News

2011.0105

NTNU Won Global Recognition in Nuremberg Invention Fair—inventing a new function of paper by hiding data with hybrid screening

<div> <p><font size="3">Along with his research team members, Xiao Pei Qi and Lian Qi Ming, Professor Wang Xi Jun of the Department of Graphic Arts Communication, NTNU, has discovered a new blue ocean in traditional printing industry. The research team successfully developed a new technique that produces digital watermarks with hybrid halftone dots. Developed on digital halftoning, this new technique allows users to design invisible watermarks that can be retrieved with a copier or a scanner to claim ownership of patent rights.</font></p> </div> <div> <p><font size="3">The fundamental principle behind this technique is to make and hide watermarks with hybrid screening, which includes calibrated amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) in various sizes and density of dots. Watermarks are invisible from a distance away, but may be retrieved through photocopying, diffraction grating or optical scanning.</font></p> </div> <div><font size="3">This new technique has been patented in Taiwan and the United States. It can be applied in digital printing to produce various anti-counterfeiting documents in small quantities. The hidden watermarks may be a serial number or a specially-designed code and therefore may vary in output, which helps users manage different versions of a same document and hide information at the same time.</font></div> <div> <p><font size="3">With this new technique, the research team of DGAC also developed a number of value-added products to showcase in the iENA International Trade Fair. A part of the team members, Xiao Pei Qi, Zhang Wei Zheng and Huang Rui Teng, had even traveled to Germany to demonstrate how these products work at the Trade Fair. They successfully caught people’s attention and received a lot of inquires. Eventually, their invention was awarded a gold medal.</font></p> </div> <div> <p><font size="3">The research team of DGAC further fused their invention with multimedia and created a kind of paper that enables audio and video interactions. With this new technology, the role of paper has changed. Now, paper may turn into new products that are creative, functional and have added value. In Mandarin, there are some commonly used four-word sayings such as “a heavenly blank book” and “making leaps on a piece of paper.” With this new digital technology, people now can actually turn these metaphorical sayings into reality.</font></p> </div> <div> <p><font size="3">The research team also brought in the special features of NTNU to create special, creative works. For example, Dong Yang Zi’s calligraphic work “Shida-Dashi” (meaning NTNU-Master, this piece of work had been put in place in celebration of NTNU’s 60<sup>th</sup> anniversary), was used as the hidden watermark in “A Heavenly Blank Book;” <span>Yuan Shu Chi, Taiwan’s Olympic medalist in archery, with her healthy, athletic image, was projected on “Making Leaps on a Piece of Paper.” Last but not least, the work of NTNU’s Golden Melody Award winner, Professor Li Wen Bin from the Department of Music, was played in the “Singing Music Program List.” By realizing an interdisciplinary convergence of engineering and art, NTNU hopes to enhance its publicity and win more public recognition. </span></font></p> </div> <div> <p><span><font size="3">The major inventor of this new technique, Professor Wang Xi Jun of DGAC, said he would like to extend his special thanks to the National Digital Archive Program of National Science Council, and Office of Research and Development, as well as the Department of Graphic Arts Communication, NTNU, for their wholehearted support. Professor Wang also emphasized the importance of business-academic collaboration, saying that in the future, with the help of business partners, more researchers will be able to commercialize their creative ideas and inventions. Professor Wang’s achievement is now publicized on the website of the Presidential Office in the “soft power” display section.</font></span></p> <p><font size="3">The 62<sup>nd</sup> iENA International Trade Fair was held in October in Nuremberg Germany. More than 800 contending works from 37 countries were presented in the trade fair. Once again, Taiwan won the team championship, bringing home 27 gold, 32 silver and 23 bronze medals. Above all, this is the first time NTNU has won a gold medal with its patented technique in an international invention exhibition, which is also a quite commendable achievement.</font></p> </div>