Open Access

ARTICLE

An Amorphous 2-Dimensional Barcode

Han Jin¹, Shi Jin^{2, *}, Junfeng Wu²

1 School of Computer & Software, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China.
2 School of Information Management, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210036, China.

* Corresponding Author: Jin Shi. Email: .

Journal of Cyber Security 2020, 2(1), 37-48. https://doi.org/10.32604/jcs.2020.07209

Abstract

Most existing 2-dimensional barcodes are designed with a fixed shape and clear area. Having a fixed shape and clear area makes the barcode difficult to lay out with other text and pictures. To solve this problem, an amorphous 2-dimensional barcode is presented in this paper. The barcode uses encoding graph units to encode data. There are two key points in a 2-dimensional barcode: One is the encoding graph unit, the other is its encoding rules. Because encoding graph units of a 2-dimensional barcode are surrounded by other graphics, the units should be self-positioned and distinguished from other units. This paper presents an encoding graph unit generation algorithm, which is based on genetic algorithms. Encoding rules of the barcode are also given in this paper. Those rules include data encoding rules and encoding graph unit sequence arrangement rules. Data encoding rules are used to encode data to an encoding graph unit sequence. Encoding graph unit sequence arrangement rules are used to embed the unit sequence in the target picture. In addition to those rules, it also discussed the steps to restore encoding graph unit sequence from a picture. In the experiments section of this paper, an example is provided to encode a string and embed it in a car ad picture by the barcode. According to encoding rules of the barcode, those encoding graphic units can be scattered and embedded in a picture with other graphics, so amorphous 2-dimensional barcode has no fixed shape. Take advantage of this, designer can present a more elegant design to lay out barcodes with other graphic elements.

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Keywords

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