Color Data Matrix

The Color Data Matrix (CDM) is an evolution of bar codes and two-dimensional codes, and is a data matrix code realized with a larger number of colors. The use of additional colors allows one to enhance the code's depth, so that, for a given surface it is possible to transfer a larger amount of information.

Presently, the standard Sinerlab defined for the Color Data Matrix employs 5 colors (white, black, green, red and blue), those that are most distant from one another in the RGB colorimetric space. A single character is defined through a sequence of five colored pixels, and this determines the dimensions of the code as a function of the quantity of information to be transimtted.

The picture below shows an example of Color Data Matrix, which, on a surface made of 16 x 16 pixels encloses an amount of infrmation corresponding to 50 characters:

Sinerlab S.r.l. Via Trento, 12 Quarrata PT

Up to now we have identified a few applications for which the use of CDM codes is particularly well suited:

- Antiforgery: the apposition of CDM codes on the label of an item may act as a means of preventing its falsification and unauthorized copying;

- Tracking in the agroindustrial sector: CDM codes can be used as means of tracking the origin of specific food and to guarantee a quality certification;

- Logistics: we are currently studying the possiblity of applying CDM codes directly on merchandise that needs to be moved, so as to be able to locate it at all times and facilitate the warehouse management and logistics;

- Security: CDM codes can be applied on credit cards or documents as additional security codes;

- Cryptography: the encoding of documents with the Color Data Matrix system makes their reading impossible for people to which the decoding software is not available.

The Color Data Matrix has been patented in Italy (inventors: Filippo Niccolai and Michele Tosti) in 2007 by Spin S.r.l. (http://www.spinserv.it/) and later developed in collaboration with Sinerlab.

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