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With an increase in equipment to generate digital
images such as PCs, digital cameras, and scanners and the progression of
network environments, high-volume electronic documents including images have
been distributed on networks and output as various printed materials. As
a method for easily connecting between the electronic world on network and
printed materials, e.g. a method for informing consumers of the URL of
a company’s
homepage, the barcode or 2D code is utilized.
However, existing barcodes or 2D codes have disadvantages such as space constraints and impairment of design of printed materials since those codes require space for their descriptions.
Accordingly, Fuji Xerox as an alternative to barcodes or 2D codes, has developed technology which can embed digital data without impairing image quality significantly by minutely varying the density of printed images. |
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A Example of System Configuration |
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This digital data embedding technology (MIG: Micro Gradation) has the following features:
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No special space for embedding data required
Since data is embedded into the photo (product, portrait) or image (logo, symbol) on the document, it is possible to use space effectively.
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Embedding of large-capacity information allowed
The developed technology allows embedding of information of 20-60 bytes per 1cm2. Information in a 13-digit barcode (JAN code) can be interpreted as 6 bytes. |
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Technology Overview
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Information embedding method (Fig. 1)
Information is embedded by using density gradient by block in a specified size according to RGB gray scale values and superimposing 0/1 information on this image according to the density gradient direction. |
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Fig. 1 Concept of Density Gradient of 0/1 Information
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High-quality picture technology (Fig. 2)
In density gradient patterns for embedding, the average gray scale value in each pattern is zero (0) and pattern-to-pattern polarity is opposite. In addition, the absolute value of the gray scale data in the central part of each pattern is large and the average value of the gray scale data attenuates as the region moves away from the central part in the perimeter direction. These features can minimize the original image quality degradation. |
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Fig. 2 Embedding Pattern
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GLOBAL | Overseas
