A method of uniquely identifying the position of a device on a surface, comprising: receiving image information from a sensor placed near a physical surface, the surface having been encoded with position information, the received image information corresponding to a field of view that covers at least a portion of each of a plurality of different regions (61, 62, 63, 64; 121, 122, 123, 124) on the physical surface, wherein each region comprises a pattern of coding symbols comprising position coding symbols and registration coding symbols, the plurality of different regions (61, 62, 63, 64; 121, 122, 123, 124) comprising a first covered region and a second covered region, wherein the different regions (61, 62, 63, 64; 121, 122, 123, 124) are contiguous and non-overlapping and each of the different regions (61, 62, 63, 64; 121, 122, 123, 124) has sufficient position information to uniquely identify a location of the region on the physical surface; identifying a correct orientation and offset of the image information based on the registration coding symbols within the image information; rotating the image information into the correct orientation; translating the image information, after rotating the image information, into the pattern of position coding symbols; and decoding the position coding symbols into a position by using an error correction technique, wherein, in the pattern of coding symbols, each coding symbol is at a different position in the pattern, and the coding symbols comprise: the position coding symbols, which comprise at least one row number indicator, at least one column number indicator and at least one page number indicator; and the registration coding symbols arranged to identify a correct orientation and an offset of the field of view with respect to region boundaries; and wherein the decoding step comprises filling in missing position information from the first covered region based on position information in the second covered region. receiving image information from a sensor placed near a physical surface, the surface having been encoded with position information, the received image information corresponding to a field of view that covers at least a portion of each of a plurality of different regions (61, 62, 63, 64; 121, 122, 123, 124) on the physical surface, wherein each region comprises a pattern of coding symbols comprising position coding symbols and registration coding symbols, the plurality of different regions (61, 62, 63, 64; 121, 122, 123, 124) comprising a first covered region and a second covered region, wherein the different regions (61, 62, 63, 64; 121, 122, 123, 124) are contiguous and non-overlapping and each of the different regions (61, 62, 63, 64; 121, 122, 123, 124) has sufficient position information to uniquely identify a location of the region on the physical surface; identifying a correct orientation and offset of the image information based on the registration coding symbols within the image information; rotating the image information into the correct orientation; translating the image information, after rotating the image information, into the pattern of position coding symbols; and decoding the position coding symbols into a position by using an error correction technique, wherein, in the pattern of coding symbols, each coding symbol is at a different position in the pattern, and the coding symbols comprise: the position coding symbols, which comprise at least one row number indicator, at least one column number indicator and at least one page number indicator; and the registration coding symbols arranged to identify a correct orientation and an offset of the field of view with respect to region boundaries; and the position coding symbols, which comprise at least one row number indicator, at least one column number indicator and at least one page number indicator; and the registration coding symbols arranged to identify a correct orientation and an offset of the field of view with respect to region boundaries; and wherein the decoding step comprises filling in missing position information from the first covered region based on position information in the second covered region.