Pitney Bowes Inc.

Illinois Tool Works Inc.

Donald MacKay

Tzer-Yi Chen

Stephen Jay Liker

Yu Du

Robert A Cordery

Claude Zeller

Frederick W Ryan, Jr

John W Sussmeier

Douglas B Quine

Judith D Auslander

Andrei Obrea

William A Brosseau

Benjamin D Singer

A printing system and method direct a printing assembly to apply a first ink of a first color toward first areas of a machine-readable data representation on a corrugated material surface, and direct the printing assembly to apply a second ink of a second color toward second areas of the machine-readable data representation on the corrugated material surface. The second color of the second ink is different from the first color of the first ink. The first and second areas are not identical to each other. The printing assembly is directed to apply the first ink and to apply the second ink to form the machine-readable data representation for machine scanning of the machine-readable data representation while on the corrugated material surface.

Printing system and method

A printing system and method print different colors onto a target object to form a machine-readable data representation having a symbol contrast of at least 40%. The printing system and method direct print heads to print the different colors by printing a base layer of a first color of the different colors on the target object and printing an upper layer of a different, second color of the different colors on top of the base layer of the first color, or by printing print the machine-readable data representation as an interdigitated data representation by printing the different colors onto the target object so that none of the different colors is printed on top of another color of the different colors.

A printed barcode including first basic barcode information stored in a first basic mode of printed data storage, and second additional enhanced barcode information stored in a second enhanced mode of printed data storage. The second information is printed, at least partially, as a component of the first information. The first information is adapted to be read by a basic barcode reader. The second information is adapted to be read by an enhanced barcode reader and cannot be read by the basic barcode reader.

Barcode with enhanced additional stored data

A method and system for thermal printing of secure documents. A contact thermal printing system includes: a) thermal print head having at least one heater element; and b) a thermal printer controller. The printer controller is programmed to: 1) move the print head in a predetermined pattern while the print head is in contact with a top coating of a thermal print medium; 2) overdrive the heater element during predetermined parts of the pattern to a temperature sufficient to soften or melt the top coating, thereby forming a pattern of striations in the top coating; and 3) control the heater element to print at least part of an image on the medium. The contact surface of the print head can have a specific pattern of features for forming the striations, whereby a pattern of striations formed can encode information both in the direction of the motion of the print head and transversely to the direction of motion. The pattern of striations can form a bar code. The image can be a postal indicium printed on a document which is a mail piece, or other documents having value, such as tax stamps and tickets, can be printed.

Method and system for creation of secure documents using digital embossing of thermal media with thermal print heads

The present invention includes apparatus and methods for printing and verifying postage stamps on demand via a personal postage stamp printer. The indicia by which the stamp is printed includes a color bar sequence and a data field including data that corresponds to the color bar sequence. To authenticate the stamp, the data field is read and the color bar sequence data included in the data field is compared with the data generated by detecting the color bar sequence itself.

Postage indicia including color bar sequence to aid in authentication

A method for detecting a copy of a composite image that includes a first image and a second image that has information embedded in the second image that will change in appearance when the first and second images are scanned or photocopied. The foregoing is accomplished by scanning the first and second images, and detecting a change in appearance of the second image that indicates the first and second images were scanned or photocopied.

Growing community of inventors

Roxbury, CT, United States of America

Donald MacKay