Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US6768558?dq=patent:7076806
Timestamp: 2017-06-29 04:36:20
Document Index: 332248907

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 5', 'art 5', 'art 5', 'art 5', 'art 5', 'art 5', 'art 5']

Patent US6768558 - Printed matter including invisible information and printing system - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inPatentsTo invisibly embed additional information in a base pattern and to visualize the additional information, a dislocation is provided in a boundary between the base pattern compose of striped thin lines and the additional information pattern composed of striped thin lines. This dislocation makes the stripes...http://www.google.com/patents/US6768558?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US6768558 - Printed matter including invisible information and printing systemAdvanced Patent SearchTry the new Google Patents, with machine-classified Google Scholar results, and Japanese and South Korean patents.Publication numberUS6768558 B1Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 09/531,452Publication dateJul 27, 2004Filing dateMar 20, 2000Priority dateNov 16, 1999Fee statusLapsedAlso published asEP1102208A2Publication number09531452, 531452, US 6768558 B1, US 6768558B1, US-B1-6768558, US6768558 B1, US6768558B1InventorsTaichiro Yamashita, Takeshi Shibuya, Junichi MatsunoOriginal AssigneeHitachi, Ltd.Export CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (4), Non-Patent Citations (3), Referenced by (55), Classifications (21), Legal Events (4) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetPrinted matter including invisible information and printing system
7. The printed matter according to claim 1 wherein said additional information pattern is visualized by a discontinuation of a moiré pattern in the dislocation of the stripe pattern, said moiré being generated by putting a reference pattern on said additional information pattern, said reference pattern being printed on a transparent medium and being formed by the pattern of stripes at the predetermined interval.
a base pattern formed of a striped pattern having stripes at a predetermined interval; and an additional information pattern positioned inside said base pattern and having a striped pattern having stripes of substantially a same width and predetermined interval as said base pattern and a direction substantially parallel to a direction of said stripes of said base pattern, to provide a predetermined outline shape formed by discontinuous boundaries between stripes of said additional information pattern and said base pattern, wherein said additional information pattern is visually identified by putting thereon a reference pattern, printed on a transparent medium, to generate moiré of the base pattern and the additional information pattern, each pattern having its own moiré, wherein a boundary between said base pattern and said additional information pattern is arranged so that said striped patterns become discontinuous, and wherein the boundary is arranged at a predetermined angle with respect to a stripe direction of the striped patterns of said base pattern and said additional information pattern. 10. The printed matter according to claim 9 wherein said predetermined outline shape between said base pattern and said additional information is rotated relative to said base pattern and/or said additional information is deformed so that components of the boundary between the additional information pattern having the predetermined shape and the base pattern is minimized, said components of the boundary being parallel to the stripe direction of the striped pattern of the base pattern, and then said additional information is arranged so that the stripes of the striped pattern become discontinuous in the boundary between said additional information pattern and said base pattern.
JP-A-6-40190 discloses an ID card that prevents counterfeiting. A transparent film with special thin lines or a net pattern, or a lenticular film with a special frequency, is put this ID card. This structure causes at least two sets of thin-line or net patterns, each generating its own moiré, to appear in different areas.
The counterfeit-prevention ID card disclosed in JP-A-6-40190 has at least two sets of different thin line or net patterns. Their frequencies are made to vary to such an extent that human beings cannot detect, or the patterns are placed such that they are not virtually parallel. Means is disclosed for visually checking the validity of the card by putting a film (identification film) with a predetermined frequency on the card to generate a unique moiré for comparing the relative relation. With at least two different patterns arranged separately, this means compares a moiré, generated by putting the identification film on the card, with a moiré, generated by putting the identification film on the real card, to validate the card. However, means for obtaining invisible information from a thin line pattern or a net pattern is not disclosed. Neither is disclosed a method for making the boundary between at least two separate thin line or net patterns difficult to identify.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the reference pattern 3, shown in FIG. 3, which is put obliquely on the base pattern 1 in which the additional information pattern 2, shown in FIG. 1, is invisibly embedded. When two patterns have a striped pattern at the same frequency, putting one on top of the other causes the stripe patterns to interfere each other, generating a moiré pattern at a wavelength longer than that of the base pattern and the reference pattern.
