KR20010087809A - System and method for issuing and authenticating ticket using watermarking technique - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: Provided is a ticket issue and authentication system by water marking technique which uses optical water marking technique so that it prevents the printed ticket from being copied and forged. CONSTITUTION: In the method which issues tickets with authentication information inserted by watermark through a communication net, the method which issues tickets comprises the steps of: (i) inputting request information for issuing tickets by ticket buyers(130) and sending the information to a server for issuing tickets(140); (ii) responding the request and generating authentication information for the tickets by watermark(170); (iii) inserting the watermark into a ticket image(180); (iv) sending the ticket image with the watermark inserted to the ticket buyers(190); and (v) printing out the received ticket image(200).

Description

System and method for issuing and authenticating tickets using watermarking technology {SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ISSUING AND AUTHENTICATING TICKET USING WATERMARKING TECHNIQUE}

The present invention relates to a system and method for issuing and authenticating tickets over a communication network. In more detail, for various tickets issued through a communication network, information for authenticating the ticket can be inserted into a watermark to determine the authenticity and operation of the ticket. The present invention relates to a system and method for receiving a mail, printing it out, and then directly bringing it to a corresponding place of use.

Recently, through the rapidly growing Internet network, services provided to Internet users are expanding to various fields. One of them is a ticket reservation and purchase service. Examples of tickets include various cultures, tickets for admission to leisure facilities, tickets for use of transportation facilities such as airplanes, trains, ships, coupons and gift certificates that can be used in various facilities such as restaurants and department stores. There are the following Internet Ticketing methods currently being serviced.

The first approach relates to a simple booking service. In this service, a user accesses a ticket reservation site and registers with a user ID. If a user wants to purchase a ticket, log in with his / her ID and reserve the desired ticket. After depositing the amount paid to the bank through the bankbook payment method or paying the amount by credit card payment method, go directly to the ticket office and confirm your ID, the deposit slip, or the order number on the order confirmation. use. Alternatively, temporary tickets are downloaded from a ticket reservation site, printed out on a printer, and then taken to a place of use and exchanged for an admission ticket.

According to this method, however, even when a ticket is reserved through a communication network, it is necessary to go directly to the place of use and obtain a ticket, and in this case, there is a high possibility of having to wait for a long time in a large number of people. Thus, there is no practical benefit to the user through advance booking of tickets.

The second method relates to a coupon service that can be used simply. It is a service that prints images of various free coupons or coupons on a printer and prints them out to a user.

However, according to this method, coupons are easily manipulated, tampered with, and forged, and are only applied to simple use for discount or promotional purposes, and do not perform their original role as tickets. That is, the ticket release service using this method has a problem in that the place of use and purpose of use are extremely limited.

The present invention is to provide a ticket issuing and authentication system and method that can solve the problems described above.

An object of the present invention is to purchase a ticket on the Internet, receive the ticket directly through a web browser or e-mail, and print it out to a printer so that the printed ticket can be used directly at the place of use, thereby allowing the ticket purchaser To alleviate the inconvenience of waiting for

Another object of the present invention is to provide a ticket release service through a reliable communication network by preventing tampering on a ticket by inserting a predetermined watermark in the ticket.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a ticket issuing and authentication system according to the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a ticket issuing process according to the present invention.

3 is a diagram illustrating an example of user information input by a ticket purchaser.

4 (a) is a diagram illustrating ticket issuance information and FIG. 4 (b) is a diagram illustrating ticket authentication information, respectively.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a ticket authentication process according to the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

10: ticket issuing request device 20: ticket output device

30: ticket recognition device 40: ticket issuing server

50: ticket authentication server 60: data storage device

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a ticket in which ticket authentication information is inserted as a watermark through a communication network, the method comprising: (a) a ticket purchaser inputting ticket issuance request information, Transmitting to the ticket issuing server; (b) in response to the ticket issuing request of the ticket purchaser, generating ticket authentication information for certification of the ticket as a watermark; (c) inserting a watermark into the ticket image; (d) transmitting the ticket image with the watermark embedded therein to the ticket purchaser via a communication network; And (e) printing the transmitted ticket image by the purchaser.

In order to achieve another object of the present invention, the present invention is a ticket authentication system including a data storage means for storing user information and ticket issuance information, a ticket recognition means for recognizing a ticket and a ticket authentication server, issuing through a communication network A method of authenticating a ticket having received ticket authentication information as a watermark image, the method comprising: (a) recognizing a ticket through a ticket recognition means, generating a ticket image, and transmitting the ticket image to a ticket authentication server; (b) extracting the watermark image from the ticket image; (c) detecting ticket authentication information from the extracted watermark image; And (d) comparing the ticket authentication information with the ticket issuing information stored in the data storage means to authenticate the ticket.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a ticket issuing and authentication system according to the present invention.

