Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records – Credit or identification card systems
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-22
2001-11-27
Frech, Karl D. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
Credit or identification card systems
C235S382000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06321981
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The current invention is in the field of personal identification related document technology and in particular to the field of transaction card security and imaging on transaction cards and other personal identification related documents.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A wide range of documents require personalization. Some examples are passports, transaction cards, entry passes and drivers licences. The main purpose of the personalization is to accord the holder some privilege and to prevent others from having access to the privilege. As a result these documents usually have a means of personal identification included into the document. This wide range of documents will be referred to in the following as personal identification related documents. In the following we adopt the term transaction card to embrace all personal identification related documents and vice versa.
The use of transaction cards is ubiquitous and offers cardholders access to financial resources as well as many services. In many situations transaction cards have become a replacement for currency and are attractive targets for fraudulent use. In order to protect financial institution, consumers, and merchants from fraudulent use of these cards the credit card industry has introduced many features onto cards to reduce fraud. Included in this list of features are the magnetic stripe, holograms, special over-layers, card verification values and the like. Since those interested in committing credit card fraud are looking for means to circumvent the security features there is a continual need for new technologies to thwart their attempts.
Transaction cards typically come with a data storage area that is accessed by a machine. A typical example of this is the magnetic stripe common on most credit cards. However, other data storage means are available, such as a small microprocessor in the case of so-called smart-cards. In any case, the purpose of this data storage is an electronic means for the equipment at the point of transaction to gather information about the account being serviced. In the case of standard credit cards information on the storage area includes the account number, name of authorized cardholder and expiration date.
Equipment used in conjunction with transaction cards have advanced technically. It is common for a cash register to include a microprocessor having computing power compatible with common home computer systems. These systems often are networked for interactions with larger store systems and financial networks. Automated Teller Machines (ATM's) are also technically sophisticated and are typically networked to a world-wide financial system.
One feature common to most ATM machines is that the transaction card is captured completely by the machine. Common transaction terminals, such as those produced by vendors such as Verifone, often only read the magnetic stripe as the card is swiped through the device.
Other methods of machine readable data onto cards include so-called smart-cards manufactured and marketed by GemPlus among others, two-dimensional bar-codes such as those marketed by Symbol Technologies, Inc., and data glyphs marketed by Sandia Imaging. All of these methods store a limited amount of machine readable data onto a transaction card and are being utilized by different issuers of transaction cards.
Methods for printing onto transaction cards are well-known. The printing of transaction cards which have unique or small quantities is also done by commercially available systems such as the ImageCard IV Photo ID Printer from Datacard. These printers allow for digital images to be printed directly onto a PVC material.
Transaction card issuers have been adding images of cardholders onto the card for several years. This image provides some security since presenting a card with someone else's picture will cause one to question whether the card's use is legitimate. An extension of this idea is for the cardholder's picture to be compressed and stored into the data storage of the card. A method for capturing, storing and compressing a cardholders portrait onto the magnetic stripe of the computer has been developed (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,918 to Ray et al, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Image Compression, Storage and Retrieval on Magnetic Transaction Cards” which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Image scanning is a common practice and the equipment to accomplish this task has become both inexpensive and relatively compact. Typically, the scanning can be done with a resolution of 500 dots per inch (dpi) and in color. The scanning process is also quite fast, scanning a full page in a matter of seconds.
Often there is a need to distill a relatively large data record into a shorter reference value or key. What is desirable is to create the key from the data, but with a negligible likelihood of the same key being generated from two distinct records. Often these methods are referred to as hash algorithms and they are utilized widely in computer systems. A well-known such hash algorithm is the so-called Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This algorithm processes a 512 bit record into a 160-bit (20-byte) key. Mathematically, a hash function is a mapping from the space of m-bit strings to the space of n-bit strings where m>n. For instance if m=512 and n=160, then the SHA is such a mapping, but so is the mapping which simply truncates the string after the first 160 bits.
A method for securing images is data hiding or embedding where information is encoded into an image in such a manner that makes it invisible to a viewer, but becomes readable by means of an imager scanner and a image processing device. To be practical, however, the hidden information must be rapidly recoverable from the scanned data and must be able to survive the printing process and the effects of wear such as scratching. Furthermore, to relate the hidden information to other information on the card, the hidden data must have the ability to carry information. For example, if the hidden information only carried one bit of data, then the maximum number of names that the hidden information could address would be two. If however, the hidden information could successfully carry 32 bits of information, then a maximum of about 10 billion people could be addressed. Of course, these calculations assume that a data base relating a name to a raw bit sequence is used.
Several algorithms exist today that possess this level of robustness and information carrying capacity. For example, (see Rhoads, U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,292) describes a way of combining N random images, each random image comprising a single bit of information, to form a composite image that is added to the photo. When it is desired to retrieve the hidden information, each of the N random images is correlated with the photo, the polarity of the resultant correlation determining the specific bit value.
The algorithm described in U.S. Ser. No. 08/848,112, filed Apr. 28, 1997, inventors Honsinger, et al, entitled “An Improved Carrier for the Data Embedding Problem,” has been demonstrated to be robust to printing, scanning, and wear and tear while carrying up to 160 bits of information. Such application is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The algorithm has an advantage over Rhoads in that only one correlation needs to be performed making the prospect of fast processing more obtainable. It is also to be noted that the output from the SHA is also 160 bits.
This Honsinger et al. application also prescribes a means to produce a carrier (random image) with optimal information carrying capacity and robustness. Central to the specification of this carrier, is the use of a seed to generate certain random characteristics of the carrier. In the present invention, it is understood that the seed may be derived directly from the machine-readable information or from the SHA of the machine-readable information. This renders the required information capacity of the embeddin
Honsinger Chris W.
Ray Lawrence A.
Bocchetti Mark G.
Eastman Kodak Company
Frech Karl D.
Taylor Larry D
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