Secure paper-free bills in workflow applications

• US 9,984,366 B1
• Filed: 08/28/2017
• Issued: 05/29/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Jammikunta, Ravi Kumar, Polisetty, Balaji, Sharma, Nishant, Dabral, Akhil
• Primary Examiner(s): Hess, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US15/688,133
• Time in Patent Office: 274 Days
• Field of Search: 235494
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0457 the tickets being sent electronically
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/047 using payment protocols involving electronic receipts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3226 Use of secure elements separate from M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3227 using secure elements embedded in M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3274 using a pictured code, e.g. barcode or QR-code, being displayed on the M-device
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3276 using a pictured code, e.g. barcode or QR-code, being read by the M-device
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40145 Biometric identity checks
• CPC Class Codes: G09C 5/00 Ciphering apparatus or methods not provided for in the preceding groups, e.g. involving the concealment or deformation of graphic data such as designs, written or printed messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0863 involving passwords or one-time passwords network architectures or network communication protocols for using one-time keys in a packet data network H04L63/067
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3231 Biological data, e.g. fingerprint, voice or retina network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using biometrical features in a packet data network H04L63/0861
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures

Abstract

A system and method allows for paperless billing transaction document exchanges between two parties to a sales transaction, with inherent document verification. In an embodiment, the system and method first encrypts the transaction document data according to a password which itself depends on unique transaction data in a particular sales document. The system and method then employs the unique data values to create a first 2-D barcode which directly represents the document data; and to create a second 2-D barcode which represents the encrypted document data. The two matrix codes are overlapped on a cell-by-cell basis into a single visual representation, employing multiple colors for different combinations of overlapped cells. At a receiving end, the two original matrix codes can be separated by extracting the two black and white 2-D barcodes from the combined color code. The data integrity of the received data is confirmed by checking that the encrypted 2-D barcode is consistent with the plaintext 2-D barcode. Additional methods are employed to attach secure, merged biometric image signatures, such as merged fingerprint images, to the merged 2-D barcode form of the transaction document.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

generating, based upon a unique, plaintext data from a transaction document for a sales transaction;

a unique password for data encryption; and

a unique finger-print shuffling sequence;

receiving a first fingerprint image and a second fingerprint image from a respective first and second party to the sales transaction;

encrypting the unique plaintext data with the unique password to generate a ciphertext data;

generating a first two-dimensional two-color barcode (2-D barcode) representing the plaintext unique data, wherein the first 2-D barcode comprises a light color and a dark color;

generating a second two-dimensional two-color barcode (2-D barcode) representing the ciphertext data, wherein the second 2-D barcode comprises the light color and the dark color;

merging the first 2-D barcode and the second 2-D barcode into a merged multicolored 2-D barcode, wherein each distinct color of the multicolored 2-D barcode represents a designated combination of two light-colored cells, two dark-colored cells, a dark-colored cell and a light-colored cell, or a light-colored celled and a dark-colored cell from the first 2-D barcode and the second 2-D barcode;

dividing each of the first fingerprint image and the second fingerprint image into a respective plurality of first image parts and second image parts;

spatially shuffling each of the first plurality of image parts and the second plurality of image parts to generate a respective first shuffled fingerprint image and a second shuffled fingerprint image, wherein said spatial shuffling is in accordance with the unique finger-print shuffling sequence;

merging the first shuffled fingerprint image and the second shuffled fingerprint image into a combined shuffled fingerprint image; and

concatenating the merged multicolored 2-D barcode and the combined shuffled fingerprint image into a final transaction document image.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

validating said final transaction document image, whereby the integrity of the encoded data is determined.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said validating comprises:

separating the final transaction document image into two separate images to recover a retrieved merged multicolored 2-D barcode and a retrieved combined shuffled fingerprint image;

extracting a plaintext data 2-D barcode and a ciphertext data 2-D barcode from the retrieved merged multicolored 2-D barcode;

restoring a first plaintext data from the plaintext data 2-D barcode;

restoring a second plaintext data from the ciphertext data 2-D barcode;

determining if the first plaintext data restored from the plaintext data 2-D barcode matches the second plaintext data restored from the ciphertext data 2-D barcode;

upon determining that the first plaintext data restored from the plaintext data 2-D barcode matches the second plaintext data restored from the ciphertext data 2-D barcode, determining that the data integrity has been maintained; and

upon determining that the first plaintext data restored from the plaintext data 2-D barcode does not match the second plaintext data restored from the ciphertext data 2-D barcode, determining that data integrity has been lost.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein restoring the second plaintext data from the ciphertext 2-D barcode comprises:

generating, via the first plaintext data restored from the plaintext 2-D barcode, the unique password for data encryption; and

decrypting the ciphertext 2-D barcode via the unique password.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said validating comprises:

separating the final transaction document into two separate images to retrieve a retrieved merged multicolored 2-D barcode and a retrieved combined shuffled fingerprint image;

extracting a plaintext data 2-D barcode and a first ciphertext data 2-D barcode from the retrieved merged multicolored 2-D barcode;

restoring the plaintext data from the plaintext data 2-D barcode;

generating, via the plaintext data restored from the actual 2-D barcode, the unique password for data encryption;

constructing a second ciphertext data 2-D barcode based on the plaintext data restored from the plaintext 2-D barcode and the unique password;

determining if the first ciphertext 2-D barcode and the second ciphertext 2-D barcode match;

upon determining that the first ciphertext 2-D barcode and the second ciphertext 2-D barcode match, determining that data integrity has been maintained; and

upon determining that the first ciphertext 2-D barcode and the second ciphertext 2-D barcode do not match, determining that data integrity has been lost.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the unique password for data encryption based upon the unique plaintext data comprises generating the unique password via a proprietary password generation algorithm.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the unique finger-print shuffling sequence based upon the unique plaintext data comprises generating the finger-print shuffling sequence via a proprietary data shuffling algorithm.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

