Two-dimensional color barcode with preserved plane and lossy plane layers

A barcode system, comprising:

• means for separating barcode data into a first data layer having first information loss characteristics and containing first to a second data layer having first information loss characteristics and containing second data, wherein based on the first and second loss characteristics, the first data is preserved and the second data is lost following black and white copying;
• means for generating a signal from the first data which is preserved and the second data which is lost;
• and
• means for printing a color barcode in response to the signal.

A color barcode data encoder, comprising:

• a data separator which separates data to be encoded into preserved plane data and lossy plane data, wherein the preserved plan data has first information loss characteristics and contains first data and the lossy plane data has second information loss characteristics and contains second data;
• a first data encoder which encodes the preserved plane data by luminance to generate a luminance output, wherein based on the first loss information characteristics, the first data is preserved during black and white copying;
• a second data encoder which encodes the lossy plane data by hue to generate a hue output, wherein based on the second loss characteristics the second data is lost during black and white copying;
• and
• a color barcode output generator which generates an output signal in response to the luminance output and hue output.

A method of producing a barcode, comprising:

• separating data to be encoded into a first data layer having first information loss characteristics and containing first data and a second data layer having second information loss characteristics and containing second data, wherein the first loss characteristics are configured to preserve the first data and the second loss characteristics are configured to lose the second data following black and white copying;
• combining the separated data to generate a signal;
• and
• printing a color barcode in response to the signal.