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US 6,538,757 B1Granted
Method for automatically reading electronic tickets
AssigneePitney Bowes Inc.
InventorRonald P. Sansone
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automatic method for reading a graphic field on a ticket so that the ticket may be processed quickly without human error. The graphic field is designed to produce a “tell”, a visible known image (a large number of detectable halftone gray steps) when printed by a personal computer printer. Additionally, the graphic field will change in appearance when the ticket originally printed by the personal computer printer is digitally reproduced by either scanning or photocopying.
Claims17
A method for printing and reading electronic tickets, comprising the steps of:
- printing a graphic field on the ticket that will change in appearance when the ticket is either reproduced by either scanning/printing and/or photocopying,
- reading the graphic field while storing characteristics of printing settings that are printed on a ticket in the form of a bar code of a printer that printed the graphic field;
- and
- interpreting the graphic field to determine whether or not the graphic field has been reproduced by scanning/printing and/or photocopying wherein the interpreting step further includes the steps of:
- calculating ideal minimum and maximum ideal density values for the printer that printed the graphic field;
- comparing the calculated values with the read values;
- and
- determining if the read values are between the minimum and maximum ideal density values.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.