Patent ID: 7905405

Claim:
A method of imaging a coding pattern disposed on a surface of a substrate, said method comprising the steps of: (a) operatively positioning an optical reader relative to said surface and capturing an image of a portion of said coding pattern, said coding pattern comprising: a plurality of target elements defining a target grid, said target grid comprising a plurality of cells, wherein neighboring cells share target elements; a plurality of data elements contained in each cell; and a plurality of tags, each tag being defined by a plurality of contiguous cells, each tag comprising respective local tag data encoded by a respective set of said data elements, each tag comprising common data encoded by a respective set of said data elements, said common data being defined as data common to a plurality of contiguous tags, wherein each cell comprises a fragment of said common data; (b) sampling and decoding each fragment of common data contained in said imaged portion; and (c) assembling said decoded fragments to determine said common data, wherein said portion has a diameter of at least one tag diameter and less than two tag diameters.