Registers – Records
Patent
1994-10-28
1996-05-21
Hajec, Donald T.
Registers
Records
235462, G06K 1900, G06K 710
Patent
active
055192009
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to identification and information storage systems, and more particularly to bar code systems utilising a combination of optical, magnetic and magneto-optical methods of information storage.
2. Description of Prior Art and/or Background Information
It is now commonplace to use optically scanned bar codes to identify, articles upon which the bar code is printed, embossed, engraved or otherwise applied. In a typical application, such as the identification of products being sold in a supermarket, a plurality of bars having one of two possible widths are printed onto the merchandise according to a predetermined code in order to represent a combination of alphanumeric characters. An example of such a code is the USS Code 39 shown in FIG 1, where two alphanumeric characters are encoded using combinations of bars having one of two possible widths according to the binary representations indicated in the figure.
These bar codes are typically read by a laser scanning device, or light pen which passes over the bar code, the light reflected therefrom being detected by a sensor which converts the reflected light intensity pattern generated into a binary code.
It will be appreciated from the foregoing that in order to provide unique identification to more than several thousand articles, the number of bars, and the length of the bar code will have to increase. Thus, a fundamental problem with these bar codes is the limited quantity of information which may be stored in a given area. A further limitation is that they are generally printed permanently on the article and there is no possibility of conveniently updating the information carried thereon.
It is known in the field of disk drives and other magnetic recording media to use a magnetic layer on a substrate to record binary data patterns into the magnetic layer which may be read by a suitable means, and also, commonly may be written to to erase and/or update the information stored therein.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide an identification and information storage device which is optically readable and which is further capable of storing and/or reading substantial additional data using magneto-optic techniques.
According to the present invention there is provided an identification and information storage device For attachment to an article to be identified comprising a magneto-optical strip formed on a substrate and attached to the article, said magneto-optical strip adapted to store first information readable by the reflecting and modifying of the polarization state of a light beam directed thereon characterized in that the storage device includes an optically detectable pattern portion comprising an optical bar code for storing second information relating to the identification of the article, and in that the magneto-optical strip is positioned in a known location relative to the optical bar code such that on visual identification of the bar code the location of the magneto-optical strip can be determined, characterized in that the storage device includes an optically detectable pattern portion comprising an optical bar code for storing second information relating to the identification of the article, and in that the magneto-optical strip is positioned in a known location relative to the optical bar code such that on visual identification of the bar code the location of the magneto-optical strip can be determined.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
The present invention will now be described in detail by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 shows an example of a prior art bar code;
FIG. 2 shows a table indicating the encoding representations used in the prior art bar code of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 shows a cross-section of a magneto-optic material according to the present invention which also represents a section on line A--A in FIGS. 4 and 5;
FIG. 4 shows in plan view an optical bar code including the magneto-optic
REFERENCES:
patent: 4983817 (1991-01-01), Dolash et al.
patent: 5367148 (1994-11-01), Storch et al.
Hajec Donald T.
Keele University
Le Minh Thien
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