Patent ID: 8100330

Claim:
A method for decoding data embedded in a color barcode, the method comprising: capturing an image of a hardcopy color barcode using an image capture device having a plurality of spectrally sensitive color channels, said color barcode containing a data message embedded therein, said message comprising a plurality of single data values, each single data value having only one unique state from a set of possible state values; and for each colorant in said hardcopy color barcode: producing a 2-dimensional image of a pattern representative of said colorant from image data received from said spectrally sensitive color channels; synchronizing said image with respect to a same horizontal and vertical axis as was used to print said colorant in said barcode; partitioning said image into tiles which substantially conforms to a same tiling used to encode said colorant in said barcode; associating each orientation direction that a dot of said colorant can have with an unique state of a single data value, said associations being the same used to encode data in said colorant of said barcode; and for each tile in said tiling containing a dot of said colorant: determining an orientation direction for said dot; and decoding said single data value embedded in said tile based on the unique state associated with said determined orientation direction.