JPH0378894A - Information transmitting method by dot copy - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To read out information in a short time by a reader with large information amount and information density in simple configuration by using a dot code, forming the information to be the dot code and recording it to a dot code surface with spread as a surface. CONSTITUTION:The information are recorded to a dot code surface 1, which can be recognized with the prescribed resolution of a solid-state image pickup element 7, by the dot code and for the dot code surface 1, the picture is recognized by the solid-state image pickup element 7. Then, the information are read out. Thus, since the information are formed to be the dot code and recorded to the dot code surface 1 with the spread as the surface by using the dot code, the information amount and information density are made larger in comparison with a bar code and the information can be easily recorded by using a dot printer, etc. Further, since the picture recognition is totally executed to this whole dot surface by the solid-state image pickup element 7 and the information are read out, the information can be read out in a short time by the reader in the sample configuration.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an information transmission method using a dot code.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, barcodes have been widely used in product management and the like. In other words, barcodes can be printed directly on product packaging, or stickers with barcodes printed on them can be pasted on products or their packaging, and then read with a barcode reader at the time of receiving, shipping, or selling products, allowing for product management and sales management. It is used for such things.

In addition, various magnetic cards provided with a magnetic recording section are widely used in various cards such as cash cards, prepaid cards, and commuter passes.

Furthermore, IC cards with large storage capacities are also being put into practical use.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, since the amount of information that can be recorded with barcodes is small, there is a problem that detailed product management cannot be performed, and furthermore, in addition to product management, information such as the various cards mentioned above cannot be recorded. It is difficult to expand the scope of application to areas where large amounts of data are used, and barcodes require special equipment to be drawn, making them difficult to use or change easily. there were.

Therefore, the present applicant first divided the rows of dots lined up in a direction perpendicular to the printing direction in a dot printer into a plurality of parts each including a plurality of rows and having an interval of one or more rows between them. At the same time, the row of dots in the printing direction is also divided in the same way, and each part divided into a matrix is treated as one dot forming part, and each dot forming part records one bit of information. We also proposed an information transmission method using this dot code.

By the way, when the information to be transmitted is converted into a dot code and printed out as a single dot code strip using a dot printer, if the amount of information is large, the dot code strip becomes quite long, and a reading device is needed to read it accurately in a short time. There is a problem in that the configuration becomes complicated, such as synchronizing the line sensor and the feeding mechanism.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an information transmission method using dot codes that can record large amounts of information and information density, and can be recorded and read easily and inexpensively.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the method for transmitting information using a dot code of the present invention transmits information using a dot code on a dot code surface that falls within an area that can be recognized with a predetermined resolution by a solid-state image sensor. The dot code surface is image-recognized using a solid-state image sensor and the information is read out.

On the dot code surface, a plurality of dot code strips in which dot forming portions are arranged in a matrix in an elongated rectangular area that can be printed by a dot printer may be arranged in parallel.

(Function) According to the present invention, a dot code is used and information is recorded as a dot code on the spread dot code surface, so the amount of information and information density are larger than that of a bar code, and the dot printer is Moreover, since the entire dot code surface is image-recognized at once using a solid-state image sensor and the information is read out, it can be read in a short time using a simply configured reading device. can.

Furthermore, by arranging multiple lines of dot code strips that can be printed with a dot printer in parallel on the dot code surface, recording can be done easily and inexpensively using a dot printer. Data processing also becomes easier.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a dot code surface, and six dot code strips 2 printed by a dot printer are arranged in parallel. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, this dot code surface 1 is applied to cards 5 such as hospital consultation tickets, packaging for other products, and tags and stickers attached to products.

Each dot code strip 2, as shown in FIG.
It is formed by printing with a 24-dot printer, and of the 24 lines of dots lined up perpendicular to the printing direction, the dots in the first and second lines are the dot forming parts, and the dots in the third line are the dots. The dot-forming parts are divided into eight rows in total, with the following two rows being each a dot-forming part and one row being spaced between the dot-forming parts. Similarly, in the printing direction, the first and second rows of dots are used as dot formation parts, the third row is used as the interval between the dot formation parts, and the following two rows are each used as dot formation parts, and the dot formation parts are One row of space is left between the parts. In this way, a large number of dot forming portions 3 are formed in a matrix shape within the dot code strip 2 with intervals 4 between them, as indicated by a frame in FIG. Here, if one character is expressed by eight dot forming parts 3, then 24 dots x 2
Information for 8 characters can be recorded in the space for 1 character of 4 dots.

Although Fig. 2 schematically shows the relationship between the dot position by the printer and each dot forming part 3 in the dot code, in the actual printing state, each dot has a large diameter, and the diagonally shaded area surrounded by a frame is considered as one block. The white dot positions are displayed as blanks.

