IP: Software hidden behind news print in Tokyo paper

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/intact070200.htm

Software hidden behind news print in Tokyo paper

Scanning paper converts black dots into variety of programs, using Intacta 
technology.

BY JON HEALEY

Mercury News

Tokyo's Yomiuri Shimbun, the world's best-selling newspaper, has been 
cramming some extra ink onto its pages this year.

It's not for Japanese characters -- it's a series of black dots arrayed in 
a tight, uneven pattern. From a distance it looks like woven fabric; up 
close it looks like a snowy TV screen.
Feed the page through a scanner, however, and the true nature of the image 
is revealed: it's software. The file might be a snippet of music one day, a 
popular chess program the next.
The technology behind the Yomiuri project comes from Atlanta-based Intacta 
Technologies Inc. Based on work done for the Israeli minister of defense, 
Intacta's encoding technique compresses and encrypts virtually any type of 
digital file into a pattern of dots.

What makes Intacta unique, said Todd Dombrowski, director of business 
development, is its ability to move data securely from their customary 
dwelling places to new ones. For example, a spreadsheet could be printed on 
a postcard instead of a floppy disk. The technology doesn't require the 
printed image to stay in pristine condition. On the contrary, Dombrowski 
said, it's designed to put up with the kind of abuse that newspapers 
undergo in the hands of their readers.

Intacta's software reduces any digital file or files to a binary code of 
tiny black dots on a white background. The dots and blank spaces represent 
the zeros and ones of computer data, said Marc Nehamkin, an Intacta 
director, and they can be arrayed in any kind of shape -- a company logo, 
for example, or a face.