ENSURING IMAGE INTEGRITY USING DOCUMENT CHARACTERISTICS

• US 20090092309A1
• Filed: 10/09/2007
• Published: 04/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Original Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Inventors: Ronca, James G., Gibson, Lisa, Calman, Matthew A., Huff, Lowell R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,639,062 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/137
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0028 Adaptive watermarking, e.g. Human Visual System [HVS]-based watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0201 whereby only tamper or origin are detected and no embedding takes place
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/987 with the intervention of an operator
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/224 of printed characters having additional code marks or containing code marks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32128 attached to the image data, e.g. file header, transmitted message header, information on the same page or in the same computer file as the image for information embedded in the image H04N1/32144
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32144 embedded in the image data, i.e. enclosed or integrated in the image, e.g. watermark, super-imposed logo or stamp
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3235 Checking or certification of the authentication information, e.g. by comparison with data stored independently
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3236 Details of authentication information generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/327 which are undetectable to the naked eye, e.g. embedded codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3281 Encryption; Ciphering

Abstract

Image integrity in an archive can be verified using document characteristics. Embodiments of the invention provide a way to verify the integrity of a stored document image by determining document characteristics, which can also be embedded in the image file. Before allowing access to the image file by an application, the characteristics data from an image analysis can be compared to either or both of, characteristics information otherwise stored, or embedded characteristics data. The embedded data can optionally be encrypted. In example embodiments the data can include a result of an optical character recognition of contents of the document, a length of data describing the image, a percentage of a specified color of pixels in the image, or a checksum. Example embedding techniques can include those making use of a tagged image file format (TIFF) header, a steganographic watermark, or an image artifact.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of ensuring integrity of a plurality of images in a document archive, the method comprising:

analyzing a captured image of a document to determine at least one image characteristic;

storing characteristics information describing the at least one image characteristic in association with an image file; and

comparing the characteristics information stored for the image with at least one of newly determined characteristics data from a subsequent analysis, and embedded characteristics data from the image file, in response to a request for the image in order to verify the integrity of the image file prior to allowing access to the image file.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

embedding the characteristics data in the image file; and

subsequently comparing the characteristics data from the image file to one of the characteristics information stored and the newly determined characteristics data from a subsequent analysis to further verify the integrity of the image.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 further comprising encrypting the characteristics data prior to embedding the characteristics data.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 further comprising determining a confidence score expressing the likelihood that stored codeline data matches a codeline in the image prior to embedding characteristics data in the image file.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein the characteristics data for the image is embedded in at least one of a tagged image file format (TIFF) header, a steganographic watermark, and an image artifact.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the at least one image characteristic comprises at least one of, a result of an optical character recognition of contents of the document, a length of data describing the image, a percentage of a specified color of pixels in the image, and a checksum.

7. A computer program product for ensuring integrity of a plurality of images in a document archive, the computer program product including a computer-readable medium having computer program code embodied therein, the computer program code comprising:

instructions for analyzing captured images of documents to determine at least one image characteristic for each of the plurality of images;

instructions for storing characteristics information describing the at least one image characteristic in association with an image file; and

instructions for comparing the characteristics information stored for the image with at least one of newly determined characteristics data from a subsequent analysis, and embedded characteristics data from the image file, in response to a request for the image in order to verify the integrity of the image file prior to allowing access to the image file.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein the computer program code further comprises instructions for encrypting the characteristics data.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein the documents comprise checks.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 further wherein the computer program code further comprises instructions for embedding the characteristics data in the image file using at least one of a tagged image file format (TIFF) header, a steganographic watermark, and an image artifact.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein the at least one image characteristic comprises at least one of, a result of an optical character recognition of contents of the document, a length of data describing the image, a percentage of a specified color of pixels in the image, and a checksum.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 wherein the computer program code further comprises instructions for determining a confidence score expressing the likelihood that stored codeline data matches a codeline in a check prior to embedding characteristics data in the image file.

13. Apparatus for ensuring integrity of a plurality of images in a document archive, the apparatus comprising:

means for embedding characteristics data describing the at least one image characteristic in an image file representing the image; and

means for comparing the characteristics data from the image file with at least one of characteristics information otherwise stored, and newly determined characteristics data from a subsequent analysis, in response to a request for the image in order to verify the integrity of the image file prior to allowing access to the image file.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising means for subsequently comparing the characteristics data from the image file to another of characteristics information otherwise stored and newly determined characteristics data from a subsequent analysis to further verify the integrity of the image at an application requesting the image file.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 further comprising means for encrypting the characteristics data prior to embedding the characteristics data.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising means for determining a confidence score expressing the likelihood that stored codeline data matches a codeline in the image prior to embedding characteristics data in the image file.

17. A system for ensuring integrity of a plurality of images in a financial document archive, the system comprising:

an image management platform to obtain image files corresponding to the images, analyze an image in an image file to obtain image characteristics data, and compare stored characteristics information for the image with the characteristics data from the analysis prior to allowing access to the image file;

an image analysis module functionally connected to the image management platform to determine the characteristics data;

at least one application disposed to request the image file and to access the image file subject to the image management platform comparing stored characteristics information for the image with the characteristics data; and

a messaging facility connected between the image management platform and the at least one application.

18. The system of claim 17 further comprising a short-term image archive to supply the image files to the image management platform.

19. The system of claim 18 further comprising a long term image archive connected to the messaging facility.

20. The system of claim 19 further comprising a long term image archive index.

21. The system of claim 17 wherein the image characteristics data includes at least one of, a result of an optical character recognition of contents of the document, a length of data describing the image, a percentage of a specified color of pixels in the image, and a checksum.

22. The system of claim 17 wherein the image management platform further embeds the characteristics data for the image in the image file using at least one of a tagged image file format (TIFF) header, a steganographic watermark, and an image artifact.

23. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with an image file for a document archive, the image file comprising:

image data; and

embedded characteristics data about an image defined by the image data, wherein the embedded characteristics data is disposed to be compared with at least one of characteristics information about the image otherwise stored and subsequently determined characteristics data in order to verify the integrity of the image file prior to allowing access to the image file.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein image file is in a tagged image file format (TIFF) and the characteristics data is included in a TIFF header.

25. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 24 wherein the image data represents a check.