Authentication of identification documents using digital watermarks

• US 20050094848A1
• Filed: 11/17/2004
• Published: 05/05/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Carr, J. Scott, Seder, Phillip Andrew, Lofgren, Neil E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,305,104 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0064 Geometric transfor invariant watermarking, e.g. affine transform invariant
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0052 Embedding of the watermark in the frequency domain

Abstract

Digital watermark methods for encoding auxiliary data into a host signal are used to authenticate physical and electronic objects. In one implementation, an identification document includes electronic circuitry. The electronic circuitry includes an image of an authorized bearer of the identification document. The image includes first digital watermarking having a plural-bit identifier. In some cases, the identification document includes a printed image of the authorized bearer of the identification document. The printed image includes second digital watermarking therein. The first digital watermarking and the second digital watermarking can be cross-correlated for authentication of the identification document.

Claims

1. An identification document including:

a first image embedded with watermark data and printed on the document;

wherein a copy of the first image is embedded with watermark data, and is referenced on the document or encoded into the document; and

wherein the watermark data embedded in the first image and the copy is related in a manner that enables validity of the document to be verified.

2. The identification document of claim 1 wherein the copy of the first image is stored in a machine readable code on the document.

3. The identification document of claim 2 wherein the copy of the first image is compressed before being stored in the machine readable code.

4. The identification document of claim 1 wherein the copy of the first image is stored in a database entry referenced via a database key in the watermark data embedded in the first image printed on the document;

and wherein the database key extracted from the watermark in the first image is used to look up the copy of the first image in the database entry.

5. The identification document of claim 1 wherein the watermark data embedded in the first image printed on the document includes a number that is cryptographically related to a number embedded in the copy of the first image.

6. The identification document of claim 1 wherein the document comprises electronic or integrated circuitry and the copy of the first image is stored in the electronic or integrated circuitry.

7. An identification document comprising:

a first image of an authorized bearer of the identification document, wherein the first image comprises first steganographic encoding therein; and

electronic or integrated circuitry, wherein the electronic or integrated circuitry comprises a second image of the authorized bearer of the identification document stored therein, wherein the second image comprises second steganographic encoding, and wherein the second encoding comprises a plural-bit identifier.

8. The identification document of claim 7 wherein the first steganographic encoding and the second steganographic encoding each comprise digital watermarking.

9. The identification document of claim 7 wherein the first steganographic encoding and the second steganographic encoding are related in a manner that enables validity of the identification document to be verified.

10. The identification document of claim 7 wherein the first steganographic encoding comprises a plural-bit identifier, and wherein the plural-bit identifiers comprise different information.

11. The identification document of claim 10 wherein the plural-bit identifiers comprise related information.

12. The identification document of claim 7 wherein the second image is stored in a compressed form.

13. The identification document of claim 7 wherein the first steganographic encoding comprises a plural-bit identifier, and wherein the plural-bit identifiers are related through encryption in a manner that enables validity of the identification document to be verified.

14. The identification document of claim 7 wherein the electronic or integrated circuitry comprises a wireless transmitter.

29. The identification document of claim 7 wherein the electronic or integrate circuitry comprises an RF tag.

15. An identification document comprising:

a first image of an authorized bearer of the identification document provided on a document surface; and

a storage device carried by the document, wherein the storage device comprises a second image of the authorized bearer of the identification document stored therein, wherein the second image comprises first steganographic encoding, and wherein the first encoding comprises a plural-bit identifier.

16. The identification document of claim 15 wherein the storage device comprises electronic or integrated circuitry.

17. The identification document of claim 15 wherein the first image comprises second steganographic encoding.

18. The identification document of claim 17 wherein the first steganographic encoding and the second steganographic encoding each comprise digital watermarking.

19. The identification document of claim 17 wherein the first steganographic encoding and the second steganographic encoding are related in a manner that enables validity of the identification document to be verified.

20. The identification document of claim 17 wherein the first steganographic encoding comprises a plural-bit identifier, and wherein the plural-bit identifiers comprise different information.

21. The identification document of claim 20 wherein the plural-bit identifiers comprise related information.

22. The identification document of claim 15 wherein the second image is stored in a compressed form.

23. The identification document of claim 17 wherein the first steganographic encoding comprises a plural-bit identifier, and wherein the plural-bit identifiers are related through encryption in a manner that enables validity of the identification document to be verified.

24. The identification document of claim 15 wherein the storage device comprises a wireless transmitter.

25. The identification document of claim 24 wherein the wireless transmitter comprises an RF tag.

26. The identification document of claim 15 wherein the second image is a copy of the first image.

27. The identification document of claim 15 wherein the first image is a copy of the second image.

28. The identification document of claim 15 wherein the plural-bit identifier is related to the document.