Effect of copying and restoration on color barcode payload density

Abstract

2D barcodes are taking on increasing significance as the ubiquity of high-resolution cameras, combined with the availability of variable data printing, drives increasing amounts of "click and connect" applications. Barcodes therefore serve as an increasingly significant connection between physical and electronic portions, or versions, of documents. The use of color provides many additional advantages, including increased payload density and security. In this paper, we consider four factors affecting the readable payload in a color barcode: (1) number of print-scan (PS), or copy, cycles, (2) image restoration to offset PS-induced degradation, (3) the authentication algorithm used, and (4) the use of spectral pre-compensation (SPC) to optimize the color settings for the color barcodes. The PS cycle was shown to consistently reduce payload density by approximately 55% under all tested conditions. SPC nearly doubled the payload density, and selecting the better authentication algorithm increased payload density by roughly 50% in the mean. Restoration, however, was found to increase payload density less substantially (~30%), and only when combined with the optimized settings for SPC. These results are also discussed in light of optimizing payload density for the generation of document security deterrents.

An imaging system for simultaneous inspection, authentication and forensics

“…Next, all segmented and model fitted deterrents were analyzed using a custom, hue-based authentication algorithm [1]. Essentially the 8 non-payload indicia tiles (red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and 2 black tiles at 2 corners of the deterrent) are used for orientation and to allow the classification of each payload tile on the basis of average hue.…”

“…Essentially the 8 non-payload indicia tiles (red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and 2 black tiles at 2 corners of the deterrent) are used for orientation and to allow the classification of each payload tile on the basis of average hue. No spectral precompensation (modification of the hue of the printed tiles in order to improve classification accuracy on a specific capture device, as discussed in [1]) was used since we did not want to bias the authentication to the color capabilities of one imager versus the other. Images of the exact same printed deterrent captured with the Dr. CID device and SJ8200 are presented in Fig.…”

“…Examples of these deterrents are bar codes, digital watermarks and guilloche patterns. In this paper, we deploy a previously-described 3D (2D with color) bar code [1].…”

Design of high capacity 3D print codes with visual cues aiming for robustness to the PS channel and external distortions

“…We designed visual cues to be distributed around the external part of the barcode boundary and also to serve as non-payload indicia (NPI) [16] to improve classification. The proposed distribution is illustrated at Figure 10.…”

Per-Colorant-Channel Color Barcodes for Mobile Applications: An Interference Cancellation Framework

“…The strategies that the proposed color barcode designs adopt for handling the print and capture variations in color also make them sensitive to lighting variations and to interseparation misregistration which can change the color of small shapes and impact the performance of the color barcodes [19]. Finally, variations across printers and cameras can also pose a challenge for these existing methods causing compromises in performance/robustness [20]- [22].…”