MULTI-COLORED TAGGANT ELEMENTS

Abstract: The disclosure provides a method for identifying an object, for example, a flowable material or an individual object. The object is marked using an assortment of colored elements wherein each colored element represents a specific position in a binary number. A series of colored elements is combined to represent a binary number. The series of colored elements is then used to mark the object. For example, the series of colored elements can be incorporated into a flowable material or adhered to an individual object to be identified. Each colored element can include a single color, or a plurality of colors. Preferably, each colored element comprises at least two distinguishable colors. More preferably, each colored element comprises no more than two distinguishable colors.

Description: MULTI-COLORED TAGGANT ELEMENTS Field of the invention This invention relates to a system for identifying an object. This application claims priority to United States Provisional Application Serial No. 60/110,889, filed December 4,1998, entitled MULTI-COLORED TAGGANT ELEMENTS, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety. Background Manufacturers of materials which are shipped in bulk and are easily confused, such as chemicals, paints, oils, plastics, pigments, clays, fertilizers and explosives, have desired methods for identifying samples of their product, for example, to determine its corresponding shipment or manufacturing lot number, or to determine its particular date and method of manufacture, packing, shipment, etc. A variety of methods are available for marking bulk materials. For example, U.S. Patent No. 1,787,995 describes a method for identifying lubricating oil by adding small markers such as letters, initials or arbitrary symbols of about the same specific gravity as the lubricating oil to the oil. U.S. Patent No. 4,053,433 describes a method of marking a substance with microparticles which are encoded with an orderly sequence of visually distinguishable colored segments that can be detected with a microscope or other magnifying device. Microtrace, a Minnesota company, uses colored plastic elements to mark materials such as explosives and consumer objects. The basis of their coding system is the layering of colors in those elements, where the order of the different colors creates a number using the color code scheme used on common electrical resistors. Summary The disclosure provides a system for identifying an object. The object can be a flowable material, including bulk material (e.g., fertilizer, chemicals, paints, oils, plastics, pigments, clays, fertilizers and explosives) and/or prepackaged materials (e.g., shampoo, conditioner, lotion, motor oils, pharmaceuticals) or the object can be an individual product unit, for example a stereo, camera, computer, NCR, furniture, motorized vehicle such as a car, livestock, etc... According to the method, an assortment of colored elements is manufactured. A coding system is then used, wherein each colored element represents a specific position in a binary number, such that a series of colored elements can be combined to represent a binary number. An object can then be marked with the series of colored elements. Generally, to mark flowable material (including liquid and/or particulate material), the series of colored elements are admixed with the flowable material. To mark an individual object, the series of colored elements are typically adhered to the object. Each colored element can include a single color, or a plurality of colors. Preferably, each colored element comprises at least two distinguishable colors. More preferably, each colored element comprises no more than two distinguishable colors. Methods are known for manufacturing colored elements, for example as disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 4.053,433. Another method for manufacturing colored elements includes applying a colored resin, such as Resimene® 735, to a hard, smooth substrate, such as glass. The colored resin is typically applied as a liquid, for example, by spraying the liquid resin onto the substrate or by applying the liquid resin to the substrate and spreading it out to a desired thickness using a draw-down bar. After the first coating has dried, a second coating is applied over the first coating using a resin of a second color. After the second coating is dried, the resin is cured. Typically, the coated substrate is heated to approximately 350°F for about 30 minutes to cure the resin. After the substrate and resin are cooled, the coating can be scraped from the resin, for example, using a razor blade. The colored elements may then be ground and seived to collected the desired sized particles. The size of the colored elements can vary, depending on the object being identified. In some instances it might make sense to identify an object, for example particulate material such as fertilizer or liquid material such as shampoo, with colored elements that are about 10 microns to about 500 microns at their average cross section dimension. In contrast, it might make sense to identify a large object, such as an automobile, using colored elements that are about 0.5 millimeter to about 1 millimeter at their average cross section dimension. For other uses, elements that are greater than 1 millimeter at their average cross section dimension might be suitable, for example, to mark large particulate matter such as mulch. For many applications, colored elements that are small enough to pass through a 50-100 mesh screen are suitable. Typically, the colored