Method and apparatus for authenticating and discriminating currency
First Claim
1. A method of authenticating documents comprising the steps of:
- illuminating a document with ultraviolet light;
detecting ultraviolet light reflected by said document; and
determining the authenticity of said document based upon a comparison of the ultraviolet light reflected from said document with a minimum threshold value and a maximum threshold value, said minimum and maximum threshold values being predetermined relative to the ultraviolet light reflected from a genuine document illuminated with ultraviolet light, wherein a negative determination of authenticity is made regarding said document if an amount of ultraviolet light reflected from said document is below said minimum threshold value or above said maximum threshold value.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system for authenticating documents comprises in one embodiment an ultraviolet light source illuminating a document to be tested, an ultraviolet light detector for detecting the ultraviolet light reflected by the document and a signal processor for determining the authenticity of the document based upon an output signal of the ultraviolet light detector representing the amount of detected ultraviolet light. The document is considered genuine if the output signal is within a predetermined range of an expected value. In another embodiment, the system combines the ultraviolet light source and ultraviolet light detector with a visible light detector for detecting visible light emitted by the document. The signal processor receives signals from both the ultraviolet detector and the visible light detector and determines the authenticity of the document based upon signals representing the reflected ultraviolet light and detected visible light. The document is considered genuine if the output signal representing the detected ultraviolet light is within a predetermined range of an expected value and if the output signal representing the amount of visible light does not exceed a threshold value.
338 Citations
36 Claims
-
1. A method of authenticating documents comprising the steps of:
-
illuminating a document with ultraviolet light; detecting ultraviolet light reflected by said document; and determining the authenticity of said document based upon a comparison of the ultraviolet light reflected from said document with a minimum threshold value and a maximum threshold value, said minimum and maximum threshold values being predetermined relative to the ultraviolet light reflected from a genuine document illuminated with ultraviolet light, wherein a negative determination of authenticity is made regarding said document if an amount of ultraviolet light reflected from said document is below said minimum threshold value or above said maximum threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A method of authenticating documents comprising the steps of:
-
illuminating a document with ultraviolet light; detecting the amount of ultraviolet light reflected from one or more areas of said document; and determining the authenticity of said document based upon a comparison of the ultraviolet light reflected from said document with the ultraviolet light reflected from a genuine document illuminated with ultraviolet light, the determination of authenticity being made relative to genuine currency and wherein a positive determination of authenticity is made regarding said document only if an amount of ultraviolet light reflected from said document exceeds a minimum threshold value and does not exceed a maximum threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A device for authenticating documents comprising:
-
an ultraviolet light source for illuminating a document to be tested; an ultraviolet light detector for generating an output signal responsive to the amount of ultraviolet light reflected from one or more areas of said document; and a signal processor for receiving said ultraviolet detector output signal and determining the authenticity of said document based upon a comparison of said output signal to a minimum threshold value and a maximum threshold value, wherein a negative determination of authenticity is made regarding said document if an amount of ultraviolet light reflected from said document is below said minimum threshold value or above said maximum threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
-
-
28. A device for authenticating documents comprising:
-
an ultraviolet light source for illuminating a document to be tested; an ultraviolet light detector for generating an output signal responsive to the amount of ultraviolet light reflected from one or more areas of said document; and a signal processor for receiving said ultraviolet detector output signal and determining the authenticity of said document based upon a comparison of said output signal to a minimum threshold value and a maximum threshold value, wherein a positive determination of authenticity is made regarding said document only if an amount of ultraviolet light reflected from said document is above said minimum threshold value and does not exceed said maximum threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
-
Specification