Is this the beginning of the Mark? I always wondered how anyone would agree to be tattooed on the forehead if it was visible. This article explains how they might do it...

From: http://www.adams1.com/pub/russadam/scan96.html

Number One - Invisible bar code

The number one product was invisible bar code introduced by Eastman Chemical Company. Invisible bar codes are not new. They have been around for at least 10 years. What’s new about the invisible bar codes shown by Eastman is the use of near-infrared flurorophores (NIRFs). NIRFs can be made to glow by the red light from a laser scanner. That means that slightly modified laser scanners can read the NIRF bar codes. The old type of invisible bar codes used ultraviolet fluorescent ink which required a UV light source and a custom CCD camera to read the bar code. NIRF bar codes are also less prone to background interference from whiteners that are added in the paper making process. These whiteners glow under ultraviolet light and reduce the contrast of bar codes printed with UV ink.

So what applications could use a bar code that you can’t see? Even the people at Eastman didn’t have a quick answer, but I have a few ideas. NIRF bar codes have their biggest use in closed or in house applications. A typical example would be a wholesale fine woods warehouse. The wood planks could be marked with NIRF bar codes and scanned as the wood went into and out of inventory. The invisible marking would not destroy the wood’s appearance, yet the advantages of bar codes would still be available.

Since the bars printed with NIRF ink glow, they appear as white spaces to an ordinary bar code reader. Eastman showed several bar code readers that were modified to read the negative image of the bar code because of the glowing of the ink when illuminated by red light from scanner. Now here is an idea for a NIRF bar code application that even the people at Eastman haven’t thought of yet that uses the glowing nature of NIRFs in a visible bar code. Imagine a bar code where the bars are printed with black ink and the spaces are printed with NIRF ink. What you would have is a bar code with a phenomenal contrast ratio. This type of bar code would most likely be readable even if soiled. Remember you heard this idea first from me.

It is these visionary possibilities for Eastman’s NIRF bar code that earned it the top position.

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