elements are about 10 microns to about 500 microns at their average cross section dimension, more typically about 50 microns to about 500 microns, most typically about 50 microns to about 100 micrometers. The concentration of colored elements used to identify an object can also vary. For example, when the colored elements are used to identify a flowable material, the colored elements might be incorporated into the material at a concentration of 0.0001 to 1 part by weight for every 100 parts by weight material. If the colored elements are used to identify an individual object, the colored elements may be combined with an adhesive at a concentration of 0.0001 to 1 part by weight for every 100 parts by weight adhesive and applied to the individual object for identification purposes. Preferably, the adhesive is transparent, such that the colored elements are readily visible. Examples of suitable adhesives include lacquers and enamels, such as arylic, alkyds, etc. The invention possesses other objects and features of advantage, some of which, with the foregoing, will be apparent from the following description. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described herein since it may be embodied in various forms within the scope of the appended claims. Brief Description of the Figures Figure 1 is a diagram of a color wheel. Figure 2 is a diagram of a color wheel in which secondary colors are indicated as "glitter orange", "glitter purple" and "glitter green." Detailed Description I. Overview The disclosure provides a system for marking an object, for example, to indicate ownership, source or origin. The method involves the use of an assortment of colored elements that are used as a part of a coding system wherein each colored element represents a specific position in a number. A series of colored elements can be combined to represent a number and used to mark an object. While the disclosure emphasizes the use of a binary numeric system, it is noted that the invention can also be used with other numeric systems. II. Basic Concepts behind the Binary System To facilitate an understanding of the method, a brief discussion of a numeric system will first be provided. In the decimal system, numbers are organized into positions. For example, a "hundreds" position, a "tens" position, and a "ones" position such that the number "193" is 1 -hundreds plus 9-tens plus 3-ones. According to this system, the "ones" position means 10°, the tens position means 10 1 , and the hundreds position means 10 . The decimal system uses the digits 0-9 to represent numbers. To represent a larger number, such as the number twelve, multiple positions are used. The binary system works under the same principles as the decimal system, only it operates in base 2 rather than base 10. In other words, instead of the positions being 10 2 , 10 1 , and 10°, they are 2 2 , 2 1 , and 2°. Instead of using the digits 0-9, only the digits 0 and 1 are used. A number larger than 1 , for example the number 3, is represented using multiple positions. The number 3 is represented by the number "1 1 " in binary (1 x2 ] ) + (1 x2°). III. Coding System A. Generally The coding system involves an assortment of colored elements in which each colored element represents a specific position in a binary number, such that a series of colored elements can be combined to represent a number. In a binary system, for example, the standard is established such that when a element is present in a mixture, the position represented by that element in a number contains the value "1". If a element is not present in a mixture, the numeric position represented by the element contains the value "0". Alternately, in a numeric system established for base 3, a standard may be established where the absence of an element is represented by the value "0" at that position, the presence of a specific form of the element (designated, for example, by color, presence or absence of a visual enhancer, shape or number of layers) is represented by the value " 1 " at that position, and a different form of the element is represented by the value "2" at that position, and so on. Each colored element can include a single color, or a plurality of colors. Preferably, each colored element comprises at least two distinguishable colors. More preferably, each colored element comprises no more than two distinguishable colors. If single colored elements are made using eight different colors, 28 or 256 binary numbers can be created. If the same eight colors are used to make dual colored elements (i.e., elements having two colors each), 28 unique dual colored elements can be created (See Table 1, below). The 28 unique colored elements can be used to formulate 2 , or 268 million binary numbers. Table 1. The number of colored elements possible, X, is characterized by the equation: X=l+2+3...