A method of reading information from an information carrier using a capacitive touchscreen, the information carrier comprising an electrically conductive pattern on a substrate, the pattern comprising multiple pattern elements, and one or more of the pattern elements having a multilayer structure having a lower layer and an upper layer, the lower layer being in closer proximity to the substrate than the upper layer, wherein both the upper layer and lower layer are made from conductive materials and the conductivity of the upper layer is greater than that of the lower layer, the method involving:
- placing the information carrier on or near to the capacitive touchscreen;
- using the capacitive touchscreen to measure a capacitance map of the electrically conductive pattern, the capacitance map being data linking capacitance values to position on the touchscreen, and the capacitance map having different capacitance values for different pattern elements at different positions of the electrically conductive pattern;
- and
- decoding information from the information carrier based on the different capacitance values of the capacitance map.