Method and system for utilizing fabric as storage medium

Abstract

This invention provides a digital technology based on fabric weave for the encoding, identification and decoding of information. A method for storing information in fabric based on weaving, knitting, braiding or other yarn interlacing styles, comprising: inputting information into a computer; converting each unit of the information to a corresponding unit of a binary code; converting each the corresponding code unit into a unit matrix of weave code presenting by 0 and 1; or converting each unit of the information to a unit matrix of weave code presenting by 0 and 1 directly; generating a weave code matrix consisting of all the unit matrixes; manufacturing a piece of fabric according to the weave code matrix, wherein 1 represents warp on a weft and 0 represents weft on a warp.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The invention relates to a method and system for utilizing fabric as storage medium, which has the function of information encoding and decoding based on weave code for the application of information recording, transferring, protecting, logical operating and information management.

2. Description of Related Arts

The weave pattern of woven fabric can be considered as its fingerprint or DNA; each weave pattern is uniquely endowed by a set of yarn interlacing styles with its own yarn count, density and other structural parameters. However, the understanding and utilization of weave is still limited to fabric designing and manufacturing for wearing function. The ability of representing and carrying information based on the weave of fabric has been omitted till now.

The natural and unique property of woven fabrics can aid in the development of smart digital products. As all other forms of paper printing, fabric can also be used for information representation and transmission. Furthermore, fabrics embedded with weave codes generally have a much higher resistance to environment changes.

In the past ten years, many researchers have been engaged in the development of objective evaluation system for the identification of fabric weave, which is a digital tool for fabric designing and re-engineering instead of manual operation based on pin and human eyes, however, some limitations of these image-based methods make it difficult to be accepted for the real industry applications. In our invention, we find a new concept based on image scanning and analysis to solve this problem—that is weave code, which is the digital language of weaving.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide an encoding, identification and decoding method and system based on fabric weave, which has lots of potential applications, such as product identification, quality control, product tracing, development of authorizable ribbon products, copyright protection of weave design, wearable ID system, etc.

Accordingly, in order to accomplish the above object, on one aspect, the present invention provides a method for storing information in fabric based on weaving, knitting, braiding or other yarn interlacing styles, comprising the steps of:

• • information inputting, including text input from keyboard, visual signals input from digital camera, scanner and other digital facilities, audio signals input from recorder and other facilities;
  • converting each unit of the information into a corresponding unit of a binary code;
  • converting each the corresponding code unit into a unit matrix of weave code presenting by 0 and 1;
  • converting each unit of the information into a unit matrix of weave code presenting by 0 and 1 directly;
  • generating a weave code matrix consisting of all the unit matrixes;
  • manufacturing a piece of fabric according to the weave code matrix, wherein 1 represents warp on a weft and 0 represents weft on a warp.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is a provided encoding and decoding mechanism for the purpose of converting information into weave code and its reverse. Information including text, visual and audio signals could be coded or decoded separately accordingly.

The invention provides the description of three basic weave code types: one dimensional weave code, two dimensional weave code, and color weave code. All of them can be utilized for the development of weave code products. The basic structure map of weave code is defined in this invention, which comprising five regions: upper boundary, left boundary, right boundary, lower boundary and code matrix region; here, the boundary regions are marked for the identification of weave code area.

On the other aspect, the present invention provides a system for utilizing fabric based on weaving, knitting, braiding or other yarn interlacing styles as storage medium, comprising:

• • a set of inputting devices configured to input information into a computer;
  • an encoding module configured to converting information into a weave code matrix representing by 0 and 1;
  • a manufacturing device configured to manufacture a piece of fabric according to the weave code matrix, wherein 1 represents warp on a weft and 0 represents weft on a warp;
  • an image capturing module configured to digitalize the image of weave code fabrics or related products;
  • a image analysis module configured to identify the weave code matrix embedded in fabrics or related products;
  • a decoding module configured to converting weave code matrix into corresponding information;

This method and system can be preferably utilized to develop corresponding flexible, wearable, tailorable products based on weave code for the purpose of utilizing fabric as the storage medium of information.

