JPH081899Y2 - Optical reading medium - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial field of application) The present invention relates to an optical reading medium such as a sheet or a label provided with an optical reading display such as a bar code and OCR.
The present invention relates to an optical reading medium that is anti-counterfeiting processed.

(Prior Art) As an optical reading medium provided with an optical reading display such as a bar code or OCR, a sheet-shaped one or a tacked label is used.

Further, the label-shaped medium, in addition to those already printed with the optical reading display, is a label without the optical reading display printed in advance, when necessary, on the substrate,
Some media are used by recording barcodes and OCR numbers with a printer.

As a measure for preventing forgery of such an optical reading medium, for example, in the case of a label-like medium, if the label is peeled from the place where it is once applied, a notch is provided in the label so that it cannot be used again. Alternatively, it has been proposed to use a brittle material as the material of the label itself and devise such that the label is torn when peeled off.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, these media have a problem that effective preventive measures against a case where an optical reading display on the media is copied by a copying machine and is forged are not provided.

In view of the above circumstances, the present invention can easily discriminate between an original medium and a counterfeit medium even if a forgery is made using a copying machine, or it is impossible to read the recorded optical reading display. Or, it is to provide an optical reading medium which is extremely difficult.

[Constitution of device]

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the optical reading medium of the present invention is an optical reading medium having an optical reading display on the surface of a substrate, or an optical reading display on the surface of a substrate later. A medium for recording and using a print layer formed on at least a part of the surface of the substrate on which the optical reading display is provided by printing with a dropout color ink that is not sensed by the optical reading device. The printed layer is in contact with the first printed area formed of the first patterned halftone dots having a high proportion of the fine elements forming the halftone dots and the fine elements forming the halftone dots being in contact with each other. And a second printed area composed of second patterned halftone dots having a lower proportion than the first patterned halftone dots, and the first patterned halftone dots and the second patterned halftone dots. Is Halftone dot
Although the unit shapes were different, the total number of fine elements and the optical density were the same.

Further, in the above-mentioned configuration, the first print area and the second print area may be a print layer on which one is a background and the other is a pattern in which a character, a mark pattern or the like is formed. You may make it have a pressure sensitive adhesive layer on the other surface of the surface which formed the.

In the above-mentioned configuration, the state that "the fine elements that form the halftone dots are in contact with each other" does not necessarily have to be exactly stuck to each other, and indicates a state where there is almost no separation between the fine elements. Alternatively, the fine elements may be in non-contact as long as they are very close to each other.

The substrate is not limited to various papers, and may be a plastic film or a molded product, or may be a laminate of various materials. For example, a label provided with an adhesive layer on the back surface of a substrate is useful as a practical form of the optical reading medium of the present invention. In this case, as the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, various pressure-sensitive adhesives such as an acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive can be used depending on the application.

The ink used for forming the printing layer and the printing method are not limited as long as the proportion of the fine elements constituting the halftone dots contacting each other in the two printing areas can be reproduced. Use dropout color ink that is not detected by the optical reader so as not to interfere with the reading of the display part.

(Operation) In the optical reading medium of the present invention configured as described above, the number of fine elements forming the first patterned halftone dot in the first printing area and the second pattern in the second printing area are set. Since the number of fine elements forming the halftone dot is almost the same, the optical densities of the halftone dots in both printing areas are the same, and therefore the two printing layer areas, that is, the background, the characters, and the marks, are visible to the naked eye. , Cannot be distinguished from patterns.

What's more, both print areas use dropout color inks that optical readers do not detect,
In normal use, there is no problem in reading optical readings such as barcodes and OCR.

However, when this is copied by a copying machine, the halftone dots formed so that the fine elements forming the halftone dots contact each other at a high rate can be copied, whereas the fine elements forming the halftone dots contact each other. Copying is not possible with low-density halftone dots or it can be reproduced only in low density, so characters, marks, and patterns formed by the two areas of the printing layer appear in the duplicate, It can easily be identified as a counterfeit.

Further, if characters or the like are formed in advance so as to overlap with the optically read display, the characters or the like appear by copying, making it impossible to read the optically read display, so that unauthorized use can be restrained.

(Examples) The present invention will be described more specifically with reference to Examples.

FIG. 1 (a) is a plan view for explaining the structure of an optical reading label 1 which is an embodiment of the optical reading medium of the present invention, and FIG. 1 (b) is a sectional view of FIG. 1 (a). Is.

