Printed material with identification function, image generating apparatus, image processing apparatus, image generating method, image processing method, and program product therefor

An image generating apparatus comprising:

• a first coding section that encodes image identification information by coding a first series of numerical values in a first series of code blocks, and encodes coordinate value information by coding a second series of numerical values in a second series of code blocks, the image identification information identifying an image formed on the recording material;
• a second coding section that further encodes the image identification information in the first series of code blocks by replacing the numerical value in each of the first series of code blocks with a new numerical value obtained by adding the original numerical value to a corresponding numerical value from the second series of code blocks;
• and
• an image forming section that further encodes the numerical values of each code block as a pattern configuration and forms the pattern configurations as a background image on the recording material.

An image processing apparatus comprising:

• a reading section that reads an image on a recording material, the recording material having a first coded pattern area and a second pattern area embedded as background images, the first pattern area containing encoded image identification information, to identify an image formed on the recording material, and the second coded pattern area containing encoded coordinate value information, the first coded pattern area being composed of a first plurality code blocks, the second coded pattern area being composed of a second plurality of code blocks, each of the code blocks having one of a plurality of pattern configurations, and each of the pattern configurations having a corresponding numerical code value;
• a detecting section that detects the pattern configurations contained in the first coded pattern area and the second coded pattern area;
• a first decoding section that extracts the numerical values corresponding to the pattern configurations contained in the second coded pattern area and decodes the coordinate value information using the numerical values;
• and
• a second decoding section that (1) extracts the numerical values corresponding to the pattern configurations contained the first coded pattern area, (2) extracts a series of original numerical values by performing a decoding process that contains at least the step of subtracting the numerical value of a corresponding code block in the second pattern area from each of the numerical values of the code blocks in the first coded pattern area, and (3) decodes the image identification information using the original numerical values.

An image generating method comprising:

• coding image identification information, to identify an image formed on a recording material, and coordinate value information on the recording material;
• obtaining a first numerical value corresponding to a first code block containing encoded coordinate value information;
• obtaining a second numerical value from a second code block containing encoded image identification information;
• obtaining a third numerical value by adding the first numerical value to the second numerical value;
• replacing the first numerical value with the third numerical value;
• and
• forming a background image on the recording material, the background image being a coded pattern made up of a plurality of code blocks, each code block containing one of a plurality of pattern configurations, each of the pattern configurations having a corresponding numerical code value, and the coded pattern containing the image identification information and the coordinate value information.

An image processing method comprising:

• reading an image in which a first coded pattern area containing image identification information, to identify an image formed on a recording material, and a second coded pattern area containing coordinate value information are embedded as a background image on the recording material;
• detecting pattern configurations contained in code blocks in the first coded pattern area and code blocks in the second coded pattern area;
• extracting numerical values corresponding to the pattern configurations contained in the second coded pattern area;
• decoding the coordinate value information using the numerical values obtained from the second coded pattern area;
• extracting numerical values corresponding to the pattern configurations contained the first coded pattern area;
• extracting a series of original numerical values by performing a decoding process that contains at least the step of subtracting the numerical value of a corresponding code block in the second pattern area from each of the numerical values of the code blocks in the first coded pattern area;
• and
• decoding the image identification information using the original numerical values.

A computer readable medium storing a program causing a computer to execute a process for image generation, the process comprising;

• coding image identification information, to identify an image formed on a recording material, and coordinate value information on the recording material;
• obtaining a first numerical value corresponding to a first code block containing encoded coordinate value information;
• obtaining a second numerical value from a second code block containing encoded image identification information;
• obtaining a third numerical value by adding the first numerical value to the second numerical value;
• replacing the first numerical value with the third numerical value;
• and
• forming a background image on the recording material, the background image being a coded pattern made up of a plurality of code blocks, each code block containing one of a plurality of pattern configurations, each of the pattern configurations having a corresponding numerical code value, and the coded pattern containing the image identification information and the coordinate value information.

A computer readable medium storing a program causing a computer to execute a process for image processing, the process comprising:

• reading an image in which a first coded pattern area containing image identification information, to identify an image formed on a recording material, and a second coded pattern area containing coordinate value information are embedded as a background image on the recording material;
• detecting pattern configurations contained in code blocks in the first coded pattern area and code blocks in the second coded pattern area;
• extracting numerical values corresponding to the pattern configurations contained in the second coded pattern area;
• decoding the coordinate value information using the numerical values obtained from the second coded pattern area;
• extracting numerical values corresponding to the pattern configurations contained the first coded pattern area;
• extracting a series of original numerical values by performing a decoding process that contains at least the step of subtracting the numerical value of a corresponding code block in the second pattern area from each of the numerical values of the code blocks in the first coded pattern area;
• and
• decoding the image identification information using the original numerical values.