These and other objectives, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of this invention will now be described with the reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the weave code system;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the basic structure map of 2-dimensional weave code;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the hardware and software of weave code system;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of weave code manufacturing;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the process of weave coder and decoder;

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

An embodiment, in which the present invention is applied to a method and system for the implementation of utilizing fabric as storage medium based on weave code, will be described with the reference to the accompanying drawing. The present invention is not limited to the implementation of utilizing fabric as storage medium based on weave code but applicable to product development for the purpose of identification, quality control, tracing, authorization, copyright protection, etc.

Woven fabric is a flexible sheet interlaced by two sets of yarn: warp and weft. The mechanism of yarn interlacing can be regarded as one of binary system for information representing and recording in the field of information technology. The weaving machine-loom and its product-fabric can be considered as the original prototype of computer and two-dimensional binary system.

The concept of weave code that means information can be represented, logically operated and transferred by the interlacing style of warp and weft. There are two crossing status mentioned here: warp on the weft and weft on the warp, these two statuses can be formatted in binary system. In the present invention, a principle for coding is defined, which is 1 represents warp on the weft and 0 represents weft on the warp. Therefore, the surface of one piece of fabric is a matrix of weave points. According to the principle, these weave points present a binary code matrix. And this binary code matrix can be used for storing and transmitting information including text, visual signal and audio signal.

Some examples of weave code unit and its mechanism are described in table 1. Weave pattern can be represented as one binary matrix, which is the combination of these basic weave code unit.

Supposing the yarn number in one weave unit is N, then the number of yarn interlacing style will be 2^N×N. When N is equal to 6, then the number of weave patterns could reach 2²⁶=68719476736. The yarn thickness could be the scale of millimeter, thus one unit of weave pattern can occupy a small area, and however, the memory capability of it is enough for containing all kinds of information, including text, number, figure and music etc.

The color of yarn can also be used to represent information, and applied in the design of weave code, in this case, the number of pattern in one weave unit could reach 2^N×N·2^24N·2^24N, it provides a very huge capacity for the information recording and transmitting.

TABLE 1
		Mathematic expressions
Weave code type	Yarn interlacing style	Of weave code
One dimensionalweave code		[1 0 1 0 1 0];
		[1 0 0 0 1];
Two dimensionalweave code		$\hspace{1em}\left[\begin{array}{cccc}0& 1& 0& 1\\ 1& 0& 1& 0\\ 0& 1& 0& 1\\ 1& 0& 1& 0\end{array}\right]$
		$\hspace{1em}\left[\begin{array}{cccc}0& 1& 1& 0\\ 1& 1& 0& 0\\ 1& 0& 1& 1\\ 0& 1& 1& 0\end{array}\right]$
		$\hspace{1em}\left[\begin{array}{ccccccc}1& 1& 1& 1& 0& 1& 1\\ 1& 0& 1& 1& 1& 1& 0\\ 1& 1& 1& 0& 1& 1& 1\\ 0& 1& 1& 1& 1& 0& 1\\ 1& 1& 0& 1& 1& 1& 1\\ 1& 1& 1& 1& 0& 1& 1\\ 1& 0& 1& 1& 1& 1& 0\end{array}\right]$
Color weave code		1 1 1 1 1 0 1 12 1 0 1 1 1 1 03 1 1 1 0 1 1 14 0 1 1 1 1 0 15 1 1 0 1 1 1 16 1 1 1 1 0 1 17 1 0 1 1 1 1 00 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1–7 is the color index, which iscorresponding to RGB color;

As illustrated in FIG. 1, a workflow of preferred method of utilizing fabric as storage medium based on weave code, which has the function of converting information into weave code or its reverse processing.

Briefly explained the method would start by the input of information including text, visual signals (image or photo or picture etc.) and audio signals (music or sounds). Text can be input through the keyboard of computer; visual and audio signals can be digitalized using some available digital facilities, which can convert the analog signals into digital signals, such as digital camera, scanner, recorder and other digital facilities.

Almost every type of machine used its own file format for text, image and audio data, some file formats have been standardized, and in general it is possible to define conversions between almost any pair of file formats. In this case, we only describe the mechanism of converting raw data into weave code.