+N Where X = the number of colored elements possible N = K-l K = the number of colors For example, if six colors are used, 1+2+3+4+5= 1 5 paired color colored elements can be made which can formulate 2 15 , or 32,768 binary numbers. If four colors are used, for example, blue, red, yellow and black, permutations of the four colors can create six distinctive colored elements: blue/red, blue/yellow, blue/black, red/yellow, red/black and yellow/black. According to the system of the invention, each of the colored elements (in this example, six dual colored elements) is assigned to represent a specific position in a binary number. A representative system is shown in Table 2 below. The standard is established in Table 2 that position #1 represents 2°, position #2 represents 2 1 , position #3 represents 2 2 , and so on. Table 2. Colored Binary Element Position blue/red position #1 blue/yellow position #2 blue/black position #3 red/yellow position #4 red/black position #5 yellow/black position #6 If, for example, three different codes are needed to mark three objects, the binary numbers 10100, 111100 and 101000 may be the binary numbers assigned to each of the items. Using the representative system shown in Table 2, above, the element representation of the first binary number, 10100 is formulated using the elements that represent the fifth and third binary positions (i.e., red/black and blue/black). An appropriate quantity of each of the red/black elements and the blue/black elements is thus combined. To formulate the element representation of the binary number 111100, the elements representing the sixth, fifth, fourth, and third binary numeric positions are combined. For the binary number 101000, the elements representing the sixth and fourth binary positions are combined. Once the object is marked, identification of the object can be made by examining the series of colored elements. B. Advantages Advantageously, quantitative information about the elements is not needed to identify the object. The presence or absence of specific colored elements need only be detected. Thus, the method is less vulnerable to problems caused by dilution and/or contamination of the material. Additionally, the method allows for the formulation of a large set of unique colored elements, particularly colored elements that are each made up of more than one color (e.g., "multi-colored" elements). Multi-color elements require fewer colors to provide a larger number of distinctive colored elements. Multi- colored elements can be advantageous in that finding, for example, 28 distinctive colors may be difficult because of the limited number of colors to chose from. For example, rather than using permutations of eight colors to form 28 unique tags (as described above), 28 different colors would have to be used. To acquire 28 different colors, one might consider using gold, bronze, and copper. However, these colors may be difficult to differentiate from one another, particularly when admixed with other materials. Because gold, bronze and copper colors are not very distinctive from one another, use of these three colors in a system could result in errors in product identification. Thus, only one color from this group, such as gold, may be a practical choice. In general, elements having two colored layers are preferred. Dual colored elements provide a great diversity of combinations while reducing the impact of byproducts. For example, during manufacturing, shipping, handling or other processing, dual colored elements may fracture to form single color byproducts. Because the relative size of the single colored byproduct is about 50% of the overall thickness of a dual colored element, the single colored product is easily removed from the colored elements during a screening phase of production. Additionally, single colored byproduct remaining during product identification is not easily confused with a dual colored element. Thus, if a single color element, such as a solely green element, is visible in a marked material, it can be discounted; and only paired colors, such as green/silver and green/yellow are considered as valid. In contrast, a 5 layered element can fracture to form 4, 3, 2 and 1 layered byproducts. However, 4 and 3 layered byproducts may be too close in size to the 5 layered elements to be effectively removed during the screening process (for example, a 4 layered byproduct is about 80% of the thickness of a 5 layered colored element). Additionally, identifying 5 layered elements among 4 layered byproduct elements may make product identification more difficult. Additionally, the likelihood of having a 3 layered byproduct reduces effective use of 3 layered elements in combination with 5 layered elements. Additionally, when elements are used having more than two color layers, an indicator may be necessary to denote which side of the element represents the highest or lowest value numeric position. IN. Method for Marking an Object According to the invention, a specific series of colored elements is used to mark an object. As used herein, the term "object" includes both solid and flowable materials. As used herein the term "flowable" refers to any material or substance that changes shape or direction uniformly in response to an external force imposed on it. The term applies to both liquids (such as oils and shampoos) and particulate matter (such as fertilizer, sand and clays). It should be noted that liquids can vary greatly in viscosity and may contain suspended particulate matter. Particulate matter can vary greatly in size and includes within it scope fine particles with an average diameter of less than about 5 mm, and large particles with an average diameter greater than about 5 mm. Examples of flowable materials include, but are not limited to, petroleum products; personal care products such as shampoo, conditioner, lotion, cologne and perfume; pharmaceuticals, etc. The series of colored elements can be combined with a flowable material, (prepackaged or bulk) or adhered to an individual object for identification. When the colored elements may incorporated into the material at a concentration of 0.0001 to 1 part by weight for every 100 parts by weight material. If the colored elements used to mark an individual product unit, the colored elements can be combined with an adhesive, preferably a