HXC Code — Hexagonal Extended Color

Overview

HXC Code — Hexagonal Extended Color High-Density Dual-Channel Optical Code System — is the second patented technology from Pilon Laboratories Inc. It is the world's first optical code format to combine multiple simultaneous independent data channels within a single printed physical mark: visible color, visible symbol, symbol rendering color, cell orientation, border encoding, ultraviolet fluorescent layer, near-infrared layer, tactile Braille emboss, and micro-text.

The baseline visible-layer configuration encodes 9 bits per module — approximately 9× standard QR. The full single-layer optical-plus-Braille configuration achieves 41 bits per module and 114 KB per Large code. Adding UV and infrared covert layers reaches 123 bits per module equivalent and 342 KB per code — sufficient to encode a complete 3-minute audio recording or a near-megapixel photograph in a single physically printed card.

1 · The Problem with Existing Code Formats

Standard 2D codes were designed for short URLs and contact cards. Their capacity limits make them useless for modern high-entropy payloads:

No existing publicly available optical code format uses simultaneous dual-channel encoding within a single module, encodes additional bits via cell orientation, border properties, UV fluorescent overlay, infrared transparent overlay, or tactile Braille. HXC Code is architecturally novel at every layer.

2 · Baseline Dual-Channel Architecture — 9 bits/module

The baseline HXC Code encodes binary data using two simultaneous, informationally independent physical channels within each module cell. The color fill does not constrain the symbol, and the symbol does not constrain the color. Each cell encodes exactly 3 + 6 = 9 bits, irrespective of the values of either channel.

2.1 The Color Channel — 3 bits

Eight colors, each chosen for maximum spectral discrimination by digital image sensors under variable illumination. One additional color — Neon Cyan (#00E5FF) — is reserved exclusively for finder patterns and never appears in the data area.

2.2 The Symbol Channel — 6 bits

The baseline symbol alphabet uses 64 characters rendered visibly inside each cell. The symbol alphabet is extensible (see §3.1) — the patent claims the right to extend to full Unicode, yielding up to 17+ additional bits per module through symbol channel expansion alone.

2.3 Hexagonal Close-Packed Geometry

Flat-top hexagonal cells in a close-packed (honeycomb) grid. Hexagonal packing achieves 90.69% areal efficiency and provides superior angular tolerance — a hexagonal cell remains decodable through a wider camera angle and lighting gradient than a square cell. Odd columns shift down by half vertical cell pitch to maintain close packing.

2.4 Finder Patterns

Three 5×5-cell finder regions at top-left, top-right, and bottom-left corners, each rendered in reserved Neon Cyan (#00E5FF). A one-cell separator zone surrounds each finder region. Each cyan cell contains a white semi-transparent inner polygon at 42% of cell radius. The missing bottom-right finder resolves 180° rotational ambiguity without a separate timing pattern.

2.5 Error Correction — GF(512)

Reed-Solomon error correction over GF(2⁹) = GF(512). This field was chosen because it matches the 9-bit module word size exactly — one module equals one RS codeword symbol, with no padding or splitting overhead. No prior 2D code standard uses GF(512). Standard QR uses GF(256) because it is byte-oriented (8-bit modules). HXC's adoption of GF(512) is a direct architectural consequence of the dual-channel design.

3 · Multi-Dimensional Encoding Extensions

The patent specification defines eight additional independent encoding dimensions (§6.1–§6.8) that may be applied to any HXC Code variant. Each additional dimension is physically independent of all existing channels and may be combined in any subset. The combined per-module capacity with all channels active reaches 41 bits on a single physical layer.

3.1 Extended Unicode Symbol Channel (§6.1 / Claim 31–33)

The baseline 64-character symbol alphabet is extensible to the complete Unicode Standard — covering every human writing system including Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Devanagari, all CJK ideographic blocks, mathematical symbols, currency, and pictographic characters. Using the full Unicode assigned character set yields a symbol channel bit depth of at least 17 bits per module, for a combined baseline+Unicode total of 20+ bits per module from the two visible channels alone.

