Communications: electrical – Selective – Intelligence comparison for controlling
Reexamination Certificate
1996-05-07
2001-09-18
Zimmerman, Brian (Department: 2635)
Communications: electrical
Selective
Intelligence comparison for controlling
C340S005530, C235S380000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06292092
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to personal identification instruments and in particular to an instrument and method of creating such an instrument which has a high degree of security from fraud.
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
Personal identity instruments are widely used in society, e.g. passports, credit cards, driver's licences, building passes, etc. Such instruments are very valuable, and therefore are often illegally fabricated or stolen and altered so that they can be used fraudulently by another person. Such an instrument ideally should be useless in the hands of another person.
In order to make an instrument more difficult to counterfeit or use by another person, it bears the signature and sometimes a photograph of the owner of the instrument. A security guard, cashier, customs agent, etc. typically verifies the picture visually with the face of the user, sometimes also requests a signature for comparison with the signature on the instrument, and by that means verifies the authenticity of the instrument.
However such instruments are subject to fraud. It is possible to make a fake instrument from a stolen document or card containing a different photograph, matching the fraudulent holder.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,113 describes a process and apparatus for making a personal identification instrument which is subject to machine verification. An instrument according to that patent is first made carrying e.g. indicia and/or a photograph, and deviations from a standard of the outlines of at least some of the indicia (on a magnified scale) are stored in a memory. When an instrument is presented, a machine reads the exact outline of corresponding indicia. Since paper fibers, ink bleeds, etc. result in a different outline than the original, the machine comparing the deviation data with the originally stored outline deviation data can result in the declaration of a fraudulent instrument.
Similarly, for verification of a photograph, the entire photograph is read by a camera. The variation of the distribution of grey levels in the image scanned by the camera, as compared with stored data describing the variation of the distribution of grey levels, stored from the original authentic photograph, can result in detection of a fraudulent instrument.
Unfortunately the system described in the patent requires storage of a large amount of data for each instrument, which becomes very large when photograph data are stored. In addition, each verification station requires access to the stored data. While the data can be stored in a centralized data bank, verification requires the transfer of very large amounts of data along transmission lines from the central data bank to the verification stations. Where there is a continuous flow of persons to be authenticated, for example where many millions of passport-holding persons are subject to verification at any of hundreds of border points spanning very long borders (e.g. the border between the United States and Canada, the border between the United States and Mexico) the cost of using such a system becomes prohibitive.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
The present invention provides a means for realizing a personal identification instrument which has extremely high security, and is virtually immune to falsification. There is no need for storage of massive amounts of any data at any central location nor of transmission of any data; all of the verification data is carried on the instrument itself. Each verification station need only contain a processor capable of processing an algorithm and a scanner for scanning the instrument and reading data from the instrument into the processor.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention a personal identification instrument is comprised of a substrate, and carried on the substrate are a photograph and/or a personal signature, personal information relating to the legitimate holder of the instrument, and an encrypted machine readable security code carried by the instrument, the code being comprised of a combination of digitized personal information and a digitized descriptor of the photograph and/or personal signature.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a method of creating a personal identification instrument on which personal data and a picture and/or signature of a legitimate holder are retained, is comprised of acquiring a first digital representation of the picture and/or signature of a legitimate holder of said instrument, extracting first feature data from the digital representation, reading the personal data, combining the feature data with the personal data into a single data sequence and generating a security code by encrypting the sequence with a secret key, and affixing the security code to the instrument to provide a substantially forgery-proof instrument.
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Chow Sherman M.
Serinken Nur M.
Shlien Seymour
Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada as represented by the
Shapiro Cohen
Zimmerman Brian
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