Image analysis – Applications – Reading paper currency
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-24
2002-02-26
Boudreau, Leo (Department: 2621)
Image analysis
Applications
Reading paper currency
C382S100000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06351550
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seal imprint verifying apparatus for verifying a target seal imprint such as a representative's seal or signature seal stamped on marketable securities such as bills or checks by collating the target seal imprint with registered reference seal imprints.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, financial institutions such as banks have constructed on host computers data bases in which information regarding customers are stored and have formed networks by connecting the host computers to terminal apparatuses placed at window counters using communication lines.
When a customer brings a bill or a check to a window counter, an operator conducts the following verifying work for determining if a representative's seal or a signature seal stamped on the bill or the check is the appropriate one.
That is, the operator uses a terminal apparatus placed at the window counter with , for example, an account number as a retrieval key to retrieve an image data of a reference seal imprint of the corresponding representative's seal or signature seal from a data base. If a corresponding image data has been already registered, the image of an seal imprint based on the image data is then displayed on the display of the terminal apparatus.
A CRT (cathode ray-tube) or an LCD (liquid crystal display) with high resolution is used as the display of a terminal apparatus to display the image of an seal imprint is displayed in its life-size. The operator then determines if the stamped seal imprint is the appropriate one by verifying the reference seal imprint displayed on the display and a target seal imprint stamped on the real bill or check.
However, the above-mentioned verifying work takes a long period of time because almost the entire work depends on the operator. In addition, occurrences of careless mistakes have been inevitable as long as the verifying work is conducted manually.
Although it is obvious that the efficiency of the verifying work increases if the above-mentioned verifying work is automated using computers and various proposals have been made in the past, any of the proposals had low accuracy of verification and has not been made practicable. The following three major problems has been preventing the practical use of an automated verification:
A first problem is that it is difficult to extract only the portion of an imprint from the image of an object such as a bill.
A second problem is the existence of a partial seal imprint. Since it is impossible for a person to always stamp a seal under a regular condition, a partial seal imprint is formed with a part of a seal imprint lacking in some cases. When the partial seal imprint is collated as a target seal imprint with a complete reference seal imprint, the verification results disagreement even if both seal imprints are derived from the identical seal.
A third problem is the existence of an external frame on a seal imprint. In general, a seal imprint is provided with a square or a circle external frame surrounding a letter portion in the center, and if an external frame of a target seal imprint and that of a reference seal imprint are similar, the agreement of the external frame is overemphasized at a verification, which tends to make a slight difference of the letter portion inside overlooked.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above described circumstances, and therefore, a first object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned first problem and to provide a seal imprint verifying apparatus which can extract only a portion of a target seal imprint from the image of an object such as a bill and verify it with a reference seal imprint.
A second object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned second problem and to provide a seal imprint verifying apparatus which can collate a target seal imprint with a reference seal imprint with high accuracy even if a seal imprint is partially stamped on a bill, etc.
A third object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned third problem and to provide a seal imprint verifying apparatus which can collate a letter portion inside a seal imprint accurately irrespective of the similarity of an external frame even in case of a seal imprint small in size.
A first aspect of the present invention is characterized in that a target seal imprint being a seal imprint stamped on an object to be sealed is identified by its color and size and extracted in order to attain the above-mentioned first object of the present invention.
That is, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a seal print verifying apparatus for verifying a target seal imprint stamped on an object is characterized by comprising: an image data capturing means for capturing image data of a target surface on which the target seal imprint is stamped; a color information extracting means for extracting image data having the color of the target seal imprint from the image data of the target surface; a size information extracting means for extracting image data recognized as having the size equivalent to that of the reference seal imprint out of the image data extracted by the color information extracting means; and a determining means for comparing the image data of the reference seal imprint and the image data of the target seal imprint extracted by the size information extracting means to determine whether the target seal imprint does agree with the reference seal imprint.
According to the above construction, when the image data capturing means captures image data of the target surface, the color information extracting means extracts only the image data having the same color as the seal imprint out of the image data of the target surface. The size information extracting means subsequently extracts image data of the target seal imprint out of the results of extraction by the color information extracting means and thereafter can determine whether the target seal imprint agrees with the reference seal imprint by comparing image data.
An object to be sealed is for example a marketable security such as a bill or a check. In addition, an image data capturing means may be an image reader (image scanner). Further, a color information extracting means and a size information extracting means may be the function of a computer program.
The above-mentioned determining means is preferably constructed so as to detect the degree of difference for the plurality of times by changing the direction of either one of the image data of the reference seal imprint or the image data of the target seal imprint. If the minimum value of the acquired plurality of degrees of difference is within the predetermined threshold value, the determining means determines that the target seal imprint agrees with the reference seal imprint.
A second aspect of the present invention is characterized in that a mask is formed to be equivalent to the external shape of a target partial seal imprint stamped on an object and an image formed by the logical product of the mask and the image data of the reference seal imprint are compared and collated with the target seal imprint in order to attain the above-mentioned second object of the present invention.
That is, according to the second aspect of the present invention, a seal imprint verifying apparatus is characterized by comprising: an image data capturing means for capturing image data of the target surface on which the target seal imprint is stamped; a target specifying means for extracting image data of the target seal imprint out of the image data of the target surface; a mask image preparing means for preparing mask image data representing the external shape of the image data of the target seal imprint; an image data composing means for calculating the logical product of the image data of the reference seal imprint and the mask image data to prepare composed reference image data; and a determining means for comparing the composed refer
Inaoka Hideyuki
Kataoka Satoshi
Katsumata Yutaka
Watanabe Eiichi
Boudreau Leo
Choobin M. B.
Fujitsu Limited
Staas & Halsey , LLP
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