3.2 Symbol Rendering Color Channel — +2–3 bits (§6.1 / Claim 57)

In the baseline, the symbol character is rendered in a contrasting color determined by the cell fill (black on light cells, white on dark cells). In this extension, the rendering color of the symbol is itself an independent encoding channel, selected from a palette of 4 members (+2 bits) or 8 members (+3 bits), completely independent of the cell fill color. No change to the physical format or printing process is required — only the encoder and decoder must share knowledge of the symbol color palette.

3.3 Cell Rotation / Orientation Channel — +2–2.5 bits (§6.2 / Claim 58)

A flat-top hexagonal cell has six-fold rotational symmetry, providing six natural orientation states (0°, 60°, 120°, 180°, 240°, 300°). By encoding data in the cell's rotational orientation, approximately 2–2.5 additional bits per module are added. The symbol character rotates with the cell and remains legible to the decoder at all orientations. No additional ink, materials, or printing processes are required — this is a purely geometric channel encoded within the existing printed mark.

3.4 Cell Border Style + Color Channel — +5 bits (§6.3 / Claims 59–60)

The outline stroke of each module cell encodes two independently measurable properties: stroke style (solid, dashed, dotted, absent = 4 styles = 2 bits) and stroke color (8-member palette = 3 bits). Combined, these produce 32 distinct border states = 5 bits per module as a single channel. Border color may use the same 8-color alphabet as cell fill, requiring no additional ink types beyond those already used.

3.5 Ultraviolet Fluorescent Ink Layer — Covert Second Channel (§6.4 / Claim 61)

A complete second HXC code is printed in ultraviolet-reactive fluorescent ink directly over the visible standard HXC code, using the same module grid geometry and cell positions. Under ambient visible light, the UV layer is invisible and the standard code is read normally. Under ultraviolet illumination, the UV layer becomes visible and decodes to a second, entirely independent payload.

The UV layer may encode a completely different payload from the visible layer, or may encode a cryptographic authentication record that verifies the authenticity of the visible layer payload. UV-fluorescent security inks are a proven technology used in currency printing, passport security features, and pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting. The UV layer's presence is completely undetectable under normal ambient light scanning.

3.6 Near-Infrared Transparent Ink Layer — Covert Third Channel (§6.5 / Claim 62)

Certain printing inks are opaque in the visible spectrum but transparent in the near-infrared, and vice versa. A complete third HXC code printed in infrared-transparent ink over the visible and UV layers is invisible under both ambient visible light and UV illumination. It becomes readable only to a scanner equipped with a near-infrared image sensor.

Consumer smartphone cameras include near-infrared sensors that are typically filtered out by the camera software. An authorized HXC decoder application may access the raw NIR sensor output to read the infrared layer. The three-layer architecture (visible + UV + infrared) provides three independent HXC payload channels in a single physically printed mark, tripling total capacity. The infrared layer is the highest-security channel — its very existence is concealed from adversaries using visible-spectrum and UV scanning equipment.

3.7 Tactile Braille Emboss Layer — +6–8 bits (§6.6 / Claim 63)

An extended 8-dot Braille cell comprises a 2×4 grid of embossed dot positions, each raised or flat, yielding 256 possible patterns = 8 additional bits per module. A Braille emboss pattern applied to each HXC module cell on metal card stock, rigid polymer, or ceramic tile encodes an independent payload channel readable by tactile inspection or by a 3D surface scanner — completely independent of all optical channels.

This produces the first 2D data code format in which a portion of the encoded payload is accessible to a visually impaired user through tactile Braille reading without any optical scanning device — a novel accessibility application for high-density optical codes, and a significant patent claim.

3.8 Micro-Text Forensic Layer (§6.7 / Claim 64)

Within each module cell, at a scale legible only under optical magnification of 10× or greater, a micro-text string is printed at approximately 0.15mm character height — analogous to guilloché micro-printing used as a security feature in currency and official documents. The micro-text is imperceptible to standard smartphone cameras and to casual visual inspection. To a forensic reader with appropriate optics, it is the highest-assurance authentication channel, encoding an issuer authentication token, tamper-evidence hash, or serial number whose verification requires specialized equipment beyond the reach of any standard counterfeit reproduction process.