transparent adhesive. Adhesives are known and include lacquers and enamels such as acrylics and alkyds. The resulting element/adhesive mixture can then be applied to the surface of an individual object for identification purposes. It should be noted that some flowable products, such as shampoos, conditioners, and lotions are often packaged. In the case of a prepackaged material, the colored elements can be combined with the packaged material, or adhered to the container or bottle, label, lid or any other packaging or shipping container. V. Method for Detecting and Deciphering the Colored Elements The marked object can be subsequently identified to determine the presence or absence of colored elements. If the elements are visible to the naked eye, the examination may be performed without additional equipment. For elements that are not easily visualized by the naked eye, equipment such as a light microscope or a magnifying glass may be used. Typically, the colored elements can be examined using a common 50 power inspection microscope. The presence or absence of specific colored elements is detected and recorded and a standard, such as that shown in Table 2, is consulted to determine which position in a binary number the elements represent. After determining which elements represent which binary numeric positions, the specific binary number can be determined. The detection and analysis can be performed manually by an individual. Alternately, it is foreseen that the system can be automated such that the detection and analysis is performed by a computer. If desired, the colored elements can be separated from the object before examination. For example, a premium grade personal care product, such as a shampoo, conditioner, or lotion, marked with a series of colored elements can be filtered to remove the elements. The elements can then be washed dried and viewed under a microscope. Personal care products are often marked for the purpose of identifying diverters of the distribution chain. Using shampoo as an example, the colored elements may be applied to the product itself, the bottle, the label, the cap, or other packaging or shipping containers. VI. Colored Elements Methods are known for manufacturing colored elements, for example as disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 4.053,433. Another method for manufacturing colored elements includes applying a colored resin, such as Resimene® 735, to a hard, smooth substrate, such as glass. The colored resin is typically applied as a liquid, for example, by spraying the liquid resin onto the substrate or by applying the liquid resin to the substrate and spreading it out to a desired thickness using a drawdown bar. After the first coating has dried, a second coating is applied over the first coating using a resin of a second color. After the second coating is dried, the resin is cured. Typically, the coated substrate is heated to approximately 350°F for about 30 minutes to cure the resin. After the substrate and resin are cooled, the coating can be scraped from the resin, for example, using a razor blade. The colored elements may then be ground and seived to collected the desired sized particles. Once a multi-layered film is formed, the film can be broken to form colored elements. For example, the film can be crushed by the application of pressure to form small irregularly shaped and sized particles, or the film can be cut to form particles having a specific size and/or shape. The size of the colored elements can vary, depending on the object being marked. For example, in some instances it might make sense to mark an object, for example particulate material such as fertilizer or liquid material such as shampoo, with colored elements that are about 10 microns to about 500 microns at their average cross section dimension. In contrast, it might make sense to identify a large object, such as an automobile, using colored elements that are about 0.5 millimeters to about 1 millimeter at their average cross section dimension. For other uses, elements that are greater than 1 millimeter at their average cross section dimension might be suitable, for example, to mark large particulate matter such as mulch. Typically, the colored elements are small enough to pass through a 50-100 mesh screen. Typically, the colored elements are about 10 microns to about 500 microns at their average cross section dimension, more typically about 50 micrometers to about 500 microns, most typically about 50 microns to about 100 microns. If desired, the elements can be manufactured with a specific shape to further assist in identifying the object. For example, the elements can be formulated as letters, stars, circles, triangles or any desired shape. Elements having distinct shapes can be used to denote a specific value to the colored element, for example, if a numeric system other than a binary system is used. For example, a square blue/green colored element may represent the value "1", whereas a triangular blue/green colored element may represent the value "2". The colored elements can be prepared by the end user, or the colored elements can be "pre-manufactured", placed in appropriate storage containers and supplied to an end user as a kit. In some embodiments, the kit could include a code identifying the position (and value, if applicable) in a number represented by each of the colored elements. The kit may even contain an adhesive for applying the colored elements to an object. VIII. Visual Enhancers If desired, the elements may also include a visual enhancers. Visual enhancers include, for example, pearlescent