The ticket issuing and authentication system according to the present invention includes a ticket issuing request device 10, a ticket output device 20, a ticket recognition device 30, a ticket issuing server 40, a ticket authentication server 50 and a data storage device ( 60).

A person who wishes to purchase a ticket (or purchase a ticket) inputs information necessary for ticket issuance through the ticket issuing request device 10. The input information is transmitted to the ticket issuing server 40 through a communication network, and the ticket issuing server 40 generates a watermarking image including information necessary for authentication of the ticket and inserts it into the ticket image. The ticket output device 20 receives the ticket image with the watermark inserted from the ticket issuing server 40 through the communication network and outputs the ticket image.

When the user who purchased the ticket brings the output ticket to the destination, the ticket recognition device 30 installed at the destination recognizes the output ticket and generates a ticket image, and receives a ticket issuing number from the user and recognizes the ticket image. Together it is sent to the ticket authentication server 50. The ticket authentication server 50 extracts the watermarking image required for the ticket authentication from the recognized ticket image to authenticate the ticket. The data storage device 60 stores user information and ticket issuance information.

The present invention is largely divided into a process of issuing a ticket and a process of authenticating the issued ticket at the place of use, and first, a process of issuing a ticket according to the present invention will be described.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a ticket issuing process according to the present invention.

When the ticket purchaser connects to the ticket issuing site (step 100) and logs in, the ticket issuing process is started. However, the ticket issuing process according to the present invention is not limited to a method of accessing an Internet site through a web browser, and can be accessed through an automatic response system (ARS) using a general telephone. have. In addition, it is possible to request a ticket issuance and download a ticket image by connecting through a personal digital assistant (PDA) or a mobile phone.

Next, the ticket purchaser inputs the personal information and the payment method of the buyer as user information (step 110).

3 is a diagram illustrating an example of user information input by a ticket purchaser. If the first purchaser using the ticket purchase service of the present invention (step 120), all the user information as illustrated in FIG.

This user information is stored in the data storage device 60 (step 125), whereby membership registration is performed. For the existing service user, since the user information entered at the time of purchase is already stored in the data storage device 60, the user of the existing service can be accessed using only the user identifier (ID) and the password (Password).

Next, the ticket purchaser enters ticket issuing request information (step 130). Ticket issuance request information is determined according to the nature of the ticket. For example, if a movie ticket is to be issued, a movie title, a theater name, date and time, and a seat number may be included. In the case of an airplane ticket, a departure point, a destination, a flight departure and arrival date and time, and a seat number may be included. The ticket issuing request device 10 receives the ticket issuing request information and transmits the ticket issuing request information to the ticket issuing server 40 together with the user information (if a new subscription customer) through a communication network (for example, the Internet network) (step 140). .

Next, the ticket issuance process in the ticket issuing server 40 is continued by analyzing user information and ticket issuing request information input by the ticket purchaser (step 150).

Subsequently, the ticket issuance information stored in the data storage device 60 is searched for the ticket requested by the ticket purchaser, and the information is read (step 160).

In addition to the ticket issuance request information entered by the ticket purchaser, the ticket issuance number and the ticket issuing name are added to the ticket issuing information. FIG. 4A is a diagram illustrating ticket issuing information as an example, and illustrates a case of a movie ticket as an example. Referring to Figure 4 (a), the theater name (ticket issuer name), movie title, date, time, seat number and ticket issuance number, etc. correspond to the ticket issuance information.

Next, the ticket issuing server 40 generates ticket authentication information necessary for authentication of the ticket from the ticket issuing information and the user information as a watermark (step 170), and inserts it into the ticket image (step 180). The ticket image means an entire ticket including a predetermined image, text, and the like, and the watermark may be inserted in any portion of the entire ticket.

4B is a diagram for explaining ticket authentication information by way of example. Referring to 4 (b), the ticket authentication information may include a buyer name, a ticket issuance number, a ticket issuer, and an identifier of the watermark insertion authority.

To describe the ticket (ie, the ticket image) in more detail, for example, a predetermined image, such as a movie poster, text such as date and seat information, etc., is displayed as visually identifiable information in the ticket image. On the other hand, the purchaser's name, the ticket issuing number and the identifier of the watermark inserting organ, which are the ticket authentication information, are inserted into arbitrary positions such as the predetermined image and text visible as watermarks which are not visually identified.

As described above, the ticket authentication information is inserted into the ticket so that it is not visible to the naked eye. In this process, a watermarking technique is used in the ticket issuing server. As the watermarking method in the present invention, for example, the method of the present invention disclosed in the applicant's watermarking related patent application can be used. As an example, PCT Application No. PCT / US99 / 20649 entitled “Watermarking of Digital Image Using Wavelet Transform and Descrete Cosine Transforms” and US Patent Application No. “Method and Apparatus for Embedding Text Watermarking”. 09 / 684,961, all of which are assigned to the present applicant.