4 · Full Capacity Summary

All capacity values derived linearly from the HXC Large baseline of 25 KB at 9 bits/module, as specified in the patent (§6.8 / Claim 65).

Three Capacity Classes

5 · Geometric Variants

Four geometric variants share the same encoding architecture — all channels, all capacity classes, all error correction — differing only in the outer boundary shape of the code.

6 · Shard Architecture — M-of-N Secret Sharing

A single secret — a device master seed, national key, or classified authorization — can be split into N physical HXC codes using Shamir's Secret Sharing. Any M codes reconstruct the original payload. Fewer than M codes yield zero information about the payload.

Example: 3-of-5. Any 3 shards reconstruct. Loss of 2 doesn't compromise recovery. Loss of 3 renders the secret permanently irrecoverable.

Combined with the UV and infrared layers, shard architecture enables extraordinary security postures: each shard could itself have a visible layer (for metadata) and a UV layer (for the actual key material), meaning physical possession of fewer than M shards reveals literally nothing about the protected payload — even under UV illumination.

7 · Controlled Reading Property

Standard QR codes are decodable by any smartphone. HXC Code has a controlled-reading property by design: no publicly available software can decode it. A proprietary HXC decoder application is required, implementing the full dual-channel demodulation, GF(512) Reed-Solomon decoding, and geometric correction pipeline.

The UV and infrared layers add a second and third tier of controlled reading: even a party who obtains an authorized visible-layer decoder cannot access the UV or infrared payloads without a UV-capable or NIR-capable scanner plus a decoder that explicitly implements those layers. The covert layers require not just authorization but physical infrastructure.

8 · Live Encoder Demo

The interactive encoder below generates real HXC Code SVGs demonstrating the hexagonal geometry, 8-color alphabet, finder patterns, and 4 boundary shape variants. This renders the visible-layer baseline (9 bits/module). UV, IR, Braille, and micro-text layers require physical printing substrates and specialized hardware not representable in a browser demo.

9 · Connection to PALLAS

HXC Code and PALLAS are co-pending patent applications. HXC Code is the preferred physical recovery artifact for every PALLAS device. Every PALLAS Quantum State Security Key ships with one or more HXC recovery codes encoding the device master seed — the quantum-entropy root from which all device credentials derive.

Claim 27 of both the CIPO and US provisional applications explicitly covers QSK device recovery using HXC Code physical recovery artifacts. The combination provides a unique security property: the entropy encoded in the physical card was generated by a hardware quantum random number generator — meaning the recovery artifact contains genuinely quantum-random data that no adversary can predict, reproduce, or brute-force.

For the full PALLAS hardware specification, see the PALLAS Technical White Paper →

10 · Application Domains — 34 Embodiments

The CIPO patent specification defines 34 application embodiments (§5.1–§5.34) across civilian, government, defence, medical, financial, intelligence, and cultural domains. Selected highlights:

11 · Licensing

HXC Code is a patented technology available for licensing by any organization requiring high-density physical data encoding, controlled-reading optical authentication, or covert multi-layer physical credentials.

• Government document printing bureaus — passports, national IDs, visas, official documents (UV+IR layers replace existing currency security features)
• Hardware security device manufacturers — HXC recovery codes for FIDO2 keys, HSMs, and security devices
• Military and defence prime contractors — IFF systems, mission authorization, nuclear credential issuance, UAV/UGV control
• Intelligence agencies — physical steganographic carrier infrastructure, covert three-layer credentials
• Financial institutions and legal services — CXC authentication seals on financial instruments and notarized documents
• Pharmaceutical and supply chain operators — anti-counterfeiting with UV layer verification
• Music and content industry — physical audio distribution without streaming infrastructure
• Mobile scanner manufacturers — HXC reader SDK for hardware or software decoding

HXC Code — Canadian Patent Application filed April 15, 2026 (65 claims). Inventor: Derek Arsenault. Pilon Laboratories Inc., Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada. All rights reserved.
Inquiries: derek@pilonlaboratories.com