Next, the wavelength of the moiré pattern will be described. In the following description, it is assumed that the width of the black line and the pitch between each two lines of the reference pattern 3 are the same as those of the base pattern 1; that is, the width of the black line is 0.08 mm (corresponding to two lines) and the pitch between each two lines is 0.254 mm (corresponding to six lines). In the description below, this reference pattern 3, slanted at an angle of Ψ, is put on the base pattern in which the additional information pattern 2 is invisibly embedded, as shown in FIG. 1. Let P denote the moiré pitch in a base pattern part 5 b. Then, P=p/sin Ψ, where p is the pitch of the striped pattern shown in FIG. 2.
In FIG. 4, the moiré pitch P is illustrated as the interval between two crossings of the black line in the base pattern 1 and the black line in the reference pattern 3. In addition, because the striped pattern in the additional information pattern 2 is the same as the striped pattern in the base pattern 1, a moiré with the pitch P, which appears in the base pattern part 5 b, appears also in an additional information pattern part 5 a. However, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, there is the dislocation d in the striped pattern in the boundary between the base pattern 1 and the additional information pattern 2. Therefore, the moiré position in the additional information pattern part 5 a differs from the moiré position in the base pattern part 5 b by D shown in FIG. 4. This positional difference of D is represented as D=d/sin Ψ.
If, as an example, p=0.254 mm, d=0.04 mm, and Ψ=1°, then the pitch P=14.5 mm and positional difference D=2.3 mm. Because of this large positional difference in the moiré generation position between the base pattern part 5 b and the additional information pattern part 5 a, putting the reference pattern 3 on the base pattern 1 allows the boundary of the additional information pattern 2, invisibly embedded in the base pattern 1, to be visually identified. Thus, the additional information pattern 2 may be visualized.
On the other hand, although, on the top and bottom sides of the striped additional information pattern 12, each of the thin lines is shifted 0.04 mm (or a dislocation) that is the minimum shift amount the above-described 600 dpi printer can process, a difference in color density cannot be identified. Therefore, the dislocation is visually unidentifiable on the top and bottom sides. That is, there is a relation between the angle θ of the boundary, which is between the additional information pattern and the base pattern, with respect to the striped pattern and the difficulty (invisibility) in identifying the boundary of the additional information pattern. The smaller the angle θ, the easier to visually identify the boundary; on the contrary, the larger the angle θ, the more difficult to visually identify the boundary and thus the higher the invisibility. When θ=90°, it is most difficult to visually identify the boundary and the invisibility becomes highest.
The experiment shows that the boundary of the additional information pattern 2 visually identifiable for the angle θ<10° but virtually not for the angle θ>30°. The visual identification ability or the invisibility varies with the angle θ. In most cases, the visual identification ability is low for the angle θ>20° and, therefore, the additional information may be invisibly embedded in the base pattern. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, it is effective, in most cases, for the additional information pattern 2 to be slanted at least 20° so that the boundary between the additional information pattern 2 and base pattern 1 will not run parallel with the striped pattern.
On the other hand, the characters “ITH” 14 are represented in italic and in a stripe pattern in FIG. 8. As described above, if the angle between the boundary line and the striped pattern is larger than 20°, that is, θ>20°, the boundary of the additional information is difficult to identify even if the characters “ITH” 14 are put on the base pattern 1. As a result, the characters “ITH” 14 may be invisibly embedded. In FIG. 9, the boundary is indicated by broken lines for purpose of illustration.
