METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CAPTURING AND DECODING AN IMAGE OF A REMOTELY LOCATED BAR CODE
A method for remotely decoding a bar code includes capturing an image of a bar code using a camera, transmitting the image of the bar code across a network, receiving the image of the bar code at a remote location on the network, reproducing the image of the bar code at the remote location to provide a reproduced image of the bar code, and scanning and decoding the reproduced image of the bar code.
1 . A method for remotely decoding a machine readable code for security purposes, comprising:
sending information displayed as a secure machine readable code;
capturing an image of the machine readable code using a camera;
transmitting the image of the machine readable code across a network;
receiving the image of the machine readable code at a remote location on the network;
reproducing the image of the machine readable code on a video display at the remote location to provide a reproduced image of the machine readable code;
scanning and decoding the reproduced image of the machine readable code from the video display using a machine readable code reader to provide information; and
verifying the information extracted from the reproduced image of the machine readable code matches the security information.
2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the camera is selected from the set consisting of a phone camera, a security camera, a camcorder, a digital camera, a web camera, and a television camera.
3 . The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the image of the machine readable code across a network is encrypted.
4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the machine readable code is proprietary.
5 . The method of claim 1 wherein the machine readable code is a tagged machine readable code.
6 . The method of claim 5 wherein the machine readable code is tagged using XML.
7 . The method of claim 1 wherein the video display at the remote location is selected from the set consisting of a television, a laptop screen, a tablet, a PDA, a PC monitor, an ATM display, a cash register display, a digital TV screen, a CRT computer monitor, a liquid crystal display (LCD), and a CRT TV screen.
8 . The method of claim 1 wherein the scanning and decoding is performed using a device selected from the set consisting of a high scan rate CCD, and an imager.
9 . The method of claim 1 wherein the scanning and decoding is performed using a software solution executing on a computing device.
10 . The method of claim 1 wherein the scanning and decoding is performed using a machine readable code scanner integrated into a device selected from the set consisting of a cell phone, a land line phone, a PDA, a computer mouse, a GPS receiver, a pager, a two-way communication device, and a fob.
11 . The method of claim 1 wherein the source of the image of a machine readable code is selected from a set consisting of a printed machine readable code, and a video displayed machine readable code.
12 . The method of claim 14 wherein the source of the image of a machine readable code is selected from the set consisting of an identification card, a badge, a ticket, an electronic document, a electronic document with fill-in-fields, an e-mail, a form, a webpage, a spreadsheet, a student record, a student report card, an invoice, a purchase order, a repair order, a warranty, a prescription, a patient record, and a prisoner's record.
13 . The method of claim 1 wherein the method of securing the information displayed in the machine readable code is selected from the set consisting of a hash, a biometric, and a PIN.
14 . The method of claim 1 wherein the machine readable code comprises a human readable text portion and machine readable machine readable code portion.
15 . The method of claim 14 wherein the human readable text portion does not match the machine readable machine readable code portion to provide increased security.
16 . The method of claim 1 wherein the video display at the remote location is a cell phone.
17 . The method of claim 15 wherein the cell phone is verified using an electronic identification code of the cell phone selected from the set consisting of an electronic signature number, a mobile identification number, and a system identification code.
18 . The method of claim 1 wherein the step of verifying is performed using a computer running software that verifies information derived from the remote machine readable code matches security information stored in the computer.
19 . The method of claim 1 further comprising granting physical access to a secured site after the step of verifying.