In FIG. 1, the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 3 is provided on the back surface of the base paper 2.
Is formed on the surface of the base paper 2, and in the second printing area 5 occupying most of the surface of the base paper 2, a printing layer made of a dropout color ink in which the first printing area 4 is formed in a character pattern. Is shown.

FIG. 2 shows the shape of one unit of the first patterned halftone dot used in the first print area 4 in this embodiment, and FIG. 3 shows the second unit used in the second print area 5 in this embodiment. 3 shows an example of the shape of one unit of the patterned halftone dots.

One unit of the first patterned halftone dot (FIG. 2) and one unit of the second patterned halftone dot (FIG. 3) are points arranged on a grid of 32 × 32 pixels. It is composed of 348 fine elements, and the proportion of the fine elements touching each other is higher in the halftone dots in FIG. 2 than in the halftone dots in FIG. Although the units have different shapes, the total number of microelements and the optical density are the same, and both form a pair.

Therefore, the naked eye cannot distinguish the character pattern formed by the first printed area from the background of the second printed area.

The first print area 4 may be a mark or a pattern in addition to the characters, and the halftone dots of the first print area 4 (text) and the halftone dots of the second print area 5 (background) are replaced with each other. May be.

In the above embodiment, the number of fine elements per unit is 348, but the number of fine elements is not limited to this, and the density (area ratio) of each printing area is the same as that of fine elements constituting each halftone dot. Since the number is determined by the number, the concentration is theoretically equal if the number is the same, but there is no practical problem even if the number of fine elements is slightly different.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a state in which a barcode-like optical reading display is output on the surface of the optical reading label produced as described above. Although the optical reading label is used in this state, the first area 4 and the second area 5 are indistinguishable to the naked eye, and the dropout color ink is used. The anti-counterfeiting measures adopted in Section 2 are not obstacles.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a state (counterfeit label) when the above optical reading label is copied by a copying machine. The halftone dots in the first area are reproduced with higher density than the halftone dots in the second area, and the hidden character pattern of the first area appears, and it can be identified at a glance that it is a counterfeit label.

Further, since the character pattern appears in duplicate in the optical reading display (bar code), the reading by the optical reading device becomes impossible, and the illegal use can be prevented.

[Effect of device]

Since the optical reading medium of the present invention is configured as described above, when a counterfeit medium is created by a copying machine, a character pattern or the like appears to easily identify the counterfeit product, and This has the dual effect of preventing the illegal use by making the optical reading display itself recorded in (1) unreadable and invalid.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 (a) is a plan view showing an embodiment of the optical reading medium of the present invention, FIG. 1 (b) is a sectional view of FIG. 1 (a), and FIG. 2 is a first printing. FIG. 3 is a pattern diagram for explaining the shape of a unit dot of the area, and FIG. 3 is a pattern diagram for explaining the shape of a unit dot of the second print area. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a state in which a bar code is output to an optical reading label, and FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a state (counterfeit product) when the optical reading label is copied by a copying machine. 1 ... Optical reading label 2 ... Base paper 3 ... Pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 4 ... First area of printing layer 4 '... First area that appears 5 ... Second area of printing layer 6 ... Output barcode

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Office reference number FI technical display location G06K 19/10 (56) References JP-A-53-142237 (JP, A) JP-A-61- 95993 (JP, A) JP 54-117653 (JP, A) Actual opening 57-144568 (JP, U) Actual opening 56-92262 (JP, U) Actual opening 59-99773 (JP, U) Actual development Sho 50-145235 (JP, U)

Claims (3)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A medium for optical reading having an optical reading display on the surface of a base material, or a medium for recording and using the optical reading display later on the surface of the base material, the optical reading display of the base material. On at least a part of the surface on which is provided a printing layer formed by printing with a dropout color ink which is not sensed by an optical reading device, the printing layer having a proportion of fine elements constituting halftone dots contacting each other. A first printed area (4) composed of high first patterned halftone dots and a second pattern in which the proportion of the fine elements constituting the halftone dots in contact with each other is lower than the first patterned halftone dots. A second printed area (5) composed of dot-like dots, and the first pattern-like dot and the second pattern-like dot differ in the shape of one unit of dot but are minute elements. Total number and optical density Optical reading medium, characterized in that the same. 2. The first printing area (4) and the second printing area (5) are characterized in that one is a background and the other is a printing layer on which a pattern of characters, marks, patterns, etc. is formed. The optical reading medium according to claim 1. 3. A pressure-sensitive adhesive layer (3) is provided on the other surface of the base material on which the printed layer is formed.
Alternatively, the optical reading medium according to claim 2.