SIMULTANEOUS AUTHENTICATION OF A SECURITY ARTICLE AND IDENTIFICATION OF THE SECURITY ARTICLE USER

• US 20180018837A1
• Filed: 01/28/2016
• Published: 01/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sicpa Holding SA
• Original Assignee: Sicpa Holding SA
• Inventors: FANKHAUSER, Catherine, TALWERDI, Mehdi
• Granted Patent: US 10,403,061 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/257 electronically G07C9/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/14 by lifting or attempted removal of hand-portable articles

Abstract

Authenticating a security article comprises capturing biographic information from the security article, detecting a physical property of a security feature on and/or in the security article, processing the captured biographic information and the detected physical property of the security feature to determine whether the security article is genuine, and outputting a signal indicative of the determination.

Claims

1. An apparatus for authenticating a security article, said apparatus comprising:

a biographic information capturing device configured to capture biographic information from the security article;

a security feature detector comprising an optical detector configured to detect an optical property of a security feature in the form of an image or graphic element on and/or in the security article; and

an output device,

wherein the captured biographic information and the detected optical property of the security feature on and/or in the security article are configured to be processed to determine whether the security article is genuine and wherein the output device is configured to output a signal indicative of the determination.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a biometric data capturing device configured to capture biometric data from a security article user, wherein the captured biometric data is configured to be compared with the captured biographic information to at least partially determine whether the security article user is an authorized user of the security article.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a processor configured to perform the processing of the captured biographic information and the detected optical property and the determining of whether the security article is genuine.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the security feature detector comprises at least one of a magnetic detector and a conductivity meter.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a stimulus device configured to activate the optical property of the security feature.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a localization device for identifying the location of the apparatus.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the biographic information capturing device comprises at least one of a camera, an optical scanner and an electronic data capturing device.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the electronic data capturing device comprises a wireless device configured to wirelessly capture the biographic information from an electronic storage device attached to the security article.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a security article receiving device adapted to receive the security article and to capture from the security article the biographic information and the optical property of the security feature.

16. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the localization device is operable to produce an alarm signal if the location of the apparatus is not within a pre-defined location and/or to disable the apparatus if the apparatus is removed from the pre-defined location

10. A method for authenticating a security article, comprising the steps of:

capturing biographic information from the security article;

detecting an optical property of a security feature in the form of an image or graphic element on and/or in the security article;

processing the captured biographic information and the detected optical property of the security feature on and/or in the security article to determine whether the security article is genuine; and

outputting a signal indicative of the determination.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising a step of capturing biometric data from a security article user, and a step of comparing the captured biometric data with the captured biographic information to at least partially determine whether the security article user is an authorized user of the security article.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the step of detecting the optical property comprises further detecting at least one of a magnetic property of the security feature and an electrical property of the security feature.

13. The method according to claim 10, further comprising activating the optical property by subjecting the security feature to an external stimulus.

14. The method according to claim 10, wherein the biographic information is captured by at least one of optically scanning the security article, capturing an image of the security article, and capturing electronic data from an electronic memory device attached to the security article.

15. (canceled)