Automation and workflow considerations for embedding Digimarc Barcodes at scale

The Digimarc Barcode is a digital watermark applied to packages and variable data labels that carries GS1 standard GTIN-14 data traditionally carried by a 1-D barcode. The Digimarc Barcode can be read with smartphones and imagingbased barcode readers commonly used in grocery and retail environments. Using smartphones, consumers can engage with products and retailers can materially increase the speed of check-out, increasing store margins and providing a better experience for shoppers. Internal testing has shown an average of 53% increase in scanning throughput, enabling 100’s of millions of dollars in cost savings [1] for retailers when deployed at scale. To get to scale, the process of embedding a digital watermark must be automated and integrated within existing workflows. Creating the tools and processes to do so represents a new challenge for the watermarking community. This paper presents a description and an analysis of the workflow implemented by Digimarc to deploy the Digimarc Barcode at scale. An overview of the tools created and lessons learned during the introduction of technology to the market are provided.