Text is a combination of characters “A-Z, 0-9, and etc.”, which can be represented using binary codes, such as ASCII, as shown in table 2. Let X=[x₁, x₂, x₃, . . . , x₈] and

$W=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}{w}_{11}& w_{12}& w_{13}\\ w_{21}& w_{22}& w_{23}\\ w_{31}& w_{32}& w_{33}\end{array}\right],$

X—binary code of one character, x_i—the i th bit of X; W is the weave code matrix of this character, then

$W=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}{x}_1& x_2& x_3\\ x_4& x_5& x_6\\ x_7& x_8& 0\end{array}\right].$

Image is a matrix of pixels, with the gray level varying from 0-255, which can be represented using 8-bit format as shown in table 2. Let P_m,n=[p₁ p₂, . . . , p₈] is one pixel, W_m,n is its corresponding weave code unit, then

$W_{m,n}=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}{p}_1& p_2& p_3\\ p_4& p_5& p_6\\ p_7& p_8& 1\end{array}\right].$

Audio signal is a stream of audio data, which can be 8 bits unsigned. Let S_m,n[=s₁ s₂, . . . , s₈] is one pixel, W_m,n is its corresponding weave code unit, then

$W_{m,n}=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}{s}_1& s_2& s_3\\ s_4& s_5& s_6\\ s_7& s_8& 1\end{array}\right].$

Weave code look-up table is the database of those weave elements corresponding to information: characters, number, pixel value, etc., so the raw data could be translated into a new weave code file based on this look-up table. Before the translating, encrypted process could be added to protect the information. Our weave code system is compatible with any other coding technologies, so weave code products can be encoded or decoded based on any other coding system; it is still in the field of our invention.

FIG. 2 shows a sample of basic structure map of 2-dimensional weave code comprising five regions: upper boundary 31, left boundary 32, right boundary 33, lower boundary 35 and code area region 34; Boundary regions contains some unique marks to specify the margin of weave code regions, here upper boundary 31 is one row of plain weave

$\left(\left[\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right]\right),$

left boundary 32 is one column of 2/1 twill weave

$\left(\left[\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& 1\\ 1& 1& 0\\ 0& 1& 1\end{array}\right]\right),$

right boundary 33 is one column of 1/2 twill weave

$\left(\left[\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right]\right),$

lower boundary 35 is designed to be one row of weave

$\left(\left[\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right]\right);$

other designs could also used to identify these four boundaries from coding region. Code matrix region contains the codes of information. It contains a header, information that describes the attributes of weave code, followed by the raw data that represents text, visual and audio signals. The head structure could be defined as:

Typedef struct {
int dataSize; /* number of bytes of data */
int dataType; /* the data type */
int info[4];  /* optional information */
} WeaveCodeStruct;

TABLE 2
Weave code look-up table I for text
Information	Binary code (ASCII)	Weave code
A	0100 0001
		$\hspace{1em}\left[\begin{array}{ccc}0& 1& 0\\ 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0\end{array}\right]$
		(weave code matrix)
Z	0101 1010
		$\hspace{1em}\left[\begin{array}{ccc}0& 1& 0\\ 1& 1& 0\\ 1& 0& 0\end{array}\right]$
		(weave code matrix)
1	0011 0001
		$\hspace{1em}\left[\begin{array}{ccc}0& 0& 1\\ 1& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0\end{array}\right]$
		(weave code matrix)
Generaldescriptionof coding	[x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7 x8]	$\hspace{1em}\left[\begin{array}{ccc}x1& x2& x3\\ x4& x5& x6\\ x7& x8& 0\end{array}\right]$
		(weave code matrix)

TABLE 3
Weave code look-up table II for image
Digital image	Image matrix	Weave code
	$\hspace{1em}\left[\begin{array}{cccccccccc}0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 128& 128& 128& 128& 128& 128& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 128& 128& 128& 128& 128& 128& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 128& 128& 255& 255& 128& 128& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 128& 128& 255& 255& 128& 128& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 128& 128& 128& 128& 128& 128& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 128& 128& 128& 128& 128& 128& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\end{array}\right]$
Generaldescriptionof coding	Pixel value = [x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7 x8]	$\mathrm{Its}\mathrm{weave}\mathrm{code}\mathrm{matrix}=\hspace{1em}\left[\begin{array}{ccc}x1& x2& x3\\ x4& x5& x6\\ x7& x8& 1\end{array}\right]$

The hardware part of weave code system is composed of weaving machine 11 (weave code manufacturing), image digitization facility of weave code (code scanner 12), and computer 13 (information management), inputting facilities 14 (keyboard, camera, scanner, etc.) and output facilities 15 (displaying and printing of weave code) as shown in FIG. 3. The software part of weave code system is composed of four modules: encoding module (encoder 21), code scanning module 22, code analysis module 23 and decoding module (decoder 24) as shown in FIG. 3.

