JP2006338394A - Information code print sticker - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information code print sticker which does not obstruct visual recognition of printed matter on which letters and images are printed, even if the sticker is stuck on the printed matter. <P>SOLUTION: In the information code print sticker, graphic information which can be converted into character data such as letters and numbers is printed on a sheet. The sheet is made of a transparent synthetic resin film back of which a colorless adhesive layer is attached to. On the surface of the sheet, the graphic information is given in a transparent print layer. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information code printing sticker on which information recognizable by an optical reader is printed.

Conventionally, a barcode is known as print information that can be recognized by an optical reader. The barcode has a plurality of opaque black lines of different thickness arranged in a horizontal row, and binary (0 or 1) information is acquired by optically recognizing the arrangement pattern of the black lines. It can be converted into character information such as numerical values and letters. As a bar code display label on which the bar code is printed, a bar code is printed on the back surface of a transparent display film, and a heat-sensitive adhesive and a label mount are pasted on the print surface (Patent Literature). 1). In addition, electronic watermarks described in Patent Document 2 and Patent Document 3 are known as information encoding techniques.
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 2-27256 JP 2004-15396 A JP 2005-39603 A

  Although the above conventional barcode display label can be attached to a product or its package, the barcode itself printed on the barcode display label does not have light transmittance. For this reason, when the barcode display label is pasted on the product or the character drawn on the surface of the package, the appearance of the character is hindered. A JAN code or other general bar code is a figure represented on a two-dimensional plane that is long in the horizontal direction. If the end of the symbol printed in the longitudinal direction is missing, it is recognized as a code. It is something that cannot be done. Therefore, when forming a seal or the like on which a barcode is printed, a margin 102 is always required around the barcode 101 so that the cutout outline 100 of the seal does not cover the barcode printing portion as shown in FIG. In other words, the outer shape of the seal must be larger than the minimum outer shape necessary for displaying the barcode. In this case, since the sticker printed with the barcode including the margin 100 is an opaque body, the main surface such as a photograph for the purpose of displaying an image or a transparent product package for which the contents must be shown is used. It cannot be pasted.

  The present invention has been invented in view of the above problems. First, even if a character or image to be pasted is pasted from above a printed matter or the like, the visual recognition of the printed matter is hindered. The purpose is to provide no information code printed seal. Second, it is not necessary to provide a margin between the outer shape of the seal and the printed information code, and if the information code region has a minimum area, the information can be obtained regardless of the outer shape of the information code region. The object is to provide an information code printing sticker that can be recognized as a code.

In order to solve the above problems, the invention according to claim 1 of the present application has the following configuration. That is,
An information code printing sticker printed on a sheet of graphic information that can be converted into character data such as letters and numbers,
The sheet is formed of a transparent synthetic resin film provided with a colorless adhesive layer on the back surface,
An information code printing seal, wherein the graphic information is formed on a surface of the sheet by a transparent printing layer.

  The invention according to claim 2 of the present application has the following configuration. That is, the printed code is formed of an ink mainly composed of yellow color among process inks.

  Since the information code printing sticker according to the present invention is printed on the transparent sheet with graphic information that can be converted into character data such as letters and numbers, it is said that the sticking of the sticker does not prevent visual recognition of the object to be attached. Has an effect. The graphic information can include authentication information such as a web site URL and an ID or password for allowing access to the web site, but has a minimum display area proportional to the amount of information. If so, the character data can be acquired regardless of the outer shape of the graphic information. This means that there is no need to provide a margin around the graphic information, and the size of the half cut for cutting out the graphic information as a sticker should be set slightly smaller than the external shape of the graphic information at the time of printing. Therefore, there is an effect that the positioning accuracy between the graphic information and the cutting blade for half-cutting is not so much required, and the work on the manufacturing process is simplified. Further, as long as the graphic information has a minimum display area, the outer shape may be a heart shape, a circle, or a shape in which the center is cut out. It has the effect that it can be formed into various shapes according to the shape and design of the article to be. Furthermore, if the ink used for printing is a yellow transparent color, when an optical imaging means such as a CCD or CMOS sensor is used, it can be clearly recognized in image processing. It becomes difficult to be detected by human vision. Thus, even when the object to be pasted is viewed through the sheet on which the graphic information is printed, the object to be pasted can be viewed visually without any sense of incongruity, and the printed graphic information is displayed by the image processing apparatus. It has the effect that it can be recognized reliably.

