Patent attributes
A composite information bearing device comprising a plurality of data units forming a data bearing device and an ensemble of pattern defining elements defining a data embedding spread pattern, wherein each data unit is in one of a plurality of digital states and at least some of the data units of a digital state are defined by the pattern defining elements, wherein the pattern defining elements are distributed following a spatial distribution rule, and the spatial distribution rule defines characteristic values of the spread pattern in spatial domain which are continuous values spread between a maximum value and a minimum value, and wherein the spatial distribution of the pattern defining elements of the ensemble follows the spatial distribution rule to the extent where the characteristic values are either above or below a selection threshold value which is a value between the maximum value and the minimum value.