DATA COMPRESSION IN BLACK-GRAY-WHITE BARCODING

Abstract

Context. In this paper the authors propose a method for data compression to be used for presenting information in the form of 2D matrix barcode. The proposed method is based on both a structural-logical approach and using three colors in a barcode instead of two colors as it is in standard black-and-white barcodes. This approach allows to increase data density keeping the same area as bicolor barcodes take. In the paper authors present the data compression method and demonstrate the barcoding technology.Objective. The goal of the work is to develop a method of data barcoding that would allow to encode more information in the form of 2D matrix barcode.Method. The method of tricolor matrix barcoding with compression is proposed. The main idea of the method is to compress input textual information on the stage of alphanumeric sequence transformation into a set of barcode patterns, which will form a resulting barcode symbol. It is possible due to intermediate transformation of input characters from initial notation, which is determined by cardinality of an input alphabet, to a notation defined by cardinality of barcode patterns alphabet. Choice of the input alphabet influences overall compression, and it is an important step of the method to choose the initial alphabets for the textual information to be encoded. Use of three colors over standard two colors is also an important component for creating a barcode symbol with increased informational density. As ternary notation is used, the second transformation from the intermediate notation to the ternary one provides more compression. The proposed method allows to represent more textual data in a single barcode symbol than bicolor barcoding approaches do.Results. The method of tricolor matrix barcoding with compression has been developed and described. Authors provided an example of the method implementation on test data that had been barcoded using the method.Conclusions. The experiments conducted for this research have confirmed that the proposed method provides more informational density as compared with black-and-white matrix barcodes. The prospects for further research might include studying noise immunity issue in order to guarantee error-free scanning and increased reliability of the barcode, and extending the barcoding software to be used in any alphabet.