The above image of the dot code surface 1 is as shown in FIG.
The dot code is projected all at once onto the solid-state image sensor 7 by the optical system 6, and the dot code is read. Therefore, the size of the dot code surface 1 is limited depending on the number of pixels of the solid-state image sensor 7 and the resolution required for reading. For example, as shown in Figure 4, 510 pixels in the horizontal direction and 49 pixels in the vertical direction.
When reading the dot code surface 1 with a resolution of 16 lines/ml, which corresponds to the resolution of a normal image league, using a general solid-state image sensor 7 in which 292 pixels CD8 are arranged, the horizontal direction is 31.8 mm, 3 vertically
Dot code planes 1 up to the size of 0III11 can be read at once. Therefore, since the width of the dot code strips 2 is usually 4IIIIIIl, six dot code strips 2 can be arranged with an interval of ll1llI+ between them. In that case, the total length of dot cord strip 2 is 190.81III1
1, and it is possible to record 2.41 bytes per 1 mm, it is possible to record and read approximately 460 bytes of information on the entire dot code surface 1. In FIG. 4, the signals for each pixel of each CCD 8 of the solid-state image sensor 7 are sequentially swept and outputted as a serial image signal via the shift register section 9.

Next, the configuration of a reading device for the dot code surface 1 using the solid-state image sensor 7 will be explained based on FIG. The timing signal generator 11 outputs a sweep timing signal based on the periodic signal from the periodic signal generator 10, and the sweep driver 12 is driven based on the timing signal, and an image signal is output from the solid-state image sensor 7 as described above. be done. The serial image signal output from the solid-state image sensor 7 is sent to the A/D converter 1.
3, the signal is subjected to binary processing and converted into a digital signal, and the serial/parallel shift register 14 converts the signal into a parallel signal, which is then written into the image memory 15. Image memory 1 at the time of this writing
The address control of No. 5 is performed via the address bus changeover switch 18 using address signals output from the horizontal sweep counter 16 and the vertical sweep counter 17 to which the timing signal is input. On the other hand, when reading image data from the image memory 15 and converting it into information, the data is read out based on successive addresses output from the CPU board 20 to the image memory 15 via the address bus changeover switch 18, It is output to the image decoding computer 21 via the CPU board 20, and this computer 2
1, the image data is converted into character information based on the image data.

A write signal for writing image data is input from the horizontal sweep address counter 16 to the image memory 15 via the read/write signal changeover switch 19, and a read signal for reading is input from the CPU board 20. from the image memory 1 via the read/write signal changeover switch 19.
5, and the read/write signal changeover switch 19 is switched by a read/write command from the CPU board 20.

Next, the operation of reading information recorded on the dot code surface 1 will be explained based on FIG.

First, in step #1, an image of the dot code surface 1 is captured by the solid-state image sensor 7, and the image data is stored in the image memory 15.
Next, the image data is sent to the image decoding computer 21, and in step #2, the image data corresponding to each dot code strip 2 on the dot code surface 1 is detected, and the data position in the image memory 15 is determined. The image of each dot code strip 2 can be properly read even if there is a positional deviation of the image when the dot code surface l is imaged by performing correction. Next, in step #3 and step #4, dot code strip 2 is read out one strip at a time.
The dot code strip 2 is copied into the memory of the computer 21, and the copied dot code strip 2 is further divided into bytes. Next, in steps #5 and #6, each divided byte is sequentially copied and converted into character information, until all bytes in the copied strip are converted into character information in step #7. 5. Repeat the operation in 6, and then repeat the operations in steps #3 to #6 until all dot code strips 2 on dot code side 1 are converted to character information in step #8, thereby recording on dot code side 1. information is read out.

In the above embodiment, an example is shown in which the dot printer has 24 dots, but the same can be applied to a 32 dot or 48 dot printer.

As described above, the present invention has a high amount of information that can be recorded and a high information density, and is compatible with personal computers.

It can be read in a short time using a simple reading device using a dot printer and a solid-state image sensor, and can be applied to various fields.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the information transmission method using dot codes of the present invention, dot codes are used and information is recorded as dot codes on the dot code surface which has a spread area.
The amount and density of information is larger than that of a barcode, and it can be easily recorded using a dot printer, etc. Moreover, the entire dot code surface can be image-recognized using a solid-state image sensor and the information can be read out. Therefore, it can be read in a short time using a reading device with a simple configuration.

Furthermore, by arranging multiple lines of dot code strips that can be printed with a dot printer in parallel on the dot code surface, recording can be done easily and inexpensively using a dot printer. It has great effects, such as simplifying data processing.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 6 show one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the state of reading the dot code surface, FIG. 3 is a plan view of a card having a dot code surface, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the structure of a solid-state image pickup device, FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a reading device for a dot code surface, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a reading operation.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Information is recorded using dot codes on a dot code surface that falls within an area that can be recognized with a predetermined resolution by a solid-state image sensor, and the information is read out by image recognition of the dot code surface using a solid-state image sensor. An information transmission method using dot codes, which is characterized by: (2) A claim characterized in that a dot code strip in which dot formation parts are arranged in a matrix in an elongated rectangular area that can be printed by a dot printer is arranged in multiple rows in parallel on the dot code surface. Information transmission method using the dot code described in Section 1.