Apr 25, 2013Colorbit USA, the U.S. division of Japanese company B-Core, was launched this year to introduce B-Core's new color-coded automatic-identification technology to the North American and European markets. The technology, developed and sold by B-Core and currently being employed by a variety of companies in Japan, allows users to track inventory or assets via unique colored patterns as an alternative to serialized bar codes or radio frequency identification.
The system consists of B-Core's software that provides a series of unique colored cells representing a serial number. A user would print each pattern on a label that is then attached to an item, or paint that pattern directly onto that object. The code could also be generated using tri-color light-emitting diodes (LEDs) installed on the asset. When a digital camera in a mobile phone or tablet PC, or a fixed camera, captures the image of a Colorbit scheme, the Colorbit software determines its serial number, thereby identifying goods in a way more typically accomplished using serialized bar codes or RFID.
The technology offers a lower-cost alternative to RFID, according to Chris Anderson, Colorbit USA's managing partner, because it does not require readers, or even tags, since users can print a Colorbit label themselves on any color printer. It does require a clear line of sight, however, so the labels or painted Colorbit codes must be facing the camera. The solution also offers a good alternative to bar codes, Anderson notes. The pattern of colors could be printed in a variety of form factors, including a spiral, making them more attractive to product designers. In addition, they need not be scanned individually—a single photograph containing multiple printed labels will capture all of them.
A Colorbit code is composed of a series of colored cells arranged in a continuous configuration. Each cell is made up of one of three colors (for example, red, green or blue); moving from one color to the next generates either a "1" or "0" bit. When a user takes a digital photo of a code, Colorbit's decoding software interprets that code by tracing the transition from one color to the next. The cells can be of any shape or size, and a code can be successfully read even if the line of cells within a configuration is curved or otherwise distorted. The Colorbit software, Anderson explains, can examine the image's entire field of view, wipe out the background, isolate the codes and decode them typically within less than 100 milliseconds. What's more, if exposure to weather has caused the cells' colors to fade or change, a Colorbit code can still be decoded just as quickly.
First, a user would create a series of serial numbers for the items he or she wishes to track, along with the colors to be used, such as green, red and yellow. The software would then generate a color pattern of cells (which can be of any size or shape) for each serial number, with the number of cells depending on the serial number's length. The pattern could either be printed using any type of color printer directly onto a label, or other paperwork that could accompany, for example, a pallet of goods, or it could be used as a template for the pattern to be painted or printed directly onto an item, either automatically or manually.
Users must download an application for their Apple iPhone, iPad or other device, or could run Colorbit software on a PC cabled to fixed cameras. In the future, the company intends to offer an app for Android phones as well. When a user takes a picture of one or more Colorbit codes, each code would be read by the software or app, and then be linked to the individual item to which it is attached.
The Tokyo company began developing the technology in 2007, and started providing the solution to end users in Japan in 2010. Businesses utilize the system for a variety of purposes, Colorbit USA reports. Nintendo, for instance, is printing the Colorbit code on game cards, in order to authenticate that they have not been duplicated. Another B-core customer has painted the codes on solar cells, and is capturing the codes from aircraft flying over the units, in order to ensure that they have not been removed or moved to another location.
A third unnamed firm is using the technology to identify bicycles that are borrowed on city streets and are then returned elsewhere. For this solution, Anderson says, bar codes would not have been appropriate since a separate scan of each individual bar code would have been required, while RFID tags would have been challenging when attached to metal bicycle frames, and would have required RFID readers. With the B-Core solution, the user attached a Colorbit label to each bike's back fender, and can simply walk past the bikes carrying an iPhone set on camera-mode, simultaneously capturing images of all Colorbit identifiers in one photo.
The company now seeks to reach the North American and European market, and has formed Colorbit USA to take on this task. Anderson says his division is pursuing partnerships with systems integrators that could bring the technology directly to end users. To date, he reports, end users have been the ones to find use cases for the technology. However, he notes, he expects it to be useful in manufacturing—for example, by applying or printing Colorbit codes on parts being assembled onto an item, to confirm that the correct pieces are being used, as well as on the edge of flat assets, such as stacked circuit boards. In the latter scenario, a camera could capture the Colorbit codes on all boards stacked together, thereby creating a record of which circuit boards or other items were in a stack, in addition to the order in which they were stacked. That type of data would be more difficult to capture with RFID, Anderson explains, since a read would not indicate the items' order, whereas bar codes would not be easy to apply on a narrow edge.
Colorbit USA's color-based auto-ID solution will make its North American debut at the upcoming RFID Journal LIVE! 2013 conference and exhibition, to be held in Orlando, Fla., from Apr. 30 to May 2. The company will demonstrate its technology in booth 350 at the event.
