JP2001250099A - Information recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To provide an information recording medium in which information can be easily classified into levels and hard to forge. The method comprises a combination of a plurality of solids having different widths and heights, and the width and height are optically recognizable.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optically recognizable information recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Barcodes, holograms and the like are known as optically recognizable information recording media. A barcode is composed of a combination of a plurality of patterns having different line widths, and is currently attached to many products and the like, and is used for sales management and inventory management. In addition, holograms are used to display images using the diffraction of light, and are difficult to duplicate, so that the goods or the like to which they are attached are authentic, that is, they are widely used as anti-counterfeiting media. Have been.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

[0003] However, the conventional barcode is a flat barcode attached to a product or its packaging by printing or the like, so that it is easy to copy. Therefore, the information that can be recorded is information irrelevant to forgery prevention in the first place, such as information for product management.

In some cases, not all information obtained by reading a bar code is required. For example, taking price and production lot number as an example, when purchasing goods, price data is required, but production lot number does not matter, while inventory management does not require price data, but production lot number is required There are several levels of information needed, such as

However, the conventional barcode has a two-dimensional structure, and cannot record all such information separately. Also, the amount of information is limited due to the planar configuration.

Further, the conventional hologram is used as a means for indicating that the product or the like to which the hologram is attached is genuine, that is, as a medium for preventing forgery. Often not. That is, this is because the amount of information is so large that it is rather difficult to read out information by mechanical means. Therefore, there is a very large amount of information recording capacity, but it cannot be said that it is being used effectively. However, it may be required that the authenticity can be determined with the naked eye.

As a result, at present, the information recording medium for merchandise management and the medium for preventing forgery are separately attached to merchandise and the like.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such problems of the conventional information recording medium, and has as its objects (1) merchandise management information and information indicating that it is genuine. Providing an information recording medium capable of simultaneously recording information at different levels, (2) providing an information recording medium that is difficult to forge, and (3) information that can be determined by the naked eye without using a device. Providing a recording medium.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided the present invention comprising a plurality of irregularities having different widths and heights, and the width and height are optically recognizable. An information recording medium is provided. According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information recording medium in which a relief pattern is formed on the side surface of the unevenness constituting the information recording medium of the first aspect. According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the information recording medium according to the first or second aspect of the invention, wherein a layer containing another substance is provided on the surface of a part of the irregularities. And the fourth
According to the invention, there is provided an information recording medium in which the layer containing the other substance of the third invention contains a phosphor, and the coloring layer emits visible light upon irradiation with ultraviolet light.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An information recording medium according to the present invention comprises a plurality of irregularities having different widths. Therefore, by observing this from above, information based on a combination of patterns having different widths, that is, information similar to a conventional barcode can be obtained.

For this purpose, the edge of the formed pattern is recognized, or the difference in color tone is recognized by selectively forming a layer made of another substance, that is, a colored layer on a part of the surface. I just need. Therefore, the information can be recognized using a known barcode reader.

In this case, the layer made of another substance is not limited to a layer that can be recognized under visible light, but may be a layer that can be recognized by irradiation with ultraviolet rays or the like.

In any case, the width of the surface of the convex portion is optically recognizable, so that it can be used like a conventional bar code.

In addition, in the present invention, other information is obtained. That is, since the information recording medium of the present invention has irregularities having different widths and heights, not only the width is recognized as information as in a conventional bar code, but also the irregularities, Can be recognized separately from the information obtained from In this case, the height information is obtained by scanning the information recording medium at a constant speed by means such as distance measurement to the surface, and converting the waveform of the obtained height information into numerical data or the like. By doing so, it can be used as information.

Therefore, in the information recording medium of the present invention, information that is not included in the conventional barcode can be obtained separately from so-called barcode information. Therefore, the information obtained by the separation can be used as proof of authenticity.

Furthermore, when a part of the unevenness, for example, a wall surface on one side of each unevenness is partially projected, that is, when a relief is formed, the relief can be visually recognized as a pattern when viewed from the right side, but can be viewed from the left side. The information recording medium of the present invention can be viewed differently depending on the direction in which the information recording medium is viewed, such that the relief is not visible.

In this case, for example, a specific pattern (trademark or the like) can be recognized by the naked eye when viewed from the right, but such a pattern cannot be visually recognized when viewed from the left. The authenticity can be determined.

Regarding forgery prevention, since the information display medium of the present invention has a three-dimensional structure, forgery is more difficult than a flat information display medium represented by, for example, a bar code.

