantee the mutual independence between areas, and prevent errors caused by mechanical positioning errors and recognition algorithm requirements. The width of the printed area of a single data character of a mechanical barcode is defined as 4 times the minimum distance and 2 times the safety distance. The printing area of the mechanical barcode start/stop character is defined as 8 times the minimum distance and 4 times the safety distance.

3.2 Encoding rules for mechanical barcode start/stop characters

The coding rule of start character/stop character of mechanical barcode defines the bar-space combination mode and symbol selection of start character and stop character. For example

The start character is defined as twice the length of a single data character area (defined as 8 times the minimum resolution distance or 4 times the safety distance), three characters are embossed in this area, and the positions of the two characters before and after the fixed area are There are two limit positions on the left and right, and the middle character position can have four embossing position options: Z=a:b=1:4; 2:3; 3:2; 4:1. Where a is the distance from the middle character to the extreme left character, shown in Figure 5a as the distance from the middle black vertical bar to the left black vertical bar, and b is the distance from the middle character to the extreme right character, shown in the figure as the middle black vertical bar to the right The distance of the black vertical bars.

Figure 5a-Figure 5d is a schematic diagram of different embossing distance ratios of mechanical barcode start/stop characters, wherein, Figure 5a shows the mechanical barcode start/stop coding rule Z=0.25; Figure 5b shows mechanical barcode start/stop Character coding rule Z=0.67; Figure 5c shows the coding rule Z=1.5 for the start/stop character of the mechanical barcode; Figure 5d shows the coding rule Z=4 for the start/stop character of the mechanical barcode.

The selection of the start character/stop character of the mechanical barcode can be combined according to the combination of the same ratio and the combination of different ratios, so that the selectable combination of the start character/stop character reaches 10 groups. For example: You can choose the start character of Z=1.5 and the end character of Z=1.5, or you can choose the start character of Z=0.5 and the end character of Z=1.5

3.3 Encoding rules for mechanical barcode data characters

The number of digits of mechanical barcode data symbols can be selected according to actual needs. However, it is restricted by actual conditions, such as the minimum resolution distance, the length of the imprinted carrier, and the accuracy of recognition. The coding rules can be compiled according to the sequential increment method and the maximum code distance method. The sequential increasing method is to compile according to the order of Arabic numerals from large to small, and the maximum code distance method is to ensure the maximum code distance between two adjacent mechanical barcodes.

3.4 Coding rules for mechanical barcode verifiers

In order to ensure the correctness of barcode recognition, the redundant bits introduced to identify the value represented by the data bit. The area width and character shape of the check digit are selected to be the same width and shape as the data digit to ensure the embossing speed and positioning accuracy. It is characterized in that the length of the information field and the check field can be selected arbitrarily.

The number of check digits is selected to reach 99.99% according to the recognition requirements, and CRC-4 is initially selected, and the production polynomial is: x ⁴ +x+1, referring to the standard ITU G.704.

The check digit is encoded by a polynomial, and a binary bit string can be represented by a univariate polynomial with coefficients 0 and 1. If there is a K-bit mechanical barcode data bit, which corresponds to the polynomial M(x), then the calculation method of its check digit is: use a previously agreed generator polynomial G(x) of degree r as the divisor, and divide the information in The polynomial corresponding to the new bit string formed by adding r 0s to the end of the bit string is used as the dividend, and the two are divided by modulo 2, and the r-bit remainder obtained at the end is the check digit, which is added to the original information bit After the end of the string, a mechanical barcode of k ten r digits is formed.

When verifying, use the same generator polynomial G(x) to remove directly. If it is completely removed, it means that the mechanical barcode is recognized correctly. Remove the tail r bits from the received binary sequence of k+r bits to obtain the required k bits. Data bit information; if it cannot be divisible, it means that there must be a recognition error that needs to be corrected accordingly.

3.5 Mechanical barcodes for human reading/input character encoding rules

The mechanical barcode for human reading/input characters is to prevent the mechanical barcode from being unrecognizable due to factors such as damage, and manually input characters to ensure the normal completion of mechanical barcode reading to the greatest extent. Its encoding rules are related to mechanical barcodes, and the corresponding methods of hexadecimal and binary can be selected according to the number of digits of mechanical barcodes. For example: if the mechanical barcode is 1011110010010011, the characters for human reading can be expressed as BC93.

