Detection and deterrence of counterfeiting of documents with a seal having characteristic color, size, shape and radial density profile

• US 6,731,784 B2
• Filed: 08/25/1999
• Issued: 05/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Yang, Xuguang
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jayanti K.
• Application Number:
  US09/382,558
• Publication Number:
  US 20030108232A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,714 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/112, 382/135, 382/308, 382/168, 382/173, 382/162-164, 358/1.2, 358/1.9, 194/207, 194/212, 356/419, 356/73, 704/9, 707/514
• US Class Current: 382/135
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1444 Selective acquisition, locating or processing of specific regions, e.g. highlighted text, fiducial marks or predetermined fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/18 Extraction of features or characteristics of the image

Abstract

Detection and deterrence of counterfeiting permits one to make legitimate color copies without introducing visual artifacts or experiencing substantial processing delays. An efficient counterfeit deterrence is enabled by the use of an hierarchic detection scheme, in which the majority of documents are classified as free of suspicion using a simple characteristic color detection algorithm that imposes a negligible computational burden. The remainder of documents, which are labeled as suspicious, receive analysis by a block-based morphologic detection algorithm and then possibly other additional detection algorithms. If the suspicious document is identified as being a secure document, this will lead to printing with selectively deteriorated service or complete denial of service. For one embodiment, a seal having characteristic color, size, shape and radial density profile is incorporated into the design of frequently counterfeited documents. In the case of US currency, the already present “treasury green” treasury seal can serve as a suitable seal. The document is partitioned into appropriately sized blocks. A block is labeled suspicious if it contains the characteristic color. The scheme uses a color look-up table (LUT) to detect an initial block with a pixel having the characteristic color. A block-based morphologic detection algorithm then uses dilation to group neighboring suspicious blocks into suspicious regions. One can then examine size, shape, density, and color density profile to check each suspicious region, and to thereby verify that printing of a counterfeit is being attempted. Conventional tests for counterfeit documents can also be used as a further, higher level test.

Claims

1. A method of determining whether a document is identified by a seal, the seal having a characteristic color, the method comprising:

a) generating an image of the document;

b) searching the image for a suspicious block having at least one pixel of the characteristic color; and

c) identifying each block contiguous to any suspicious block as suspicious, if the contiguous block also has at least one pixel of the characteristic color, wherein the contiguous suspicious blocks collectively form a suspicious region.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising

d) classifying the document as non-suspicious if a size of the suspicious region does not substantially match a size of the seal.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising

d) classifying the document as non-suspicious if a shape of the suspicious region does not substantially match a shape of the seal.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising

d) classifying the document as non-suspicious if a density of pixels having the characteristic color does not substantially match a corresponding pixel density of the seal.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising

d) classifying the document as non-suspicious if a radial density of pixels having the characteristic color does not substantially match a radial density profile of the seal.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising

d) classifying the document as suspicious if the suspicious region has substantially a same size, shape, density of pixels having the characteristic color, and radial density of pixels having the characteristic color.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising

d) degrading the image before reproduction, if the document has been classified as suspicious.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein degrading the image includes substituting another color for any pixels having the characteristic color within the suspicious region.

9. A method of deterring counterfeit reproductions of secure documents having a seal of a pre-determined color, comprising the steps of:

a) partitioning an image of a document into a plurality of contiguous blocks;

b) classifying any block having at least one pixel of the pre-determined color as a suspicious block; and

c) classifying the document as non-suspicious, if no suspicious block exists.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising the step of:

d) identifying a group of contiguous blocks with the suspicious block as a suspicious region, if each block in the group has at least one pixel of the pre-determined color associated with the seal.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

e) classifying the document as non-suspicious, if no suspicious region exists.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein step d) further comprises the step of performing a block based morphologic dilation of any suspicious block to identify the suspicious region of contiguous blocks.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

e) classifying the document as non-suspicious if a size of the suspicious region does not substantially match a size of the seal.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

e) classifying the document as non-suspicious if a shape of the suspicious region does not substantially match a shape of the seal.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

e) classifying the document as non-suspicious if a density of pixels having the pre-determined color does not substantially match a corresponding pixel density of the seal.

16. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

e) classifying the document as non-suspicious if a radial density of pixels having the pre-determined color does not substantially match a radial density profile of the seal.

17. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

e) classifying the document as suspicious if the suspicious region has substantially a same size, shape, density of pixels having the pre-determined color, and radial density of pixels having the pre-determined color as the seal.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising the step of:

f) degrading the image before reproduction, if the document is suspicious.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein step f) further comprises the step of substituting another color for any pixels having the pre-determined color within the suspicious region.

20. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

e) performing the reproduction only if the document is classified as non-suspicious.