Patent ID: 8184717

Claim:
A water ring encoding apparatus configured to process an initial data set, said apparatus comprising: a scanner configured to write a portion of data from the initial data set into a scanned data string, wherein the initial data set organized into RC (Row Column) positions, a grouping of RC positions (RC grouping) of the initial data set being designated to correspond to an initial origin, the initial origin enveloped by a plurality of nested initial environs successively surrounding each other, each nested initial environ corresponding to a family of RC groupings of the initial data set, the scanner configured to write the portion of the data from the initial data set into the scanned data string by starting at the RC grouping corresponding to the initial origin (initial water ring ( 0 )) and by sequentially progressing outwardly from the family of RC groupings corresponding to the nearest nested initial environ (initial water ring ( 1 )) towards the family of RC groupings corresponding to a furthest nested initial environ (initial water ring (n)); and an encoder configured to encode the scanned data string into a encoded data string.