Applications:

Assume that the information bit or data character of the mechanical barcode is: 1011001, and the generating polynomial is: g(x)=x ⁴ +x ³ +1, then the check character corresponding to this data character is: 1010.

The characters for human reading/input are: B34. as shown in picture 2.

4. Two-dimensional mechanical barcode nameplate

Two-dimensional mechanical barcode nameplates are divided into layered two-dimensional barcode nameplates and matrix two-dimensional mechanical barcode nameplates according to the realization principle of mechanical barcodes. The layered two-dimensional mechanical barcode is based on the one-dimensional mechanical barcode, and the one-dimensional mechanical barcode whose height is truncated by layering is stacked into two or more lines according to the needs to realize the representation of information. Inheriting the characteristics of one-dimensional mechanical barcodes in terms of coding design, verification principles, and reading methods, it is a multi-layer symbol.

Matrix two-dimensional mechanical barcode is in a rectangular space, adopts the encoding method of interrelated rows and columns, and can contain identification characters different from other unit composition rules. It is based on computer image processing technology and combined encoding principles. A mechanical barcode.

Matrix two-dimensional mechanical barcode encoding method: the first row and first column are the starting row and starting column of the two-dimensional mechanical barcode, and the starting row and starting column are distinguished by different adjustable distances. From the second column of the second row to the last column of the last row is the data symbol area. Except for the last line in the data symbol area, each line generates a mechanical barcode according to the encoding rules of the one-dimensional mechanical barcode. The encoding rules from the second column to the last column in the last row are calculated according to the parity check of each column of binary characters in the data symbol area. For example, in Fig. 3, the first row and the first column are the starting row and the starting column of the two-dimensional mechanical barcode, and the starting row and the starting column select the equidistant coding method. The second line of mechanical barcode generated is 10110011010; the third line is 01010011001; the fourth line is 10110101101; the fifth line is 11100011000. Then the determination of the second character of the sixth line is the binary 0 obtained by performing parity check on the binary 1 of the second line, the binary 0 of the third line, the binary 1 of the fourth line, and the binary 1 of the fifth line. In the same way, the corresponding column of the last row is obtained.

Method to realize:

Production of mechanical barcode nameplate

Mechanical barcode is currently the only barcode technology that is realized by mechanical processing technology. It can be directly processed at the place that needs to be marked by hand, or it can be produced by mechanical processing. It is recommended to use CNC nameplate printers (model: YP or YQ series). The above CNC nameplate printers have simple and reliable structure, high degree of automation, fast printing speed, and friendly control interface; the printing position of characters on the nameplate is controlled and determined, the positioning is accurate, and the characters are arranged neatly and for subsequent identification.

The mechanical barcode generated by the mechanical barcode coding system associates the generated mechanical barcode with the nameplate content and records it in the corresponding database. Make the generated mechanical barcode on the proper position of the nameplate or the back of the nameplate by machining. For example, using a CNC nameplate printer (model: YP or YQ series) can directly imprint this group of mechanical barcodes on the corresponding position during the embossing process of the nameplate content. At this point, the mechanical barcode nameplate is completed.

Generally speaking, the characters embossed by the CNC nameplate printer have problems such as positioning errors, random errors, and inconsistent distances between characters. Combining with the mechanical barcode reading network technology, it can achieve the anti-counterfeiting function of the mechanical barcode and effectively protect the interests of enterprises and users.

Compared with the existing bar code technology, the production of mechanical bar code nameplate is to use the method of mechanical processing to make the bar on the nameplate. This approach is currently unique. The encoding and decoding of mechanical barcode nameplates has strict and measurable recognition rate, error rate and rejection rate with the help of encoding technology. Different from the existing nameplates or signs, the symbols processed on the carrier are in the form of simple bars and spaces, and do not directly represent the information of the product itself.