As shown in FIG. 1, the flowchart of weave code system is composed of three basic steps from the start of information encoding (weave code generation), weave code fabric manufacturing to the final of information decoding. There is an information management center to control and manage the information; WeaveCode Encoder is used to convert information into weave code based on the mechanism of encoding algorithm for weave code; Weaving machine is used to manufacturing the weave code fabric and other products, its mechanism of weaving is described in FIG. 4. Code scanner is used to digitalize the image of weave code products, and send it for further analysis and decoding; WeaveCode Decoder is used to convert weave code into information based on the mechanism of decoding algorithm for weave code;

FIG. 5 graphically depicts a dataflow of preferred method of weave encoder and decoder which has the function of converting information into weave code or its reverse processing. Briefly explained the method would start by the input of information including text, visual signals (image or photo or picture etc.) and audio signals (music or sounds). Text can be input through the keyboards of computer; however, visual and audio signals should be digitalized using some available digital facilities, which can convert the analog signals into digital signals. Digital files storing in hard disk or those designs in digital format also can be input directly. Weave code look-up table is the database of those weave elements corresponding to information: characters, number, pixel value, etc., so the raw data could be translated into a new weave code file based on this look-up table. Before the translating, encrypted process could be added to protect the information. The design of weave code look-up table could reference to ASCII for the text and some special characters as shown in table 2 or self-defined code sets for image as shown in table 3. Our weave code system is compatible with any other coding technologies, so weave code products can be encoded or decoded based on any other coding system; it is still in the field of our invention.

The algorithms of code analysis module 23 for the weave code system are based on grid-driven model together with dual side scanning and matching techniques. Grid-driven model means that the yarn alignment in fabric is modeled as grid, and then the yarn tracing style in fabric could be identified along its central grid according to matching information of dual side images; dual side scanning means scanning both sides of one piece of fabric simultaneously; dual side matching means finding the corresponding pixels of both side images at the same position; thus the image analysis module has the function of identify the yarn interlacing status of fabric (weave code matrix). The code scanning module 22, code analysis module 23 and decoding module 24 have been disclosed in a China Patent Application, the application number is CN 200610067478.1.

Claims

1. A method for storing information in fabric based on weaving, knitting, braiding or other yarn interlacing styles, comprising:

inputting information into a computer;

converting each unit of the information to a corresponding unit of a binary code;

converting each the corresponding code unit into a unit matrix of weave code presenting by 0 and 1;

or converting each unit of the information to a unit matrix of weave code presenting by 0 and 1 directly;

generating a weave code matrix consisting of all the unit matrixes;

manufacturing a piece of fabric according to the weave code matrix, wherein 1 represents warp on a weft and 0 represents weft on a warp.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is a text.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is a visual signal

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is an audio signal.

6. A system for utilizing fabric based on weaving, knitting, braiding or other yarn interlacing styles as storage medium, comprising:

a set of inputting devices configured to input information into a computer;

an encoding module configured to converting information to a weave code matrix representing by 0 and 1;

a manufacturing device configured to manufacture a piece of fabric according to the weave code matrix, wherein 1 represents warp on a weft and 0 represents weft on a warp;

an image capturing module configured to digitalize the image of weave code fabrics or related products;

an image analysis module configured to identify the weave code matrix embedded in fabrics or related products;

a decoding module configured to converting weave code matrix to corresponding information;

7. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the inputting device is a keyboard connected to a computer.

8. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the inputting device is a scanner connected to a computer.

9. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the inputting device is a digital camera connected to a computer.

10. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the inputting device is a recorder.