Bar code for measuring distance and position
A bar code able to measure distance or position having an encoded index point and additive and subtractive delineation bars to adjust the value of the index point. The numeric code has 10 characters in its set, each character having two dark bars in nine modules or a “Two of Nine Code”. All bars or gaps of this code are a minimum of two modules in width. Each Numeric Digit may have and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) digit embedded into the barcode digit to make it human and machine readable. A bar code reader would read an index block and both an additive and a subtractive block. The value of the additive block is added and the subtractive block subtracted from the index block to give a true value of the position or distance.
This application is a divisional application of U.S. Ser. No. 10/318,919, filed on Dec. 12, 2002.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTIONThis invention relates to bar codes of the type commonly used for inventory control, specifically to a bar code which measures distance to a fine delineation over a long distance.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONMany bar codes and bar code/reader combinations are on record and in use. U.S. Pat. No. 4,143,267 to Johnson et al., (Mar. 6, 1979), shows a Digital Distance Measuring Instrument that has a scale with a binary code printed sideways on it. Johnson states this system can read down to 0.001 inches however any dirt or damage to the tape would cause dysfunction. Also the tape must be quite wide if any long distance is to be measured as an extra photo-transistor must be added for each digit. A 25 foot tape would require six photo-transistors and a very busy tape, with much room for error.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,280 to Phillips, (Jan. 23, 1990), describes an electronic tape measure, which employs an “Absolute Position Code” which allows for measurement if one part of the tape is damaged. This code does not have any system to read over a damaged or dirty area of the tape.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,073, Kibrick, (Feb. 13, 1990), covers a bar code distance measuring system, however it relies upon standard 3of9 and interweaved 128 bar codes. The resolution of such a system is very low, being the width of an entire character.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,027,526 and 5,142,793 to Stephen Crane picture a tape measure that uses an interweaved two of five bar code in combination with pulses generated from the tape storage reel. This arrangement has its drawbacks in that the measurements taken from the reel are not adjusted for the changing diameter of the rolled tape as it is unwound. Also the interweaved two of five code is spaced out every three inches, so the tape must be moved to obtain a reading. This means no static reading can be taken with this measurement system and the combination system is not able to make “non-contact” measurement. Also this system is limited to 400 feet of measurement. U.S. Pat. No. 5,270,522 to Bone, Jr., (Dec. 14, 1993) describes a dynamic barcode label system that is intended for electric meter reading. The hardware would have a LED type screen, which would display a bar code that would reflect the meter reading. A handheld reader would scan the electronic bar code so as to automate the reading process. U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,791 Norcross, et al., (Dec. 11, 2001) deal directly with bar codes for measuring distance, however the coding systems described are binary configurations and chain codes which are limited in length and require a look-up table for decoding.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,435,315 Zaharia (Aug. 20, 2002) discusses an absolute position reference system for an elevator. The system employs a camera and optical character recognition to locate an elevation and counts pixels from a graphics file to identify an absolute location. No bar codes are used.
OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGESAccordingly the objects and advantages of my Bar Code for measuring distance and position are:
(a) To provide an automatic measuring system which will read highly accurate distance and position measurement.
(b) To provide an automatic measuring system which will measure distance or position up to seven decimal places.
(c) To provide an automatic measuring system which will read a distance or position with a static shot that does not require indexing to the zero or start point.
(d) To provide an automatic measuring system which will read a distance or position with multiple readings to insure data accuracy.
(e) To provide an automatic measuring system which will read a distance or position with multiple readings to read over a damaged or dirty code area.
(f) To provide an automatic measuring system which will read a distance or position using common bar code reading devices on the market today.
(g) To provide a automatic measuring system which will read a distance or position using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to read digits embedded into the barcode.
Further objects and advantages are to provide an accurate measuring system, which can be converted to metric or engineering delineations and can be read from a bar code with line width and spacing that would be considered wide by industry standards and thus reliable and inexpensive to print.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSIn the drawing figures, closely related figures have the same number but different alphabetic suffixes.
101 Numeric Value Block
102 Credit Bar Block
103 Debit Bar Block
201 Credit/Debit Bar Edge
202 Credit/Debit Bar Edge Count Value
301 Code 2of9OCR Digit
302 Value of Code 2of9OCR Digit embedded as an OCR readable character
303 Minimum Width Bar of Code 2of9OCR Digit
304 Bar Width indicators for Code 2of9OCR Digit
101 Numeric Value Block
400 Linear Measuring Bar Code
401 Credit/Debit Bar Block
501 Measurement Audit Window
502 Partial or incomplete Numeric Value Block (101)
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A simple embodiment of the present invention is shown in
Reference Numeral 102 pictures Credit Bars in a Credit Bar Block and 103 depicts Debit Bars in a Debit Bar Block.
