GB2330198A

GB2330198A - Article identification system

Info

Publication number: GB2330198A
Application number: GB9721422A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Leonard Frederick Goldstone; Anthony Peter John Golding
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1997-10-10
Filing date: 1997-10-10
Publication date: 1999-04-14
Also published as: GB9721422D0

Abstract

In a system for identifying articles, eg. stolen articles, a digitised image of various parts of the object is obtained e.g. by using a scanner or digital camera, and the images are enhanced and stored in an electronic data base. When an article is to be identified, the relevant parts can be compared with the images stored on the data base. The system identifies articles from their intrinsic features eg the grain of a wooden object. Thus articles do not need to be marked making it harder to circumvent than known methods.

Description

Identification System The present invention relates to a system for the identification of articles and is especially useful for purposes of identifying stolen articles.

When articles such as antiques, artistic works etc. are stolen they are then sold on to third parties or recovered by the police and it is essential for the original owner to be able to identify such objects if he wishes to reclaim his property. To enable this to be done various systems have been proposed and used, these include the use of implanted micro chips, invisible markings, DNA identifiers etc. placed on or incorporated in the articles.

Any system which involves the addition of a marking or other device to an article can be rendered ineffective by the removal or alteration of the marking etc. As the system which is used will need to become known to insurance companies, police and judicial authorities etc. the system will, in due course, inevitably become known to criminals and can be rendered ineffective. In order to deter theft it can be advantageous to indicate that such an article is protected and this could alert the thief as to what may need to be done to prevent the identification of the article.

I have now devised a system which utilises the inherent properties of any article to identify the article.

According to the invention there is provided a system for identifying an article which system comprises taking an image of a part of the article, transferring image to a computer.

The image can be taken by a means which records the image in electronic or digital form, this can be done by means of a digital camera, camera with a digitizing card or by scanning with an electronic scanner.

It was surprisingly found that an electronic scanner, when it scans an article, can pick up fine details of the article which are not apparent to the naked eye and articles which appear identical to visual inspection, even under magnification, can be readily be distinguished by using a scanned or photographed image.

Scanners are normally used for scanning documents and drawings etc. and the better quality scanners use a flat bed and the scanner head scans the document through a glass sheet, with the document placed face down on the glass sheet. Other scanners feed a document through them, so that the document passes over the scanner head.

Other scanners are hand held and the user passes the scanner over the document being scanned or photographed, these scanners are generally cheaper and of lower quality and when they are used to give an image the image produced is generally of lower quality. When images larger than the scanner head need to be scanned or photographed several passes are required and the images "stitched" together and this also lowers the quality. However hand held scanners are particularly useful in the system of the present system.

Commercially available scanners can be used in the system of the present invention and these are easily and widely available. It has been found that specialised equipment is not essential although purpose built scanners could be used. With a hand held scanner all that is required is that the scanner scans the specific part of the article and the image stored. This enables an operator to carry out the system of the present invention at the location of the article easily and simply and, by storing the image in a portable or lap top computer, an operator can readily apply the system of the invention to a large number of articles at the same time without damaging the article or interfering with its display or use.

When a digital camera or a camera with a digitizing card is used to form the image the digital camera can be of a conventional commercially available type, in this case the image is taken from the camera and fed into the computer for processing, storage etc.

It has surprisingly been found that a scanned or photographed image of any article or object is unique and it is easy to see the differences between different scanned or photographed images, even when no distinctive features are apparent on the object. As well as being true for different parts of a wooden object, such as a desk where the wood grain is different at every position, it is also true for different parts of the same object which may appear the same, for example a piece of porcelain or china, which appears to have a smooth uniform surface will have easily distinguished scanned or photographed images when the images are taken from adjacent apparently identical positions.

The use of the system of the present invention allows the setting up of a data base to identify and record items. A scanned or photographed image of one or more predetermined parts of the object is obtained according to the system of the invention and this image can then be stored on a computerised record or transferred to a rewritable optical disc etc. When an article is to be identified a part of the article which corresponds to the part in the stored image is scanned or photographed and then a comparison can be made.

Preferably several different parts of the article are scanned or photographed and the image stored, in this way a very positive identification can be made. This system allows the facility for the location of one or more parts of the article which are scanned or photographed to be given to the relevant authorities and for the data base keeper to keep one or more locations confidential to himself and possibly the owner, in this way a potential thief, even if he had access to data on the data base in the hands of the authorities, could not be certain that he knew the location of all the identified parts.

With pattern recognition software once the data base has been set up the image of the relevant part of the article to be identified can be fed into the computer and the data base can identify the registered owner.

If desired a photograph of the article can be taken and stored digitally with the scanned or photographed image to facilitate searching for the object on the data base.

It is a feature of the present invention that, unlike other identification methods it relies on the inherent properties of the article and so cannot be altered or changed without disfiguring the article.

Claims

Claims 1. A system for identifying an article which comprises taking an image of a part of the article, recording the image in electronic or digital form and transferring the image to a computer so that, when an article is to be identified the recorded image can be compared with the corresponding part of the article.
2. A system as claimed in claim 1 in which the image is processed to enhance its distinctive characteristics.
3. A system as claimed in claims 1 or 2 in which the image is taken by a means of a digital camera or a camera with a digitizing card.
4 A system as claimed in claims 1 or 2 in which the image is taken by a means of an electronic scanner.
5. A system for identifying objects in which a scanned or photographed image of one or more predetermined parts of the object is obtained according to the system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4 and this image is stored on a computerised record and when an object is to be identified a part of the article which corresponds to the part in the stored image is scanned or photographed and then a comparison made to identify the article.