Patent ID: 11948156
Assignee: NIKE, INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H  A | IPC A  G  H

Claim 6:
7. A method of providing a service related to an article of clothing, comprising:
providing a machine-readable identifier on an exterior surface of an article of clothing, the machine-readable identifier comprising a digitally printed image having a plurality of predefined discrete areas, and wherein the image includes a cipher at each of the plurality of predefined discrete areas, the cipher comprising at least one of a symbol, a color, or a geometric shape, and wherein the ciphers from the plurality of predefined discrete areas encode a plurality of bits of data;
receiving a scan of the machine-readable identifier from a user;
extracting the ciphers from the received scan, wherein the plurality of bits of data from the extracted ciphers uniquely identifies the article of clothing;
determining one or more attributes of the article of clothing from the plurality of bits of data;
displaying the one or more determined attributes to the user, wherein the one or more attributes includes at least one of: an authenticity, a manufacturing history, or an ownership history; and
wherein the article of clothing is an article of footwear comprising an upper and a sole structure;
wherein providing the machine-readable identifier on the article of clothing includes:
digitally printing the digitally printed image on the exterior surface of the upper of the article of footwear the digitally printed image comprising a unique graphical design; and
providing a unique magnetic signature within a foam of the sole structure;

wherein receiving the scan of the machine-readable identifier from the user includes:
receiving a first scan of the unique graphical design from the user; and
receiving a second scan of the unique magnetic signature from the user;

wherein extracting the cipher from the received scan includes:
extracting a first cipher from the first scan of the unique graphical design; and
extracting a second cipher from the second scan of the magnetic signature;

the method further comprising:
determining the authenticity of the article of footwear via the first cipher and the second cipher; and
returning an indication of the authenticity to the user.