colorant, metal flake pigments, or glass microspheres, glitter etc. Visual enhancers provide the elements with a higher localized reflectance and a more characteristic appearance. Thus, the colored layers of the elements are more easily distinguished from each other, the substrate, and/or the marked material. For example, if green elements are used on a green substrate, visual identification could be difficult because the green elements might be "camouflaged" by the green background. A visual enhancer may also be added to denote a numeric value to the colored element. For example, a standard could be established that the absence of a colored chip denotes the value "0" for a specified position, the presence of a colored chip without enhancer denotes the value " 1 " for the same position, and the presence of a colored chip with a visual enhancer denotes the value "2" for the position. The addition of visual enhancers can also be used to further differentiate color layers of the elements from one another. For example, primary colors (i.e., red, yellow and blue) are easy to distinguish from one another. However, it may be more difficult to distinguish primary colors from secondary colors (i.e., orange, green, and purple). Thus, if primary colors are used in combination with secondary colors, the thin colored layers of the colored elements may be less distinctive. Primary and secondary colors are generally less distinctive because secondary colors are made by combining two primary colors. That is, orange is made by mixing red and yellow, green by mixing blue and yellow, and purple by mixing red and blue. Depending on the ratio of the primary colors used to make the secondary colors, the secondary colors may be confused with the primary colors. For example, if a dark orange is used, it may be confused with red. On the other hand, a light orange might be confused with yellow. Likewise, dark green may be confused with blue; light green with yellow; and purple with red or blue. Figure 1 shows a color wheel to assist in visualizing which primary colors are combined to obtain which secondary colors. To reduce the possibility of confusion, a visual enhancer can be added to either all of the primary colors or to all of the secondary colors. Thus, the colors become distinctive as either primary colors or as secondary colors. For example, the secondary colors may include a glitter visual enhancer so that glitter-orange is less likely to be confused with (non-glitter) red or (non-glitter) yellow. See, for example, Figure 2. The above specification provides a description for the manufacture and use of the system of the invention. Since many embodiments of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, the invention resides in the claims hereinafter appended.

Claims: WHAT IS CLAIMED IS: 1. A method for identifying an object, said method comprising: (a) providing an assortment of colored elements; (b) creating a standard wherein each colored element represents a specific position in a numbering system; (c) combining a series of one or more colored elements to represent a number; and (d) marking the object with the series of colored elements. 2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each colored element comprises at least two colors. 3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each colored element comprises no more than two colors. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the numbering system is a binary numbering system. 5. The method of claim 1 , wherein each colored element is assigned a numeric value. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the numeric value of each colored chip is represented by shape, number of layers, or presence or absence of a visual enhancer. 7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the colored element has a specific shape. 8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the object is a flowable material. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the flowable material is marked by combining the series of colored elements with the flowable material. 10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the object is an individual object. 11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of combining the series of colored elements with an adhesive. 12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the object is an individual object that is marked using a series of colored elements combined with an adhesive. 13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of detecting the presence of the colored elements. 14. A kit for identifying an object, comprising: (a) an assortment of colored elements; and (b) a standard wherein each colored element represents a specific position in a number. 15. The kit of claim 14, further comprising an adhesive. 16. A method for preparing a multi-colored element, comprising (a) applying a first colored resin to a substrate; (b) drying the first colored resin; (c) applying a second colored resin to the dried first colored resin; (d) drying the second colored resin; (e) curing the first and second colored resins; (f) scraping the colored resin off the substrate to form colored chips; and (g) collecting the desired sized colored chips. 17. The method of claim 16, further comprising a step of grinding the colored chips.

Inventors: HANSON CHARLES S, HUNT DANIEL R, HANSON, CHARLES, S., HUNT, DANIEL, R.
Applicants: TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES INC, TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Application year: 1999
Main classification: G09F3
IPC codes: G09F3