  The information code printing sticker according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view of an information code printing sticker (hereinafter simply referred to as “seal”) 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. An information code A drawn as a complicated pattern (graphic information) is printed on the seal 1. Moreover, the seal | sticker 1 is a shape which has the rectangular-shaped outline (cutting line) 3, and the four corners are chamfered by the predetermined curvature. FIG. 2A is a plan view showing a part of the sheet 4 on which a plurality of information codes A each having a size of about 40 mm are printed. The sheet 4 is a sheet of a standard size such as A4 size or B4 size, and a rectangular information code A having a piece of about 40 mm is printed on the surface of the sheet 4 so as to be arranged at almost equal intervals. ing. As shown in FIG. 3, the sheet 4 has a release paper 5 in the lowermost layer, and a transparent resin sheet (film) 7 provided with an adhesive layer 6 on the back surface is laminated on the release paper 5. The resin sheet 7 is formed of a material such as PET, and the surface is finely roughened so that printing ink is easily attached and is not easily dropped. As an example of the rough surface processing, a kind of matting treatment called PP mat processing is performed on the surface of the film 7.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the transparent resin sheet 7 laminated on the release paper 5 is provided with a cutout portion (so-called “half cut”) that forms a contour line 3 having a depth from the surface to the adhesive layer 6. It has been. The cut-out portion forms the outline of the seal 1 and is provided at a position about 1 to 3 mm inside from the outer edge of the symbol constituting the information code A. Note that FIG. 3 shows an enlarged scale in the thickness direction for explanation, and the thickness of the sheet 4 according to the present embodiment is about 0.2 mm as a whole, and the thickness of the resin layer of the seal 1 Is approximately 0.025 mm, and the thickness of the seal 1 including the adhesive layer 6 is approximately 0.05 mm.

  Next, the ink used for printing will be described. In normal printing, a color layer is formed by an ink containing four color pigments called CMYK (cyan, yellow, magenta, black) generally called process ink (or set ink). Yes. The printing layer itself is almost transparent, and the target color is developed by printing on white paper. In the case of the seal 1 according to the present embodiment, the graphic information represented as the information code is printed with ink mainly composed of Y (yellow) ink. In the printing, depending on the color of the surface of the object to be attached, printing is performed with the maximum density, or the density is adjusted according to specifications such as about 75% or about 50% of the maximum density.

  As described above, it is assumed that general printing is performed based on an opaque white color. However, in the case of the seal 1 according to the present embodiment, a transparent film whose surface is subjected to PP matte processing is used. Printing is performed. As described above, when printing is performed on a transparent material with Y (yellow) ink, since the ink printing layer itself is also a transparent layer, a seal capable of transmitting an image as a whole of the seal 1 is formed. The In addition, although the adhesive layer 6 by the adhesive is provided on the back surface of the seal 1, since the adhesive layer 6 is also a relatively thin colorless layer, when the seal 1 is attached to an object to be pasted, It has the property of exhibiting transparency to such an extent that the pattern or the like on the surface of the object can be clearly recognized. With the above configuration, even if the sticker 1 is pasted on the surface of a photographic paper such as a photograph, the information code A represented as a transparent yellow pattern is displayed on the photographic paper without disturbing the visibility of the image represented on the photographic paper. You can see the image of

  The yellow color is difficult to visually recognize for humans and is inconspicuous, so it does not interfere with the visibility of a photographic image even if it is pasted on photographic paper. When an optical imaging means such as is used, it can be clearly recognized. Thus, the seal 1 according to the present embodiment has the property that an information code that can be clearly recognized by an optical imaging means can be mounted without hindering the visibility of an image on a photograph. Have. Note that due to the nature of yellow ink, when the sticker 1 is affixed on a dark color image or the like, the brightness and darkness of the yellow ink is not clear and tends to be difficult to recognize. Therefore, when it is clear that the color tone of the part to be pasted, which is the background color, is dark in this way, the density of the Y ink is increased corresponding to the color tone, and on the contrary, it is clear that the color tone is light. Therefore, by adjusting the Y ink density so as to correspond to the color tone, it is possible to provide an information code printing seal that does not obstruct the visual recognition of the background image more than necessary.