In the preferred embodiment, the Credit and Debit Bar blocks would have 25 dark bars and 25 light spaces of the same width, for a total block width of 50X.
Numeric Value Block 101 would have five digits, each being 10X in width, for a total width of 50X.
The pairs are; 4 & 6, 3 & 7, 2 & 8, and 1 & 9.
In the preferred embodiment, an OCR-A (Optical Character Recognition type A) digit is embedded in the numeric digits to make it human and computer readable.
Operation
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, Linear Measuring Bar Code 400 is made up of Numeric Value Blocks 101 and Credit/Debit Blocks 401. Each of these blocks is 50X in width. The bar code Reader (not Shown) used to read this bar code 400 would read a distance of 150X, as shown in
In
In
The 2of9OCR code is designed so that all bars used to identify digits are a minimum of 2X in width. This allows the bar code reader and decoder to easily measure the end of a Numeric Value Block and the start of a Credit/Debit Bar Block. In
In
With modern bar code reading equipment, a bar code printed with a X value of 12 mils ({fraction (1/1000)}th of a foot) would be able to be measured down to a distance of about 5 mils. If the value of X is {fraction (1/1000)}th of a foot (12 mills) then the bar code's capacity of 9,999,999X would be equal to about 10,000 feet.
Further, State of the art bar code reading equipment will be able to read and recognize the OCR characters 302 embedded into the 2of9OCR digits 302 and validate the decoding of the bar code widths into numeric representation. This redundancy will increase the accuracy of the total system to a very high level of certainty.
Summary, Ramification, and Scope
Accordingly, a person will see that the bar code of this invention can instantly measure a linear distance or position on a ribbon 10,000 feet in length with a accuracy greater than 5 mils. In addition, this bar code, when used with modern Optical Character Recognition software, will have a validation system that will insure accurate measurement.
Furthermore, the bar code of my invention has the additional advantages in that:
It has wide X values, giving it high reliability;
It has a numeric 2of9OCR code with minimum bar width of 2X to give highly accurate digit identification.
Although the description above contains many specifications, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention but merely as providing illustrations of some of the presently preferred embodiments of this invention. r example, an interleaved 2 of 5 code might be used to replace the 2of9OCR code. e total Audit could cover a wider section of the code tape making two, three or even four separate audits, etc.
A surveying grade rod could be set up to read a length measuring bar-code and detect a flat plane laser commonly used in surveying. An electronic means of recoding the difference between a known elevation and said laser plane could be stored in memory by manual activation of a button. Said electronic device would then be able to calculate the elevation of said laser beam. Said electronic means could then calculate the elevation of a different point by comparing the difference between the unknown point and the known elevation of said laser beam.
Machine automation devices employ expensive mechanical devices to index “X”, “Y”, “X” and rotational locations. These devices become very expensive at large distances. Said Bar-Code for Measuring Distance and Position with a bar-code reader could be employed to index the location of a multitude of devices over distances up to 10,000 feet. These include Robots, steel cutting pantographs, overhead gantry cranes, automated warehouse applications and manufacturing assembly lines.
In as much as said Bar-Code for Measuring Distance and Position could be printed on a curved surface, the rotational position of devices such as sun tracking solar panels, satellite receivers and telescope observatory domes could be monitored and controlled.
A large version of said Bar-Code for Measuring Distance and Position could be painted on to airport runways to assist computerized automatic pilot and safety systems.
Videotapes and data storage tapes could be printed with said Bar-Code for Measuring Distance and Position which would allow instant location indexing of data and increased data storage by removing the electronic indexing presently used.
Products that are sold in rolls, such as tubing, wire, could be printed with said Bar-Code for Measuring Distance and Position. The box these items are stored in could have a window that is the proper width and the length of material rolled off the real could be measured at the beginning and end to determine the length of the product that was removed.
An Internet enabled bar-code reader could be set up to read said Bar-Code for Measuring Distance and Position. Said reader could be mounted in a wide variety of structures and infrastructure devices for monitoring. Bridges and buildings could be monitored for settling, flexing or earthquake movement. Water tanks and dams could be wired to measure the height/volume. The position gates and valves on dams could be monitored and controlled. Rivers and effluent conduits could be monitored for flow. Uses for said Bar-Code for Measuring Distance and Position are limited only by the imagination of the user.
