Image analysis – Applications
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-17
2001-07-31
Patel, Jayanti K. (Department: 2723)
Image analysis
Applications
C283S072000, C356S071000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06269169
ABSTRACT:
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to apparatus and a method for reading documents, such as passports and documents of value, to obtain and verify information recorded thereon, and to read and/or detect security information thereon to determine if such documents are counterfeit or have been altered.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Illegal modifications and counterfeiting of identification documents, such as passports, drivers licenses, and identification cards and badges; and documents of value, such as bonds, certificates and negotiable instruments, has been increasing year by year to the concern of companies, governments and their agencies that issue these documents. To counter this problem new materials have been and are being developed for the production of such identity documents and documents of value, that make it more and more difficult to alter or counterfeit the documents, and easier and faster to detect if such documents are counterfeit or have been altered.
These new materials utilize new laminating schemes and materials that utilize holograms, invisible inks that only appear when illuminated by certain wavelengths of visible or invisible light; retro-reflective layers inside the laminating materials; different types of inks that have one color under normal ambient light but show up as different colors when illuminated by certain wavelengths of invisible light, and many other schemes. In addition, magnetic and radio frequency (RF) taggants may be added to the laminates or base material of documents during their manufacture, and such taggants may be detected while being invisible to the eye. Further, micro-miniature smart chips may be embedded in such documents, such as they are in smart cards, and used in reading and verifying documents such as listed above.
The rise of passports, documents of value, and other security and identification documents having anti-counterfeiting, anti-alteration and verification features, and the new laminating materials, many of which are briefly described above, have created a growing need for new reader verifier equipment that can rapidly read, verify, and analyze many different types of passports, documents of value, identity and security documents made utilizing the new materials, techniques and laminating materials described above.
Such new reader verifier equipment is desperately needed at high traffic locations, such as international airports around the world, where millions of travelers pass between countries each year. However, such new equipment is also needed for many other applications such as reading and checking identity badges of employees and others in high security installations where government or industrial confidential or secret information is to be protected, and access and movements are carefully limited, controlled and recorded. In addition, such new reader verifier equipment is desperately needed to check different types of documents of value.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above described need in the art for new document reader verifier equipment is satisfied by the present invention. Hereinafter is described new reader verifier equipment which can read and verify identity documents and documents of value. A preferred embodiment of the invention works particularly well with a new laminate material developed and marketed by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M), St. Paul, Minn., USA under the trade name “Confirm”, and which is particularly useful in making documents such as passports. The use of this new material to laminate security or identity documents, and the use of other new materials and techniques, such as described above, make it extremely hard to alter or counterfeit documents such as passports.
The novel reader verifier equipment taught and claimed herein can quickly detect if a passport or other document is laminated with this new 3M material, or with other new materials, or if a passport or other document laminated with these new materials has been altered. An example of another 3M security laminate is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,658,411. Other laminates utilizes retroreflective glass microspheres such as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,631,064. While the remainder of this patent application refers often to passports, it should be understood that many other types of identity documents may be produced using the “Confirm” and other new laminates, the other new materials, and new techniques, and be read and verified using the novel reader verifier equipment taught and claimed herein. The verification process described herein detects illegal alterations and counterfeit productions of passports and other types of documents.
The preferred embodiment of the document reader verifier disclosed herein can read alphanumeric, different types of barcodes, and other types of information imprinted on passports and other documents in specific areas and verify the inscribed information, including against an information data base. In addition, the reader verifier can store the information read off the passport or other document in a central data base as a record of the bearer of the passport or other document passing through an airport or other location where passports or other documents must be presented when traveling.
The novel document reader verifier disclosed herein can also read photographic and other information, which may include encoded biometric information of fingerprints, voice prints, and eyeprints, recorded on a passport or other document, and then compare these to information stored in data bases or to the bearer of the passport or other document. Such biometric information can be encrypted and stored in two dimensional bar codes on identity documents. The novel document reader verifier can compare in real time such biometric information recorded on a passport or other document with the output of readers, such as fingerprint and eye readers separate from but connected to the novel reader verifier described and claimed herein, taken at the time when a passport or other document is being read and verified to authenticate that the document is being carried or presented by the person to whom it was issued. In addition, digitized photos may be printed directly on or in the base material of such identity documents, and the above mentioned biometric and other information may be invisibly embedded into bits of such digitized photos. Such invisible, embedded information may be viewed and read with lentricular arrays, and such lentricular arrays may be emulated in software.
Further, the picture on such an identity document can be automatically compared with photos in a watch list, such as generated by Interpol, using matching algorithms, to see if the bearer of such an identity document is on such a watch list and should stopped and/or questioned.
In accordance with the teaching of the present invention the novel document reader/verifier can verify that passports are valid and are made with a valid security laminate, including the 3M “Confirm” security laminate. In addition, the reader/verifier can determine if passports made with a valid security laminate or base document material have been altered, even if the alterations cannot be seen. This is done by illuminating the laminated portion of a passport or other document with certain wavelengths of light, both visible and invisible, and reading the alphanumeric information and graphical display that appears. In addition, even if valid materials are used, under other wavelengths of visible and invisible light any attempted or actual alterations clearly stand out and are easily detected either automatically by the reader verifier, or manually.
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patent: 574
Funk Joseph E
White Daryl A.
Brown, Rudnick, Freed & Gesmer, P.C.
Imaging Automation Inc.
Patel Jayanti K.
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