validating a biometric signature of said final transaction document image, whereby the integrity of the encoded shuffled fingerprint data is determined.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said validating comprises:

separating the final transaction document into two separate images to recover a retrieved merged multicolored 2-D barcode and a retrieved combined shuffled fingerprint image;

extracting from the retrieved merged multicolored 2-D barcode the plaintext transaction data;

generating, based upon the plaintext transaction data, the unique fingerprint shuffling sequence;

recovering from the combined shuffled fingerprint image the first shuffled fingerprint image and the second shuffled fingerprint image; and

deshuffling, based on the unique fingerprint shuffling sequence, at least one of the first fingerprint image and the second fingerprint image.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein merging the first shuffled fingerprint image and the second shuffled fingerprint image into a combined shuffled fingerprint image comprises:

assigning a first color to darkened pixels of the first shuffled fingerprint image and a second color to background pixels of the first shuffled fingerprint image;

assigning a third color to darkened pixels of the second shuffled fingerprint image and a fourth color to background pixels of the second shuffled fingerprint image;

overlapping the first shuffled fingerprint image with the assigned first and second colors, and the second shuffled fingerprint image with the assigned third and fourth colors, whereby are generated paired combinations of overlapping pixels; and

assigning a respective color of a fifth plurality of colors to respective paired combinations of pixels of the first, second, third, and fourth colors of the overlapping image.

11. A method, comprising:

generating, based upon a unique data from an invoice for a transaction, a unique password for data encryption;

encrypting the unique data with the unique password to generate ciphertext data;

generating a first monochrome two-dimensional bar code (first 2-D barcode) representing the plaintext unique data;

generating a second monochrome two-dimensional barcode (second 2-D barcode) representing the ciphertext unique data; and

merging the first 2-D barcode and the second 2-D barcode into a merged multicolored 2-D barcode to obtain a final invoice image, wherein;

each color of the multicolored 2-D barcode represents a designated pairing of a first color or a second color of the first 2-D barcode with a third color or a fourth color of the second 2-D barcode.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

validating said final invoice image, whereby the integrity of the encoded data is determined.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said validating comprises:

extracting a plaintext data 2-D barcode and a ciphertext data 2-D barcode from the merged multicolored 2-D barcode of the final invoice image;

restoring the plaintext data from the plaintext data 2-D barcode;

restoring the ciphertext data from the ciphertext data 2-D barcode;

determining if the plaintext data restored from the plaintext data 2-D barcode matches the ciphertext data restored from the ciphertext data 2-D barcode;

upon determining that the plaintext data restored from the plaintext data 2-D barcode matches the ciphertext data restored from the ciphertext data 2-D barcode, determining that data integrity has been maintained; and

upon determining that the plaintext data restored from the plaintext data 2-D barcode does not match the ciphertext data restored from the ciphertext data 2-D barcode, determining that data integrity has been lost.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein determining if the plaintext data restored from the plaintext data 2-D barcode matches the ciphertext data restored from the ciphertext data 2-D barcode comprises:

generating, via the data restored from the plaintext 2-D barcode, the unique password for data encryption; and

decrypting, via the unique password, the ciphertext data restored from the ciphertext data 2-D barcode to recover an unencrypted data.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein said validating comprises:

extracting a plaintext data 2-D barcode and a first ciphertext data 2-D barcode from the merged multicolored 2-D barcode of the final invoice image;

restoring the plaintext data from the plaintext data 2-D barcode;

generating, via the plaintext data restored from the actual 2-D barcode, the unique password for data encryption;

constructing a second ciphertext data 2-D barcode based on the plaintext data restored from the plaintext 2-D barcode and the unique password;

determining if the first ciphertext 2-D barcode and the second ciphertext 2-D barcode match;

upon determining that the first ciphertext 2-D barcode and the second ciphertext 2-D barcode match, determining that data integrity has been maintained; and

upon determining that the first ciphertext 2-D barcode and the second ciphertext 2-D barcode do not match, determining that data integrity has been lost.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein generating the unique password for data encryption based upon the unique data comprises generating the unique password via a proprietary password generation algorithm.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

generating a unique image shuffling sequence based upon the unique data;

obtaining a first biometric image and a second biometric image of a respective first and second party to the invoiced transaction;

dividing each of the first biometric image and the second biometric image into a respective plurality of first image parts and second image parts;

spatially shuffling each of the first plurality of image parts and the second plurality of image parts to generate a respective first shuffled biometric image and a second shuffled biometric image, wherein said spatial shuffling is in accordance with the unique image shuffling sequence;

merging the first shuffled biometric image and the second shuffled biometric image into a combined shuffled biometric image; and

concatenating the merged multicolored 2-D barcode and the combined shuffled biometric image to form the final invoice image.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein generating the unique image shuffling sequence based upon the unique data comprises generating the image shuffling sequence via a proprietary data shuffling algorithm.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

validating said final invoice image, whereby the integrity of the encoded shuffled biometric data is determined.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said validating comprises:

separating the final invoice image into two separate images to recover a retrieved merged multicolored 2-D barcode and a retrieved combined shuffled biometric image;

extracting a plaintext data 2-D barcode from the retrieved merged multicolored 2-D barcode;

restoring the unique plaintext data from the plaintext data 2-D barcode;

generating, based upon the unique data restored from the plaintext 2-D barcode, the unique fingerprint shuffling sequence;

recovering from the combined shuffled biometric image the first shuffled biometric image and the second shuffled biometric image;

and

deshuffling, based on the image shuffling sequence, at least one of the first biometric image and the second biometric image.