Patent ID: 8864033
Filing Date: 2014-10-21
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
1. A method for decoding digital data in a color barcode printed on a hardcopy document, wherein the color barcode has a plurality of data cells each having a color that encodes data, and a plurality of reference cells with known colors located along each side of a border of the color barcode, comprising the steps of: scanning the color barcode of the hardcopy document to obtain a color image; separating the color image of the color barcode into print primary color planes; computing spatial offsets among the print primary color planes using the reference cells on the border; projecting, for a first one of the print primary color planes, the data cells along a horizontal direction and a vertical direction to find peaks in each direction which represent data cell center locations respectively, and based on locations of the peaks, creating a grid where each of its intersection is a respective data cell center location; computing offset-compensated locations of grid intersections for each of the print primary color planes other than the first print primary color plane, by adding to the grid intersections the spatial offsets of the other print primary color plane relative to the first print primary color plane; assigning a color to each grid intersection which corresponds to a respective data cell by examining values of the first print primary color plane at such location and values of each of the other print primary color planes at the respective offset-compensated locations; and decoding digital data from the data cells based on the respective color assigned to each data cell.