Printed matter – Method – Identifying
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-17
2001-12-04
Fridie, Jr., Willmon (Department: 3722)
Printed matter
Method
Identifying
C283S067000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06325420
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Print monitoring systems are commonly used to monitor printed matter in some types of paper/sheet handling systems and to make certain control decisions based upon the character of the printed matter. The following is a list of a few common applications:
1. Print quality monitoring: The monitoring system detects the precision with which the printing system has formed the printed matter and/or the consistency with which the matter is printed across the entire paper. For example, in a laser printing system, the monitoring systems detect low-toner situations where the contrast of the printed matter has degraded unacceptably.
2. Digit control: Overnight package delivery systems, for example, typically use preprinted multi-layered shipping receipts that are filled out by the customer; the customer keeps one receipt, the package recipient receives a receipt with the package, and then typically, a few receipts are retained for the carrier's records.
Such receipt systems are typically printed with a package tracking number that is represented as an alpha-numeric sequence on the customer's and recipient's copies and encoded in a universal product code (UPC) or bar code symbol on at least one of the carrier's receipts. The carrier's package tracking system is based upon the presumption that the package tracking numbers are the same for each layer of the receipt. In such situations, print monitoring systems ensure that the package tracking numbers of each layer match during assembly of the receipt.
3. Sequence control: When mailing personalized advertisement materials and in all cases when mailing bills, it is necessary to ensure that all pages of the mailing insert are combined into the proper envelope. This is especially important in the case of confidential information, such as credit card or phone bills. Even if sheet transfer and handling error rates are low, the risk that a wrong bill will be sent to a customer is unacceptable thus requiring checking each page and the envelope prior to insertion.
Historically, sequence control has involved closely monitoring the printers, feeders, cutters, folders/accumulators, inserters, and stackers for paper jams or other error conditions. With proper coordination, the right materials generated by the printers can be placed into the correct envelopes or accumulated into the proper packets or publications.
Especially in the case of mailing sensitive material, print monitoring systems have been developed more recently to confirm the printed material contents prior to placement in an envelope. To enable monitoring, sequence control information is commonly placed into the printed matter, or implicit in it. For example, checks have separate identification numbers, bills have the customer account numbers at a predetermined locations. The print monitoring system can detect these identifiers and use them as sequence control information to ensure that all pages of a given bill for a account number are placed in the proper envelope and addressed to the proper customer and avoiding the inclusion of any extraneous bill pages.
More recently, with the introduction of production speed, low cost laser printing machines, mailed marketing material, brochures, and other materials have been personalized for a specific recipient, even in high volume printing jobs. In these cases, sequence control issues are important, and in many cases can be similarly critical due to confidentiality concerns and embarrassment caused by unintended recipients. Unfortunately, in this environment, the inclusion of explicit sequence control information on the printed matter is many times unacceptable. Formal letters and brochures will typically not include machine readable information at predicable locations to enable the print monitoring system to ensure that proper sequencing is being maintained.
Attempts have been made at placing non-intrusive information into printed matter. Glyph codes are one example. Information is typically encoded into glyph codes by modulating the orientation of optically detectable symbols or glyphs. Using such techniques, large amounts of information can be encoded into printed images for copy control or copyright tracking, for example.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Generally, however, glyph codes are not appropriate for print monitoring. The symbols can be placed into images. Not all printed matter has pictures on every page, especially in marketing material and printed matter in mailings. Moreover, the pictures may not reside at the same location for different jobs. Therefore, generic image capture devices that monitor for the glyph-based symbols must process the entire area of the printed matter, increasing the expense in both the image capturing device and the processing capability required.
The present invention is directed to non-intrusive data encoding technique. The technique is non-intrusive in the sense that the printed symbol is detectable upon close inspection, but is not apparent to the intended reviewer of the printed matter. In other embodiments, however, the symbol is not only not apparent but actually invisible to unaided inspection. A further advantage is that the symbol can be localized in the document, limiting the size of the image capture device required for detection and the amount of data that must be handled by the compute resources. Moreover, the symbol can be located in substantially the same location even between different printing runs of different printed matter. This feature can lower or eliminate the time required to recalibrate the image capture device's position relative to the printed matter.
In general, according to one aspect, the invention concerns printed matter. This printed matter has printed informational content. This refers to the content of a given document which is relevant to the intended reviewer, e.g., the printed text of the letter or pictures. According to the invention, the printed matter also, however, comprises a print control symbol. This symbol is located at a predetermined position on the printed matter, which is separated from the printed informational content. The print control symbol is hidden such that it is not apparent to a reviewer of the printed matter and encodes information concerning the printed matter such as sequencing information, which is relevant to the printing system during printing and mailing, for example.
Since the print control symbol is separated from the printed informational content, the printed informational content can comprise text-only, for example. This distinguishes it from glyph-based encoding techniques.
In specific embodiments, the print control symbol comprises a series of bit characters. Preferably, they are organized into a two-dimensional matrix. The presence absence of bit characters in slots of this matrix encode binary data.
In order to minimize the visual impact of the print control symbol, the bit characters are as small as possible, i.e., formed from only a few pels of the printer, with imaging capability being the limitation on the minimum size of the characters. In one example, each character consists of one pel in a 300 dots per inch laser printer (DPI). In a 400 DPI printer, the characters consist of four pels in a 2×2 square matrix; and in a 600 DPI printer, the bit characters can include nine pels in a 3×3 square matrix. Another way, with current, commercially feasible imaging equipment, the minimum size of the characters is about 0.1 millimeters (mm), specifically, 0.0825 mm. The minimum spacing between characters is about 0.2-0.3 mm, specifically, 0.25 mm. The variation in relative spacing is about 15%.
In any case, to ensure that they are not apparent to the user, the characters should comprise less than nine adjacent pels of the printer. Further, in order to enable accurate decoding by the print monitoring system, the print control symbol preferably comprises data bit characters for encoding not only the print sequencing information, but also error correction bit information.
These po
Berquist Kenneth G.
Zhang Xintong
Fridie Jr. Willmon
Inspectron Corporation
Lahive & Cockfield LLP
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