For additional information whose style always has an easily-identifiable part parallel to the striped pattern, it is effective to deform the style of the additional information so that the parallel part is shortened. For example, when additional information or a part thereof is a circle or an arc, a part of the circle or the arc always has a component parallel to the striped pattern of the base pattern. In such a case, the length of the parallel part may be reduced by reducing the radius of only the circle or the arc corresponding to the part and its neighboring parts parallel to the striped pattern. This deforms the style of the additional information and shortens the parallel part, thus making the additional information more invisible. FIG. 12 shows an example. In this example, an alphabetic character “O” 18 is embedded into the base pattern 1 as the additional information pattern. In FIG. 12, the “O” character is a slanted italic character. Parts k, m, n, and v, which are arcs, have parts parallel to the vertical striped pattern of the base pattern 1. A part with an angle of 10° or smaller with respect to the base pattern 1 may be visually identified as described above and, therefore, a part of the circular style is visually identified against the background that is gray as a whole. Although all the visible parts cannot be eliminated, it is effective to partially deform the “O” character 19 and to reduce the radius of the arcs, as shown in FIG. 13, so that the angle becomes 10° or smaller with respect to the vertical striped pattern of the base pattern 1, as indicated by parts q, r, s, and t.
Depending upon the shape of additional-information, another method is to select the direction of a striped pattern that is not parallel to the boundary between the additional information and the base pattern. For example, when the additional information is a rectangle such as the one shown in FIG. 5, the striped pattern may be slanted 30° or 45°.
An example of a printed matter created as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 18-21. In FIGS. 18-19, number 100 is a printed matter, such as a certificate, printed with the printer 139. The printed matter has a part for the base pattern 1 in which additional information is invisibly embedded. This base pattern 1 is identified as an almost even gray print area. FIG. 19 is a diagram showing how the base pattern 1 looks like when the reference pattern 3 is put thereon. The base pattern 1 and an additional information pattern area 44 generate a unique moiré. In this embodiment, the issue date “1 1 1 1 1 1 ” (Japanese calendar date of Nov. 11, 1999) may be visually identified. In this embodiment, the base pattern 1 and the additional information pattern area 44 are a vertical striped pattern. To reduce the part parallel to the vertical striped pattern, the characters “1 1 1 1 1 1 ” are slanted.
In this embodiment, the relative position and the angle of the reference pattern need not strictly match those of the base pattern. Even if the positions are not aligned precisely, the pitch of the moire pattern generated when the reference pattern is put on the base pattern or the additional information pattern is the same. In addition, even if the angle of the reference pattern do not match the angle of the base pattern or additional information pattern, only the pitch of the generated moiré varies. The advantage is that this embodiment does not require precise alignment. That is, simply putting the reference pattern on the base pattern allows the user to visually identify the additional information pattern embedded as the invisible information. The ability to visualize invisible information allows invisible information to be added to a variety of printed matters.
In the embodiments, the boundary between the base pattern and the additional information pattern is slanted against the striped pattern at least 20 degrees(θ>20°) to make the boundary difficult to visually identify so that the additional information pattern may be invisibly embedded in the base pattern. For a printer with a different resolution, the degree need not always be θ>20°.
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moire fringe technology* Cited by examinerClassifications U.S. Classification358/1.18, 382/181, 358/530, 382/183, 358/3.01, 283/94, 358/1.9, 283/74International ClassificationH04N1/32, G06T1/00, H04N1/387, G06K19/10Cooperative ClassificationH04N1/32203, G06T2201/0051, H04N1/32229, H04N1/32224, G06T1/0021European ClassificationH04N1/32C19B3D, H04N1/32C19B3E, G06T1/00W, H04N1/32C19B3Legal EventsDateCodeEventDescriptionMar 20, 2000ASAssignmentOwner name: HITACHI, LTD., JAPANFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:YAMASHITA, TAICHIRO;SHIBUYA, TAKESHI;MATSUNO, JUNICHI;REEL/FRAME:010644/0245;SIGNING DATES FROM 20000203 TO 20000204Feb 4, 2008REMIMaintenance fee reminder mailedJul 27, 2008LAPSLapse for failure to pay maintenance feesSep 16, 2008FPExpired due to failure to pay maintenance feeEffective date: 20080727RotateOriginal ImageGoogle Home - Sitemap - USPTO Bulk Downloads - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - About Google Patents - Send FeedbackData provided by IFI 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