Today, Michael O'Donnell gleaned this insight:
> I believe I recall my manager at a previous company
> telling me that she had previously worked with the guy
> who invented that tricky method of using a 2D grid
> of printed dots to encode data, as employed by UPS
> (among others?) to track packages. I think she told
> me that the technology was surprisingly sophisticated
> and that it involved (among other things) doing
> FFTs on a sample of reflected light gathered from
> the dot array. The resultant transform is somehow
> (after other tricky steps) reliably mapped to a long
> string of digits with good error detection/correction
> characteristics, and it apparently doesn't care much
> about the orientation of the scanning wand, either.
Up to here, you're perfectly correct. It was a technology invented by UPS
(or by someone they paid perhaps) specifically for this type of thing.
> If I had to bet, it would be that you're unlikely to
> find anything nonproprietary that will help you work
> with such codes, though I'd be happy to learn that
> I'm wrong. Happy hunting...
In theory, that shouldn't be true. UPS released the specification of this
form of encoding (called UPS-code previously) into the public domain, with
hopes that it would be adopted as a world-wide standard for data encoding.
However, like Beta-Max, just because it's better doesn't mean it will gain
widespread acceptance. I've yet to see it used anywhere else; though
given the origin of this thread I'd bet someone is using it.
As to where to find out more about this form of data encoding, I haven't a
clue, other than to suggest perhaps you should contact UPS. I'm sure
someone there will be able to help you, if you can get past the waves of
drones who know nothing about technology.
--
You know that everytime I try to go where I really want to be,
It's already where I am, cuz I'm already there...
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Derek D. Martin | Unix/Linux Geek
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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