Image barcodes

Niranjan Damera-Venkata; Jonathan Yen

doi:10.1117/12.479673

13 January 2003 Image barcodes

Proceedings Volume 5008, Color Imaging VIII: Processing, Hardcopy, and Applications; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.479673
Event: Electronic Imaging 2003, 2003, Santa Clara, CA, United States

Abstract

A Visually significant two-dimensional barcode (VSB) developed by Shaked et. al. is a method used to design an information carrying two-dimensional barcode, which has the appearance of a given graphical entity such as a company logo. The encoding and decoding of information using the VSB, uses a base image with very few graylevels (typically only two). This typically requires the image histogram to be bi-modal. For continuous-tone images such as digital photographs of individuals, the representation of tone or "shades of gray" is not only important to obtain a pleasing rendition of the face, but in most cases, the VSB renders these images unrecognizable due to its inability to represent true gray-tone variations. This paper extends the concept of a VSB to an image bar code (IBC). We enable the encoding and subsequent decoding of information embedded in the hardcopy version of continuous-tone base-images such as those acquired with a digital camera. The encoding-decoding process is modeled by robust data transmission through a noisy print-scan channel that is explicitly modeled. The IBC supports a high information capacity that differentiates it from common hardcopy watermarks. The reason for the improved image quality over the VSB is a joint encoding/halftoning strategy based on a modified version of block error diffusion. Encoder stability, image quality vs. information capacity tradeoffs and decoding issues with and without explicit knowledge of the base-image are discussed.

Citation Download Citation

Niranjan Damera-Venkata and Jonathan Yen "Image barcodes", Proc. SPIE 5008, Color Imaging VIII: Processing, Hardcopy, and Applications, (13 January 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.479673

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