Thus, the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the examples given.
Claims
1. A 2 of 9 bar code system for representing 10 characters, each character comprising;
- a set of barcode digits comprising two bars and one space;
- the total width of the bars and spaces shall be 9x; and,
- each bar and space having a width that is at least 2x and no greater than 5x.
2. A bar code system according to claim 1 where the 2 of 9 bar code system represents numbers having one or more digits.
3. A bar code system according to claim 2 where each of the one or more digits is separated from an adjacent digit by a space at least 1x wide.
4. A bar code system according to claim 1 where a machine readable character is associated with each character represented by the bar code system.
5. A bar code system according to claim 4 where the machine readable characters are read by optical character recognition software.
6. A bar code system according to claim 1 where the bars are magnetic media.
7. A positioning and measuring system comprising:
- a bar code array including a first reference point, the first reference point having an additive side and a subtractive side;
- a plurality of additive bar code symbols on the additive side of the first reference point;
- a plurality of subtractive bar code symbols on the subtractive side of the first reference point;
- a reader defining a measuring field with first and second field edges; and
- the reader adapted to detect additive bar code symbols between a first edge of the measuring field and the first reference point, and to detect subtractive bar code symbols between a second edge of the measuring field and the first reference point, and to identify a point of measurement along the bar code array therefrom.
8. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 7 further comprising a machine readable position indicator associated with the first reference point.
9. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 8 wherein the machine readable position indicator associated with the first reference point includes a 2 of 9 bar code position indicator, the 2 of 9 bar code position indicator comprising a system for representing 10 characters, each character comprising; a set of barcode digits comprising two bars and one space;
- the total width of the bars and spaces shall be 9x; and, each bar and space having a width that is at least 2x and no greater than 5x.
10. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 8 wherein the machine readable position indicator associated with the first reference point includes an alpha-numeric, machine readable position indicator.
11. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 8 wherein the machine readable position indicator associated with the first reference point includes an alpha-numeric, machine readable position indicator and the 2 of 9 bar code position indicator.
12. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 7 wherein the plurality of additive bar code symbols comprise a series of regularly spaced edges separating light and dark regions.
13. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 7 wherein the plurality of additive bar code symbols comprise a series of bar code blocks.
14. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 7 wherein the plurality of subtractive bar code symbols comprise a series of edges separating light and dark regions.
15. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 7 wherein the plurality of subtractive bar code symbols comprise a series of bar code blocks.
16. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 7 wherein the bar code symbols are magnetic and non magnetic media.
17. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 7 wherein the bar code bars are magnetic media and the bar code spaces are non magnetic media.
18. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 7 wherein the reader adapted to read the number of additive bar code symbols between a first edge of the measuring field and the first reference point, and to read the number of subtractive bar code symbols between a second edge of the measuring field and the first reference point; and,
- the reader adapted to subtract the number of subtractive bar code symbols from the number of additive bar code symbols to identify a point of measurement along the bar code array.
19. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 7, the bar code array further including a plurality of spaced-apart reference points, each reference point having an additive side and a subtractive side;
- a plurality of additive bar code symbols on the additive side of each reference point;
- a plurality of subtractive bar code symbols on the subtractive side of each reference point;
- the reader adapted to read the number of additive bar code symbols between a first edge of the measuring field and one or more of the plurality of reference points, and to read the number of subtractive bar code symbols between a second edge of the measuring field and one or more of the plurality of reference points; and,
- the reader adapted to subtract the number of subtractive bar code symbols from the number of additive bar code symbols to identify a point of measurement along the bar code array.
20. A positioning and measuring system comprising:
- a bar code array including a first reference point and a second reference point;
- a plurality of bar code symbols between the first and second reference points;
- a reader defining a target point;
- the reader adapted to detect a first number of bar code symbols between the first reference point and the target point and to determine a position of the target therefrom; and,
- the reader adapted to detect a second portion of bar code symbols between the second reference point and the target point and to determine a position of the target therefrom.
21. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 20 wherein the reader adapted to detect a first number of bar code symbols between the first reference point and the target point and to add the first number to a value associated with the first reference point to determine a position of the target point; and,
- the reader adapted to detect a second portion of bar code symbols between the second reference point and the target point and to subtract the second number from a value associated with the second reference point to determine a position of the target point.
22. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 20 wherein the reader is adapted to detect the number of additive bar code symbols between the first reference point and the target point and calculate the number of additive bar code symbols as a percentage of the total number of bar code symbols between the a first reference point and the second reference point to determine a position of the target point.
23. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 20 wherein the reader is adapted to detect the number of subtractive bar code symbols between the second reference point and the target point and calculate the number of subtractive bar code symbols as a percentage of the total number of bar code symbols between the a first reference point and the second reference point to determine a position of the target point.
24. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 20 further comprising a machine readable position indicator associated with the first and second reference points.
25. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 24 wherein the machine readable position indicator associated with the first and second reference points includes a 2 of 9 bar code position indicator, the 2 of 9 bar code position indicator comprising a system for representing 10 characters, each character comprising; a set of barcode digits comprising two bars and one space; the total width of the bars and spaces shall be 9x; and, each bar and space having a width that is at least 2x and no greater than 5x.
26. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 24 wherein the machine readable position indicator associated with the first and second reference points includes an alpha-numeric, machine readable position indicator.
27. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 24 wherein the machine readable position indicator associated with the first and second reference points includes an alpha-numeric, machine readable position indicator and a 2 of 9 bar code position indicator.
28. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 20 wherein the plurality of bar code symbols comprise a series of regularly spaced edges separating light and dark regions.
29. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 20 wherein the plurality of bar code symbols comprise a series of bar code blocks.
30. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 20 wherein the bar code symbols are magnetic and non magnetic media.
31. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 20 wherein the bar code bars are magnetic media and the bar code spaces are non magnetic media.
32. A positioning and measuring system comprising:
- a bar code array including a plurality of spaced-apart reference points, each reference point having an additive side and a subtractive side;
- a plurality of bar code symbols between the reference points, the bar code symbols shall be additive to the additive side of each reference point and subtractive to the subtractive side of each reference point;
- a reader defining a target point;
- the reader adapted to detect a number of subtractive bar code symbols between the target point and a reference point having a subtractive side nearest to the target point and to determine a position of the target point therefrom; and,
- the reader adapted to detect a number of additive bar code symbols between the target point and a reference point having a additive side nearest to the target point and to determine a position of the target point therefrom.
33. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 32 wherein the reader adapted to detect a number of subtractive bar code symbols between the target point and a reference point having a subtractive side nearest to the target point and to subtract the number of subtractive bar code symbols from a predetermined value assigned to the reference point to
- determine a position of the target point; and
- the reader adapted to detect a number of additive bar code symbols between the target point and a reference point having a additive side nearest to the target point and to add the number of additive bar code symbols to a predetermined value assigned to the reference point to determine a position of the target point.
34. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 32 wherein the reader adapted to detect a number of subtractive bar code symbols between the target point and a reference point having a subtractive side nearest to the target point as a percentage of the total bar code symbols between the reference points on each side of the target point to determine a position of the target point; and
- the reader adapted to detect a number of additive bar code symbols between the target point and a reference point having a additive side nearest to the target point as a percentage of the total bar code symbols between the reference points on each side of the target point to determine a position of the target point.
35. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 32 further comprising a machine readable position indicator associated with each reference point.
36. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 35 wherein the machine readable position indicator associated with each reference point includes a 2 of 9 bar code position indicator, the 2 of 9 bar code position indicator comprising a system for representing 10 characters, each character comprising; a set of barcode digits comprising two bars and one space; the total width of the bars and spaces shall be 9x; and, each bar and space having a width that is at least 2x and no greater than 5x.
37. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 35 wherein the machine readable position indicator associated with each of the plurality of reference points includes an alpha-numeric, machine readable position indicator.
38. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 35 wherein the machine readable position indicator associated with each reference point includes an alpha-numeric, machine readable position indicator and a 2 of 9 bar code position indicator.
39. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 32 wherein the plurality of incremental bar code symbols comprise a series of regularly spaced edges separating light and dark regions.
40. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 32 wherein the plurality of incremental bar code symbols comprise a series of bar code blocks.
41. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 32 wherein the bar code symbols are magnetic and non magnetic media.
42. A positioning and measuring system according to claim 32 wherein the bar code bars are magnetic media and the bar code spaces are non magnetic media.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 24, 2004
Publication Date: Apr 28, 2005
Inventor: Thomas Scannell (Sisters, OR)
Application Number: 10/997,232