Database for detecting counterfeit items using digital fingerprint records

• US 10,192,140 B2
• Filed: 07/12/2016
• Issued: 01/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alitheon, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Alitheon, Inc.
• Inventors: Ross, David Justin, Elmenhurst, Brian J., Tocci, Mark, Forbes, John, Ross, Heather Wheelock
• Primary Examiner(s): Cunningham, Gregory F
• Application Number:
  US15/208,339
• Publication Number:
  US 20160335520A1
• Time in Patent Office: 931 Days
• Field of Search: 382100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/60 Business processes related to postal services shipping G06Q10/083; franking apparatus G07B17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/005 Robust watermarking, e.g. average attack or collusion attack resistant
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0065 Extraction of an embedded watermark; Reliable detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30128 Food products
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30144 Printing quality
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30148 Semiconductor; IC; Wafer
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30164 Workpiece; Machine component
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30204 Marker
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0004 Industrial image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/225 based on a marking or identifier characterising the area
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/245 by locating a pattern; Special marks for positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/46 Extracting features or characteristics from the video content, e.g. video fingerprints, representative shots or key frames
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/412 Layout analysis of documents structured with printed lines or input boxes, e.g. business forms or tables
• CPC Class Codes: G09C 5/00 Ciphering apparatus or methods not provided for in the preceding groups, e.g. involving the concealment or deformation of graphic data such as designs, written or printed messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures

Abstract

Improvements are disclosed for detecting counterfeit objects, based on comparison to digital fingerprints that describe features found in images of objects known to be counterfeit.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

acquiring digital fingerprints of a plurality of known counterfeit physical objects of a given class;

storing each digital fingerprint of a corresponding counterfeit physical object in a digital fingerprint record of a datastore to form a machine-readable counterfeit object database for the given class, wherein each stored digital fingerprint record includes

first data identifying a plurality of locations of interest in the corresponding counterfeit physical object and

for each location of interest, second data forming at least one fingerprint feature vector that describes a fingerprint feature extracted from the location of interest, wherein the at least one fingerprint feature vector describes inherent physical characteristics of the corresponding location of interest without regard to semantic content of the location of interest;

acquiring a digital fingerprint of a target physical object;

querying the machine-readable counterfeit object database based on the digital fingerprint of the target physical object; and

based on a response to the querying, generating a report indicating whether or not the target physical object is likely to be a counterfeit.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the given class of known counterfeit objects is government-issued documents.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the given class of known counterfeit objects is passports.

4. The method of claim 1 and further comprising:

searching stored digital fingerprints of the machine-readable counterfeit object database to identify one or more patterns;

based on the identified one or more patterns, building a database of counterfeiting patterns for objects of a same class.

5. An apparatus to generate a digital fingerprint comprising:

an image capture device arranged to generate image data responsive to a surface region of a physical object;

a processor having electronic access to the image data;

the processor arranged to execute stored instructions for processing the image data, the stored instructions arranged to cause the processor to;

access a predetermined object feature template associated with a class of objects of which the physical object is a member, wherein the predetermined object feature template specifies (a) an authentication region, (b) at least one object feature within the authentication region, (c) a method for extracting a digital fingerprint feature from the at least one object feature, and (d) a method for comparing the extracted digital fingerprint feature to a reference feature;

based on the predetermined object feature template, identify a subset of the image data corresponding to the authentication region;

based on the predetermined object feature template, extract a feature from the subset of the image data; and

store extracted feature data defining the extracted feature in an object digital fingerprint database record.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the image capture device comprises at least one of a scanner, a camera, a specially-adapted sensor array from any of a CCD array, an imaging microscope, a smart phone camera, a video camera, an x-ray machine, or any other imaging capture device responsive to electromagnetic radiation.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the stored instructions further control the processor to compare the extracted feature data to reference feature data, without regard to the image data generated by the image capture device, to assess whether or not the physical object matches the reference feature data.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the assessment includes quantifying the comparison, to produce a quantified comparison result, and then comparing the quantified comparison result to a predetermined comparison tolerance.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the extracted feature data defines a geometric shape and a location of the geometric shape in the authentication region.

10. An apparatus to generate a digital fingerprint comprising:

an image capture device arranged to generate image data responsive to a surface region of a physical object;

a processor having electronic access to the image data;

the processor arranged to execute stored instructions for processing the image data, the stored instructions arranged to cause the processor to;

access a predetermined object feature template associated with a class of objects of which the physical object is a member;

based on the predetermined object feature template, identify a subset of the image data corresponding to an authentication region on the surface region of the physical object;

based on the predetermined object feature template, extract a feature from the subset of the image data; and

store extracted feature data defining the extracted feature in an object digital fingerprint database record associated with the physical object, wherein the extracted feature data defines a geometric shape and a location of the geometric shape in the authentication region.