The information recording medium may be used in the following manner: (1) a label is prepared in advance, and the label is attached to a product, etc .; There is a form in which an information recording medium is directly formed.

[0020]

The present invention will be described below with reference to examples.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to examples.

<Embodiment 1> As shown in FIG. 1, a mold 10 having an inverted shape of an information recording medium to be sought is pressed on an acrylic plate 20 and a part of an acrylic plate is provided with irregularities having different widths and depths. Was formed. Here, a mold composed of a combination of stripe patterns having different line widths and heights was used.

A black paste containing a black pigment as a main component is applied only to the surface of the convex portion of the formed irregularities by using a screen printing method to produce an information recording medium having a colored layer 30 as shown in FIG. did. At this time, only the surface could be selectively applied by setting the printing squeegee angle to 70 degrees.

As a method for reading this information recording medium,
For reading the colored layer on the convex surface, that is, the information in the width direction, a conventional bar code reader could be used as it was. As a result, the pattern arrangement of the colored layer on the surface of the convex portion can be used as a so-called barcode, and data obtained therefrom was used as information on a country name, a manufacturer, and a product price.

On the other hand, the information on the unevenness, that is, the information in the height direction, could be read by scanning on the information recording medium 40 with a laser focus displacement meter (manufactured by Keyence). The information was used as the production lot number and information on the countries where parallel import was prohibited. Therefore, even if a manufacturer attaches an indication to a product that prohibits parallel imports by a third party, but deletes it and distributes it, the fact that the information has been erased and Those who performed parallel import were confirmed.

<Embodiment 2> As in Embodiment 1, a mold having an inverted shape of an information recording medium is pressed on an acrylic plate 20 to form irregularities having different widths and depths on a part of an acrylic plate. As an information recording medium.

Here, as the mold, a mold having convex portions formed partially on the side surfaces of the irregularities was used, and a relief pattern was formed on the side surfaces of the irregularities. FIGS. 3 and 4 show an example of a top view and a cross-sectional view in this case.

As a result, as shown in FIG. 5, it was possible to produce an information recording medium having different appearances when viewed from the A side and when viewed from the B side in FIG. As a result, the authenticity of this product could be judged with the naked eye.
Similarly to Example 1, the surface was colored to obtain barcode information, and the height information of the irregularities could be read by scanning a laser focus displacement meter (manufactured by Keyence) on the information recording medium. . In reading the information in this case, the height information below the pattern was ignored. Therefore, the same information was obtained by scanning any part in FIG. 3 and could be used as the same information source as in the first embodiment.

<Example 3> As in Example 1, a mold was used to form irregularities having different widths and depths on an acrylic plate.

A phosphor that emits light by ultraviolet irradiation and a phosphor paste containing an organic solvent as main components were applied to the formed concave and convex concave portions by screen printing. In addition,
At this time, since the printing squeegee angle is set to 30 degrees and the amount of the organic solvent in the phosphor paste is large, the adhesion of the phosphor paste on the surface of the convex portion is practically negligible, and only the concave portion is almost selectively. The phosphor paste could be applied.

As a result, the phosphor layer 50 as shown in FIG.
An information recording medium on which was formed was produced.

The reading of the phosphor layer on the surface of the concave portion was performed by reading a light emission pattern while irradiating ultraviolet rays. On the other hand, the height information of the unevenness could be read by scanning a laser focus displacement meter (manufactured by Keyence) on the information recording medium.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In addition to two-dimensional information like conventional barcodes, it has information at different reading levels called height information,
In addition, it was possible to provide an information recording medium capable of judging authenticity with the naked eye.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a process for manufacturing an information recording medium according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of an information recording medium according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a top view of the information recording medium in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of an information recording medium according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of an information recording medium according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of an information recording medium according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 mold 20 acrylic plate 30 colored layer 40 information recording medium 50 phosphor layer

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ───

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] March 27, 2000 (2003.
7)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Name of invention

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Title of the Invention] Information recording medium

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) G11B 7/24 533 G06K 19/00 R 572 CE

Claims (4)

[Claims] An information recording medium comprising a plurality of irregularities having different widths and heights, wherein the width and height are optically recognizable. 2. The information recording medium according to claim 1, wherein a specific relief pattern is formed on a side surface of the unevenness. 3. The information recording medium according to claim 1, wherein a layer containing another substance is provided on the surface of a part of the irregularities. 4. The information recording medium according to claim 3, wherein the layer containing another substance contains a phosphor, and the colored layer emits visible light upon irradiation with ultraviolet light. recoding media