A merchandising coupon having a coded information track comprising a pair of substantially parallel rows of adjacent portions of contrasting character (for example, black and white), the portions of the first of said rows serving as a timer track, and the portions of the second of said rows serving as an information track; the contrasting portions of the first row being symmetrically and uniformly spaced to serve as a timing or clocking track, and the contrasting portions of the second row being of a length to overlie one or more of the adjacent contrasting portions of the first row, whereby said rows, when correlated in a binary system, operate according to a nonreturn-to-zero method in order to provide substantial manufacturing, shipping, receiving, ordering or marketing inventory control and accounting information, and capable of being imprinted at any handling stage with one or more additional rows of data operating in substantially the same manner.
The present invention relates to a micro-marking label to be applied to an article for identification. The label is formed from a thin microsized plate of generally transparent material which includes a marking indicia thereon. The indicia is divided into a plurality of digital areas each of which are homogeneously marked in either a first or second optical condition so as to identify a digital bit of data. The label is placed upon a surface of the article to be identified and sealed thereto by a layer of sealant which is substantially larger than the microsized label. An apparatus for depositing the label is also included.
A slip, a method of automatic reading of the slip, and an apparatus used therefor comprising a slip with delineated thereon a control mark made up of line segments of different lengths sequentially arranged in a line for representing a kind of format, information marks spaced apart from the control mark, each thereof being made up of line segments of different sizes arranged sequentially in a line, for representing task data, and information marks spaced apart from the information marks representing numerical data consisting of regions where numerals are written in and regions where bar patterns are written in, a scanning device receiving the slip as input thereto and outputting image data therefrom, a file unit previously storing therein formats corresponding to control marks, criterion coordinates and criterion numerical values corresponding to information marks representing task data, and criterion coordinates corresponding to information marks representing numerical data, read only memories storing therein in advance image data of numerals 0-9 and image data of predetermined bar patterns corresponding to the numerals 0-9, and a central prcessing unit for specifying the kind of the slip by comparing the image data with data from the file unit, deciding whether or not following data should be taken in, and comparing the image data with image data from the read only memories thereby to recognize numerals written in the information marks representing the numerical data.
A redeemable merchandising coupon entitling its holder to a specified discount on a particular consumer item, the coupon having printed thereon not only the name of the item and the amount to be taken off the purchase price, but also code indicia. The code indicia has a first component which matches the universal product code (UPC) assigned to an item in question and a second component indicative of the fact that this item is subject to discount. When the holder purchases a group of items in a supermarket and the UPC indicia on these items are scanned at a check-out lane by a UPC system so that the terminal of the system may determine the names and prices of the group of items purchased and provide a receipt listing these items and the total to be paid, the same scanner thereafter serves to scan the two components on the coupon presented at the check-out lane. If the first component matches any one of the UPC indicia in the group of items previously scanned, the second component is then recognized and the terminal accords to the purchaser the specified discount which is taken into account in the total to be paid.
An information processing method in which after various sorts of information such as voice, image, and moving picture are printed as embedding information on a printing medium such as paper, the embedding information is scanned to reproduce the embedding information in an optimum form thereof. In the information processing method, original information is inputted from an input apparatus, attribute information of the original information is inputted, the original information is combined with the attribute information in accordance with a correspondence relationship therebetween to thereby produce information to be embedded, embedding information is produced from the information to be embedded, the embedding information is printed on a recording medium, the embedding information is read-scanned to thereby input image information, the embedding information is recognized from the inputted image information, the recognized embedding information is resolved into the original information and the attribute information so as to determine an output apparatus used to reproduce the original information in accordance with the attribute information corresponding thereto, and the original information is outputted to the output apparatus.
A retail coupon document contains two paper coupons which are hidden from a coupon user, the coupons being for different values. The user selects and pulls one of two intersecting pull strips, thereby revealing one of the coupons and destroying the other, depending upon which pull strip is selected. The pull strips are formed by perforated division lines which are so arranged that each pull strip passes through one of the coupons, whereby the revealed (non-destroyed) coupon will possess perforations of one of the pull strips. The pull strips are oriented parallel to a longer dimension of each coupon and parallel to the grain of the paper.
