Two-dimensional barcode, method and system for encoding data into said two-dimensional barcode, and method and system for imaging and decoding said two-dimensional barcode

A method of encoding data into a two-dimensional barcode to be marked on a substrate, comprising the steps of:

• encoding said data into at least one barcode element BE made up of elementary two-dimensional modules, a color of a module being selected from a color palette of a plurality of distinct reference colors including dark and light, wherein encoded data of each barcode element BE are split into a plurality of two-dimensional data blocks, each data block DB comprising a plurality of chunks of at least 4 modules each, and including a two-dimensional alignment pattern AP comprising a first zone of light modules adjacent to a second zone of which modules have colors representative of the remaining colors of the color palette;
• including in each barcode element BE a corresponding barcode element error-correcting code BE-ECC and a locator BE-L comprising a barcode element orientation pattern, each locator BE-L of a barcode element BE further including encoded locator data LD comprising decoding data for decoding said barcode element;
• and
• in case the two-dimensional barcode comprises a plurality of barcode elements, further including in respective locator data of each barcode element BE a corresponding identification number of said barcode element.

A system for encoding data into a two-dimensional barcode B and marking the two-dimensional barcode on a substrate, comprising a marking device, a processor equipped with a memory, a communication unit adapted to receive data and send data to the marking device through a communication link, wherein:

• the communication unit is adapted to receive primary data to be encoded and store the received primary data in the memory;
• the processor is adapted to
• encode and format the received primary data into at least one barcode element BE made up of elementary two-dimensional modules, a color a module being selected from a color palette of a plurality of distinct reference colors including dark and light, wherein encoded data of each barcode element BE are split into a plurality of two-dimensional data blocks, each data block DB comprising a plurality of chunks of at least 4 modules each, and each data block DB including a two-dimensional alignment pattern AP comprising a first zone of light modules adjacent to a second zone of which modules are representative of the remaining colors of the color palette;
• configure for each barcode element BE a corresponding barcode error-correcting code BE-ECC and include each configured barcode element error-correcting code into its barcode element;
• include in a barcode element BE a locator BE-L comprising a barcode element orientation pattern, each locator BE-L of a barcode element BE being formatted to include encoded locator data LD comprising decoding data for decoding said barcode element;
• in case the two-dimensional barcode comprises a plurality of barcode elements, further include in respective locator data of each barcode element BE a corresponding identification number of said barcode element;
• and
• send the obtained two-dimensional barcode encoded data together with formatting data to the marking device via the communication unit;
• the marking device is adapted to mark on the substrate the received encoded data according to the received formatting data with an arrangement of modules corresponding to said at least one barcode element BE comprising said two-dimensional data blocks, chunks, two-dimensional alignment patterns, barcode element error-correcting code BE-ECC and locator BE-L.