Method and system for watermark detection
First Claim
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1. A method for detecting a watermark in an image of a document including data, the steps of the method comprising:
- measuring the distribution of the data on the document;
determining a characteristic frequency of the distribution of the data on the document, wherein the determining of a characteristic frequency comprises ascertaining whether the distribution of data contains a plurality of relative peaks each located at a frequency interval indicative of a beat pattern, wherein the ascertained beat pattern represents the characteristic frequency of the data on the document; and
comparing the characteristic frequency of the data on the document with a frequency which is associated with the document to determine if the document is authentic, wherein the comparing comprises comparing the beat pattern associated with the data on the document with a predetermined beat pattern associated with the document.
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Abstract
A system and method of detecting and authenticating a watermark on a document such as a check which is supposed to include a watermark having known characteristics to verify the authenticity of the document. A digitized image of the document is stored and processed through transformation which generates a frequency distribution. That frequency distribution is processed to determine one or more harmonic compared to a stored value associated with the document to determine that a watermark exists and it is the correct watermark.
14 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A method for detecting a watermark in an image of a document including data, the steps of the method comprising:
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measuring the distribution of the data on the document; determining a characteristic frequency of the distribution of the data on the document, wherein the determining of a characteristic frequency comprises ascertaining whether the distribution of data contains a plurality of relative peaks each located at a frequency interval indicative of a beat pattern, wherein the ascertained beat pattern represents the characteristic frequency of the data on the document; and comparing the characteristic frequency of the data on the document with a frequency which is associated with the document to determine if the document is authentic, wherein the comparing comprises comparing the beat pattern associated with the data on the document with a predetermined beat pattern associated with the document. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method of determining the authenticity of a document comprising the steps of:
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generating an image of the document; determining at least one characteristic frequency associated with the image of the document, wherein the determining of at least one characteristic frequency comprises obtain mci a frequency distribution of data from the image of the document and ascertaining whether the distribution of data contains a plurality of relative peaks each located at a frequency interval indicative of a beat pattern, wherein the ascertained beat pattern represents the characteristic frequency of the data on the document; and determining if the at least one characteristic frequency associated with the image of the document as determined matches at least one characteristic frequency for the document if it were authentic, wherein the determining comprises comparing the beat pattern associated with the data on the document with a predetermined beat pattern associated with the document if it were authentic. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
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11. A system of detecting a watermark in a document and comparing the detected watermark to determine the authenticity of the watermark, the system comprising:
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an image camera which generates an image of the document; an image storage which retains the image of the document; an analysis unit coupled to the image storage which determines a characteristic frequency of the image, wherein the analysis unit obtains a frequency distribution of data from the generated image of the document and ascertains whether the distribution of data contains a plurality of relative peaks each located at a frequency interval indicative of a beat pattern; and a comparison unit which compares the characteristic frequency determined by the analysis unit with the correct characteristic for the document, wherein the comparison unit compares the beat pattern associated with the data on the generated image of the document with a predetermined beat pattern associated with the retained image document; and a rejection unit which identifies documents for which the characteristic frequency is not appropriate for the correct characteristics of the document, whereby the documents which have been identified by the rejection unit may be examined in another way. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification