Applications for Progressive Barcodes

Abstract. Color barcodes offer increased density overtwo-dimensional barcodes, which can be taken advantage of toembed longer data strings in the same printed/displayed area.However, the color channels also offer the possibility of containingmultiple, distinct sets of data in the same “hybrid” mark. Thefour-dimensional progressive barcode is a printed mark that doesnot change in size as it is used to represent different stages (or“states”) in a workflow. The addition of progressive information to abarcode allows it to change through time—supporting many differentinformation lifecycles. 1,2 This means that the use of the samebarcode location for multiple barcodes through time is possible.Progressive barcodes can be also used to support two (or more)applications or services in the same object. One of these can bestandards compliant and another can be proprietary or customized.Thus, a “hybrid” of two functions, represented by two planes ofinformation, is combined in a single mark. These two planes ofinformation include different densities of information. The first planeis binary, with high contrast between the two binary encoding(usually black and white) tiles in the barcode. The second is n-ary,and utilizes inks that are invisible to the binary barcode readingsoftware. This is accomplished with highly saturated colors, butit can also be used with IR, UV or other “invisible” inks. In thisarticle, the authors will demonstrate several types of applicationsand services that are enabled by the progressive barcode. Theyare most effectively deployed when there are multiple types ofinformation payloads needed for a single object—e.g., point-of-saleand customer interrogation of the product. This also makes themuseful in a variety of document/physical item workflows. then, two allowable next states arec 2014Society for Imaging Science and Technology.[DOI: 10.2352/J.ImagingSci.Technol.2014.58.4.040404]