  Next, the information code printed on the sticker 1 will be described. The information code used in the present embodiment is, for example, graphic information (information code) similar to that referred to as “electronic watermark” disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-15396 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-39603. Is adopted. The information stored as the information code is authentication information such as a URL of a web site connected via a camera-equipped mobile phone, an ID or a password for allowing access to the web site. The information code used in the present embodiment is represented by an image size of 350 dpi (approximately 4 cm × 4 cm square). However, the “electronic watermark” disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-15396 has a characteristic that an image does not necessarily have an initial appearance. That is, if the outer shape of the information code represented as an image is about 4 cm × 4 cm square, even if the outer edge of the information code is cut out or the inside is cut out, the area ratio is 50%. If the above can be secured, information such as the URL and authentication information can be held.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a usage example of the seal 1. FIG. 4A shows the above-described sticker 1. The sticker 1 is formed in a rectangular shape having a size of about 4 cm × 4 cm, and includes a URL of a web site connected via a mobile phone with a camera. The authentication information such as an ID or a password for permitting access to the web site is printed as a pattern (graphic information). For example, as shown in FIGS. 4B and 4C, the sticker 1 can be attached to the surface of the photograph B printed on the photographic paper. When the sticker 1 is attached to the photographic paper, Visually, it is possible to obtain a state in which a transparent light yellow pattern and an image on photographic paper are combined. With this configuration, the image on the photographic paper can be visually recognized, the composite image is taken with a camera-equipped mobile phone, etc., and the graphic information is analyzed with a dedicated image processing application program to obtain predetermined information. Can do.

  As described above, the seal 1 can obtain predetermined information in a state of being attached to a photograph or the like, but as shown in FIGS. 4 (d) and 4 (e), the central portion of the seal 1 can be obtained. Even after C is cut out in an arbitrary shape, if the area of the remaining region is 50% or more of the initial area, theoretically identifiable information can be held. Therefore, as shown in the example of FIG. 4D, even if the seal 1 is cut out in any shape along the outline of the face portion so that only the face of the person appears, the pattern shown in the remaining region portion The predetermined information can be obtained. Further, as shown in FIG. 4 (e), even if the character D is written on the seal 1 with a dark pen or the like, if the character and the area reduced by the clipping are 50% or more of the original area ratio, Information that can be identified can be held.

  For the information code in the present embodiment, a Fourier transform method, which is a kind of frequency transform method, is used. The Fourier transform is based on the idea that “all signals can be expressed as the sum of trigonometric functions (sine waves)”. Each sine wave has a specific frequency, and it is possible to examine how many frequency components are included in the signal by Fourier analysis. In addition, if the frequency component extracted by Fourier transform is re-synthesized (inverse Fourier transform), the original signal can be restored. An extension of the one-dimensional Fourier transform to two dimensions is called a two-dimensional Fourier transform, and the two-dimensional Fourier transform can be obtained by performing the one-dimensional Fourier transform in the vertical and horizontal directions. Since the image is represented in two dimensions, two-dimensional conversion is required. The information code in the present embodiment uses the characteristics of the two-dimensional Fourier transform. As for the information code in this embodiment, there is a reference description in “Basics of Digital Watermarking – New Protection Technology in the Multimedia Age” (by Kokoo Matsui, Morikita Publishing Company). For Fourier transformation, http: / /e-vod.cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp/it-univ/study/2003/06itoh-r/2.htm For 2D discrete Fourier transform http: //e-vod.cs.shinshu- There is an explanation in u.ac.jp/it-univ/study/2003/07itoh-t/1.html.

It is a top view of the information code printing sticker simple substance concerning the present invention. It is a top view of the sheet | seat which forms the information code printing seal | sticker which concerns on this invention. It is sectional drawing of the information code printing seal | sticker which concerns on this invention. It is explanatory drawing of the usage example of the information code printing sticker which concerns on this invention. It is a top view of the sheet | seat at the time of printing the conventional barcode.

Explanation of symbols

1 Information code printing sticker (seal)
3 Outline (Cut line)
4 Sheet 5 Release paper 6 Adhesive layer 7 Transparent resin sheet (film)

Claims (2)

An information code printing sticker printed on a sheet of graphic information that can be converted into character data such as letters and numbers,
The sheet is formed of a transparent synthetic resin film provided with a colorless adhesive layer on the back surface,
An information code printing seal, wherein the graphic information is formed on a surface of the sheet by a transparent printing layer. 2. The information code printing seal according to claim 1, wherein the printing layer is formed of an ink mainly composed of yellow among process inks.