Method and device for determining the authenticity of an object

• US 20070170257A1
• Filed: 04/29/2004
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Haraszti, Attila
• Application Number:
  US10/553,377
• Publication Number:
  US 20070170257A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/454
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 15/0033 Owner certificates, insurance policies, guarantees
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 15/0053 Forms specially designed for commercial use, e.g. bills, receipts, offer or order sheets, coupons
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 2035/34 Markings visible under particular conditions or containing coded information
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 25/00 Information-bearing cards or sheet-like structures characterised by identification or security features; Manufacture thereof printing processes to produce identification or security features B41M3/14
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 25/21 for multiple purposes
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 25/29 Securities; Bank notes
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06046 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/086 with markings consisting of randomly placed or oriented elements, the randomness of the elements being useable for generating a unique identifying signature of the record carrier, e.g. randomly placed magnetic fibers or magnetic particles in the body of a credit card
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/14 the marking being sensed by radiation
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/18 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/80 Recognising image objects characterised by unique random patterns
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/20 Testing patterns thereon G07D7/004, G07D7/005 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/08 by coded identity card or credit card or other personal identification means without personal verification means G07F7/02
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/086 by passive credit-cards adapted therefor, e.g. constructive particularities to avoid counterfeiting, e.g. by inclusion of a physical or chemical security-layer for security documents G07D7/00; for the reading of record-carriers in general G06K7/00; for the design of coded credit-cards G06K19/10
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/125 Offline card verification
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00152 involving a password
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00173 wherein the origin of the content is checked, e.g. determining whether the content has originally been retrieved from a legal disc copy or another trusted source
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/0021 involving encryption or decryption of contents recorded on or reproduced from a record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00876 wherein physical copy protection means are attached to the medium, e.g. holograms, sensors, or additional semiconductor circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00884 : involving a watermark, i.e. a barely perceptible transformation of the original data which can nevertheless be recognised by an algorithm

Abstract

An authentication method is provided that is based on a reference object, such as an authentication label attached to an optical disc. The authentication label has a three-dimensional distribution of particles. For the purposes of authentication it is determined whether there is in fact a three-dimensional particle distribution. Next a two-dimensional data acquisition step is performed for the purpose of authentication. This method is particularly useful for copy protection.

Claims

1. A method of determining the authenticity of an object comprising:

receiving a first code,

determining if the object has a three-dimensional pattern of distributed particles,

performing a two-dimensional data acquisition for acquisition of a second code from the object,

determining the authenticity using the first and second codes.

2. The method of claim 1, the determination if the object has a three-dimensional pattern of distributed particles being performed by:

acquiring a first image of the object with a first angle of illumination,

acquiring a second image of the object with a second angle of illumination,

combining the first and second images,

determining if a geometrical pattern is present in the combined images.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination if the object has a three-dimensional pattern of distributed particles is made by determining if the object is reflective.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein it is determined whether the objective is reflective by acquiring a first image of the object with diffused illumination and acquiring a second image of the object with direct illumination and comparing a brightness of the object in the first and second images.

5. The method of claim 1, the determination if the object has a three-dimensional pattern of distributed particles being performed by:

illuminating the object with diffused, white light,

detecting light reflected from the object and light transmitted through the object,

determining if the reflected light and the transmitted light have complimentary colours.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring an image of the object in a read position,

determining a dislocation of the read position with respect to a reference position by detecting of marker positions in the image,

performing a projective transformation of the image for compensation of the dislocation.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering of measurement data acquired by the two-dimensional data acquisition in order to provide the second code, wherein the filtering involves low pass filtering of the measurement data.

8. The method of claim 1, the first code comprising a set of random vectors and the second code being a data vector.

9. The method of claim 8, the random vectors being pseudo random, each random vector being represented by a running index, and further

comprising entering a seed value for a pseudo random number generator in order to generate the random vectors on the basis of the seed value.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining the signs of scalar products of each one of the random vectors and the data vector for generating a third code.

