Understanding user engagement with barcoded signs in the ‘Coast’ location-based experience

This article describes experiences with an application in which users read barcoded signs with camera phones to obtain content about their surroundings at seaside locations. The application was made available to the general public in support of ‘Coast’, a BBC television series about the UK coastline. The article highlights lessons from that trial in terms of what worked well and what was subject to deployment constraints. In particular, it describes how several factors affected the users’ engagement with the signs, the places, and other users: the barcode and mobile phone technologies; semantic issues such as signs’ relationships to landmarks; and practical issues such as local regulations.     

面向数字化制造系统信息采集的刀具标识技术研究

数字化制造系统的运行是以准确高效的刀具、设备、物料与在制品等资源的数据采集为基础.传统的刀具管理手段由于不能区分同批次刀具中不同个体,因而无法自动识别每个刀具并采集跟踪每个刀具的实时状态及使用时间.本文研究了基于二维Data Matrix条码的刀具直接信息标刻与识别技术,通过试验研究了刀具标识技术的可靠性,并讨论了提高刀具直接标识可靠性的辅助工艺方法,为刀具标识技术的工程应用提供了经验和依据,从而很好地用于解决数字化制造系统中刀具的信息采集问题.     

二维条码中RS纠错译码算法的优化实现

利用Berlekamp Massey迭代算法、钱搜索算法以及Forney算法改进并实现了Data Matrix、QR Code和MaxiCode二维条码ISO标准中的Reed-Solomon纠错译码算法(简称RS算法),降低了三种二维条码码制中RS纠错译码算法的计算复杂度。在此基础上,利用RS缩短系统码的特点对译码过程作进一步简化。实验结果表明,通过简化译码过程再次提高了RS纠错译码的速度。     

Encoded Microneedle Arrays for Detection of Skin Interstitial Fluid Biomarkers

Skin interstitial fluid (ISF) is considered as an emerging source of biomarkers with physiological and medical significance. Microneedle arrays (MNs) provide a promising means for painless, noninvasive detection of these biomarkers. Here, novel MNs integrated with photonic crystal (PhC) barcodes are presented, and multiplex specific detection of ISF biomarkers is realized for the first time. The PhC barcodes‐loaded flexible MNs are simply fabricated by replicating dynamic ferrofluid‐cast micromoldings. When the prepared MNs are inserted into skin, they can enrich specific biomarkers to their probes‐decorated PhC barcodes. Thus, by adding corresponding fluorescent probes to form sandwich immunocomplexes, the relative content of the biomarkers can be read out through the fluorescence intensity of the barcodes; meanwhile, the species of these biomarkers can be clearly distinguished by the reflection peaks of the PhC barcodes. Based on the encoded MNs, their sensitivity, flexibility, and versatility of capturing and detecting three inflammatory cytokines are demonstrated in a sepsis mice model. Compared with existing MNs for ISF detection, the encoded MNs not only possess equivalent detection effects with less post‐processing and simplified procedures, but can also detect multiple biomarkers simultaneously, which makes them ideal in many clinical and biomedical detection areas.     

Covert Photonic Barcodes Based on Light Controlled Acidichromism in Organic Dye Doped Whispering‐Gallery‐Mode Microdisks

Photonic barcodes with a small footprint have demonstrated a great value for multiplexed high‐throughput bioassays and tracking systems. Attempts to develop coding technology tend to focus on the generation of featured barcodes both with high coding capacity and accurate recognition. In this work, a strategy to design photonic barcodes is proposed based on whispering‐gallery‐mode (WGM) modulations in dye‐doped microdisk resonant cavities, where each modulated photoluminescence spectrum constitutes the fingerprint of a corresponding microdisk. The WGM‐based barcodes can achieve infinite encoding capacity through tuning the dimensions of the microdisks. These photonic barcodes can be well disguised and decoded based on the light controlled proton release and acidichromism of the organic materials, which are essential to fulfill the functions of anti‐counterfeiting, information security, and so on. The results will pave an avenue to new types of flexible WGM‐based components for optical data recording and security labels.     

An entropy-based persistence barcode

In persistent homology, the persistence barcode encodes pairs of simplices meaning birth and death of homology classes. Persistence barcodes depend on the ordering of the simplices (called a filter) of the given simplicial complex. In this paper, we define the notion of “minimal” barcodes in terms of entropy. Starting from a given filtration of a simplicial complex K, an algorithm for computing a “proper” filter (a total ordering of the simplices preserving the partial ordering imposed by the filtration as well as achieving a persistence barcode with small entropy) is detailed, by way of computation, and subsequent modification, of maximum matchings on subgraphs of the Hasse diagram associated to K. Examples demonstrating the utility of computing such a proper ordering on the simplices are given.     

Stochastic Particle Barcoding for Single‐Cell Tracking and Multiparametric Analysis

This study presents stochastic particle barcoding (SPB), a method for tracking cell identity across bioanalytical platforms. In this approach, single cells or small collections of cells are co‐encapsulated within an enzymatically‐degradable hydrogel block along with a random collection of fluorescent beads, whose number, color, and position encode the identity of the cell, enabling samples to be transferred in bulk between single‐cell assay platforms without losing the identity of individual cells. The application of SPB is demonstrated for transferring cells from a subnanoliter protein secretion/phenotyping array platform into a microtiter plate, with re‐identification accuracies in the plate assay of 96±2%. Encapsulated cells are recovered by digesting the hydrogel, allowing subsequent genotyping and phenotyping of cell lysates. Finally, a model scaling is developed to illustrate how different parameters affect the accuracy of SPB and to motivate scaling of the method to thousands of unique blocks.     

Microfluidic Synthesis of Barcode Particles for Multiplex Assays

The increasing use of high‐throughput assays in biomedical applications, including drug discovery and clinical diagnostics, demands effective strategies for multiplexing. One promising strategy is the use of barcode particles that encode information about their specific compositions and enable simple identification. Various encoding mechanisms, including spectroscopic, graphical, electronic, and physical encoding, have been proposed for the provision of sufficient identification codes for the barcode particles. These particles are synthesized in various ways. Microfluidics is an effective approach that has created exciting avenues of scientific research in barcode particle synthesis. The resultant particles have found important application in the detection of multiple biological species as they have properties of high flexibility, fast reaction times, less reagent consumption, and good repeatability. In this paper, research progress in the microfluidic synthesis of barcode particles for multiplex assays is discussed. After introducing the general developing strategies of the barcode particles, the focus is on studies of microfluidics, including their design, fabrication, and application in the generation of barcode particles. Applications of the achieved barcode particles in multiplex assays will be described and emphasized. The prospects for future development of these barcode particles are also presented.