In a compressed mode, a spread spectrum communication device interleaves bit units across multiple frames using an interleaver, reduces the spreading factor using a framingspreading unit, outputs the compressed mode frames at a predetermined compressed mode frame timing, and increases the average transmission power in the compressed mode at a radio frequency transmitter. According to a first embodiment, two different \u201closs-of-focus\u201d thresholds are used. The image is linked to the item and reversibly both on the electronic user device and on the digital camera to allow access to the full information.