11. The method of claim 10, the third code being a check code for comparison with an authentication code.

12. The method of claim 10, the third code being a symmetric key.

13. The method of claim 12, the object belonging to a data carrier storing an encrypted file, the method further comprising decrypting the file by means of the symmetric key.

14. The method of claim 13, the first code being stored on the data carrier.

15. A computer program product for performing a method in accordance with claim 1.

16. A logic circuit operable to perform a method in accordance with claim 1.

17. An apparatus for determining the authenticity of an object comprising:

a receiver for receiving a first code,

an optical component for determining if the object has a three-dimensional pattern of distributed particles,

a measurement component for performing a two-dimensional data acquisition for acquisition of a second code from the object,

a microprocessor for determining the authenticity on the basis of the first and second codes.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, the optical component being adapted to perform the steps of:

acquiring a first image of the object with a first angle of illumination,

acquiring a second image of the object with a second angle of illumination,

combining of the first and second images,

determining if a geometrical pattern is present in the combined images.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, the optical component being adapted to determine if the object is reflective.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, the optical component being adapted to determine whether the object is reflective by acquiring a first image with diffused illumination of the object and to acquire a second image with direct illumination of the object for comparing a brightness of the object in the first and second images.

21. The apparatus of claim 17, the optical component being adapted to perform the steps of:

illuminating the object with diffused, white light,

detecting light reflected from the object and light transmitted through the object,

determining if the reflected light and the transmitted light have complimentary colours.

22. The apparatus of claim 17, the microprocessor being adapted to perform a projective transformation in order to compensate a dislocation of the object with respect to a reference position.

23. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising a low pass filter for filtering the data acquired by the measurement component in order to provide the second code.

24. A method for providing a first code for use in an authentication method, the method comprising:

providing a third code,

acquiring a data vector from an object representing a second code,

determining a random vector for each one of the bits of the third code on the basis of the second code to provide the first code.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the object is an image, and further comprising scanning the image in order to obtain image data and filtering the image data to provide the data vector.

26. The method of claim 25, the filtering of the image data comprising a calculation of mean values of sub-sets of the image data.

27. The method of claim 26, the sub-sets of the image data being determined by a predefined grid.

28. A computer program product for performing a method of claim 24.

29. A logic circuit operable to perform a method of claim 24.

30. An apparatus operable to perform a method of claim 24.

31. An electronic device for determining the authenticity of an object, the electronic device comprising:

means for receiving a first code,

means for determining if the object has a three-dimensional pattern of distributed particles,

means for performing a two-dimensional data acquisition for acquisition of a second code from the object,

means for determining the authenticity on the basis of the first and second codes.

32. An apparatus for determining the authenticity of an object comprising:

a receiver for receiving a first code,

an optical component for determining if the object has a three-dimensional pattern of distributed particles,

a measurement component for performing a two-dimensional data acquisition for acquisition of a second code from the object,

a microprocessor for determining the authenticity on the basis of the first and second codes,

wherein the optical component is adapted to determine if the object is reflective.

33. An apparatus for determining the authenticity of an object comprising:

a receiver for receiving a first code,

an optical component for determining if the object has a three-dimensional pattern of distributed particles,

a measurement component for performing a two-dimensional data acquisition for acquisition of a second code from the object,

a microprocessor for determining the authenticity on the basis of the first and second codes,

wherein the optical component is adapted to

illuminate the object with diffused, white light,

detect light reflected from the object and light transmitted through the object for determining if the reflected light and the transmitted light have complimentary colours.

34. An apparatus for determining the authenticity of an object comprising:

a receiver for receiving a first code,

an optical component for determining if the object has a three-dimensional pattern of distributed particles,

a measurement component for performing a two-dimensional data acquisition for acquisition of a second code from the object,

a microprocessor for determining the authenticity on the basis of the first and second codes,

wherein the first code comprises a set of random vectors and the second code is a data vector, the random vectors being pseudo random, and further comprising a pseudo random number generator for generating the random vectors on the basis of a seed value.