The characteristics of enterprise nameplate information technology are analyzed, and the advantages of barcode technology are absorbed, and the mechanical barcode nameplate production technology realized by mechanical processing technology is invented. Using the method of product coding, give each product an independent code, and use optical character recognition technology for code recognition, so as to achieve product recognition and automatic entry. The technology has the characteristics of simple method, easy implementation, intuitive readability, high reliability, anti-counterfeiting and the like. Fast and accurate identification can be achieved without increasing the cost, with high reliability and a bit error rate of less than one millionth. Compared with other barcode automatic identification technologies, it has stronger adaptability and wider application fields, especially in industries with harsh storage environment, difficult inventory and high reliability requirements.

While the invention has been shown and described in what is presently considered to be its most practical and preferred implementation, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many modifications may be made within the scope of the invention, which scope is consistent with the appended claims broadest interpretation, thereby including all equivalent methods and products.

Claims (2)

1. A mechanical bar code nameplate is characterized by comprising a nameplate body, wherein blank areas are arranged on two sides of the nameplate body, at least one binary data area of a two-dimensional bar code is arranged between the blank areas, the binary data area consists of concave or convex vertical bars and spaces among the vertical bars, and the number of the spaces among the vertical bars is adjustable; the space is the distance between the smallest vertical bars which can be stamped or identified in the mechanical bar code; a character reading/inputting area is arranged below the binary data area, consists of at least one of concave or convex Arabic numerals or characters, and is a hexadecimal reading corresponding to the binary mechanical bar code; the binary data area of the two-dimensional bar code comprises two or more rows of mechanical bar codes, and each row of mechanical bar codes comprises a start symbol vertical bar, a data character vertical bar, a check symbol vertical bar and an end symbol vertical bar which are separated by a plurality of spaces and arranged in sequence; wherein,

the initial character vertical bar is the first one-bit or several-bit character vertical bar in the mechanical bar code and is used for identifying the beginning of one mechanical bar code;

the vertical bar of the data character is positioned behind the vertical bar of the initial symbol, and is an area for storing coding information by the mechanical bar code, and the digit of the data character in the vertical bar area of the data symbol is arbitrarily defined according to actual requirements;

the check symbol vertical bar is positioned at the rear few characters outside the data symbol vertical bar area, and the correctness of data character recognition is checked during recognition;

the terminator bar is the last or several-digit character bar of the mechanical bar code and is used to identify the end of a mechanical bar code.

2. A mechanical bar code nameplate is characterized by comprising a nameplate body, wherein blank areas are arranged on two sides of the nameplate body, at least one binary data area of a two-dimensional bar code is arranged between the blank areas, the binary data area consists of concave or convex vertical bars and spaces among the vertical bars, and the number of the spaces among the vertical bars is adjustable; the space is the distance between the smallest vertical bars which can be stamped or identified in the mechanical bar code; a character reading/inputting area is arranged below the binary data area, consists of at least one of concave or convex Arabic numerals or characters, and is a hexadecimal reading corresponding to the binary mechanical bar code; the binary data area of the two-dimensional bar code comprises a matrix type mechanical bar code consisting of a plurality of vertical bars and spaces among the vertical bars; wherein,

the first row and the first column are the initial row and the initial column of the mechanical bar code;

starting from the second line to the second last line, each line is provided with a plurality of spaced starting symbol vertical bars, data character vertical bars, check symbol vertical bars and termination symbol vertical bars which are sequentially arranged, wherein the starting symbol vertical bars are first one or more character vertical bars in the mechanical bar codes and are used for identifying the start of one mechanical bar code; the vertical bar of the data character is positioned behind the vertical bar of the initial symbol, and is an area for storing coding information by the mechanical bar code, and the digit of the data character in the vertical bar area of the data symbol is arbitrarily defined according to actual requirements; the check symbol vertical bar is positioned at the rear few characters outside the data symbol vertical bar area, and the correctness of data character recognition is checked during recognition; the terminator vertical bar is the last character vertical bar or a plurality of character vertical bars of the mechanical bar code and is used for identifying the end of one mechanical bar code;

and (4) performing parity check calculation on the binary characters of each column in the vertical bar area of the data character according to the encoding rule from the second column of the last row to the last column.

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