Patent ID: 6987465

Claim:
A procedure for determining an absolute position of an object, comprising: scanning a code pattern from a series of code patterns, wherein each code pattern of said series of code patterns unambiguously defines one absolute position and comprises a plurality of code elements; scanning additional code elements; forming a code word with a plurality of bits by said scanning said code pattern; forming additional bits from said scanning said additional code elements; checking said plurality of bits of said code word and said additional bits for reliability, and if one of said plurality of bits and said additional bits fails to attain predetermined criteria, it is assigned an error code; predetermining a series of bit strings, with one absolute position being unambiguously assigned to each one of said bit strings; comparing said bits of said code word with said predetermined series of bit strings and comparing said additional bits with corresponding bits from said predetermined series of bit strings, and if a match of all of said bits of said code word and said predetermined series of bits strings occurs, assigning a corresponding absolute position to said code word, and upon comparison for a match, any bits assigned an error code are not taken into account.