In addition, various watermark embedding techniques that can be recognized by an image recognition device (for example, a scanner) may be used. Therefore, the watermark used in the present invention generates a series of random signals from a key and uses it as a watermark (hereinafter, “key method”), and uses a logo of a user as a watermark (hereinafter “logo”). Method ”), the key method and the logo method may be adopted at the same time.

In addition, it may be configured to insert a strong watermark and a fragile watermark, the strong watermark and the soft watermark at the same time. The strong watermark refers to a watermark that can survive an external attack or change without being changed or disappeared. Even though an external attack such as a reduction, enlargement, rotation, or compression is applied, the watermark has an embedded watermark. This refers to a watermark in which information, that is, information on user authentication is stored. The fragile watermark refers to a watermark capable of reliably distinguishing whether or not a forgery operation has been applied externally by causing a watermark to be lost even in a minute external manipulation or deformation.

In addition, it is possible to apply optical watermarking using optical interference or surface latent phenomenon. For reference, the optical interference phenomenon is that when the scan or copy is made, the dark part of the refraction wavelength generated on the pattern is folded and the shape is copied as it is being pushed out while constantly shining from one side to the other. Depending on the pattern is a phenomenon that does not appear well visually caused by interference.

Surface latent images are difficult to observe with the naked eye in the process of gluing two sheets of paper together or by adding wires or silver wires, or by using chemicals on plain paper. It is a method and the phenomenon of detecting the contents by physical and chemical methods by hiding the patterns, figures, characters, etc. as if specific characters or patterns are visible when UV light is emitted or UV rays are emitted.

Therefore, when the ticket is printed, or if there is an illegal act of copying and distributing the ticket, inserting the ticket into the copy machine causes the invisible pattern or phrase (such as “COPY”) to appear. This is to prevent copying of the ticket by making it known that it is a copy.

In order to reduce the amount of computation during watermark insertion and extraction, it is desirable to make the watermark image small within a range that can include information to be inserted. If the watermark image is smaller than the total size of the ticket image, the watermark embedding process is performed only for the predetermined watermark region of the ticket image, and the watermark extraction is performed only for the watermark region during extraction. Can be reduced corresponding to the area of the watermark area. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the area of the watermark area is preferably determined in a range in which the information contained in the watermark can be visually distinguished after extraction.

The ticket image, including the watermark image, is sent (step 190) to the buyer with the ticket issuance number. The ticket issuing number may not be included in the ticket image and may be notified to the buyer in a website or the like, or may be included as a watermark in the ticket image. The transmission of the ticket is sent to the buyer by e-mail via a communication network or displayed on the buyer's computer screen directly through a web browser.

The purchaser outputs the ticket image received from the ticket issuing server 40 to the printer (step 200). At this time, a resolution of 300 dpi or higher is recommended. In order to take the ticket to the place of use and authenticate the original ticket, the inserted watermark information needs to be detected, since a certain level of resolution is required to properly detect the watermark. Currently used printers usually have a resolution of 300 dpi or higher, so high resolution is not particularly required.

Next, a ticket authentication process according to the present invention will be described. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a ticket authentication process according to the present invention.

The ticket purchaser takes the ticket printed by the printer to use it. The ticket authentication process begins by inserting a ticket (step 210) into a ticket recognition device at the point of use of the ticket purchaser. As the ticket recognition device, an optical character reader (OCR) may be used, for example. In addition, as described above, a method of inserting a ticket for authenticating the ticket is a more advantageous method of extracting a watermark, but of course, the ticket may be recognized by bringing the ticket to the recognition device.

The ticket recognizing device 30 determines whether the format of the ticket is correct (a problem such as crumpling or tearing of the ticket) (step 220). If the ticket is in the correct format the authentication process continues in the next step, otherwise the ticket is ejected out of the device (step 225).

The purchaser then manually enters the ticket issuance number (step 230) using the keypad attached to the ticket recognition device 30. This allows secondary authentication in addition to authentication with only the watermark embedded in the ticket. However, if the ticket issuance number was inserted as a watermark in the ticket image during the ticket issuance process, authentication without manual entry of the ticket issuance number is also possible.

The ticket recognition apparatus 30 scans the ticket in which the watermark is inserted and generates a ticket image (step 240). The generated ticket image and the ticket issuance number input by the purchaser in the ticket recognition device 30 are transmitted to the ticket authentication server 50 (step 250). The ticket authentication server 50 operates the watermark detection system to extract the watermark image from the ticket image transmitted from the ticket recognition device 30 (step 260).

The module that extracts the watermark goes through two steps. The first step is a watermark edge detection process, which detects a predetermined watermark area in which watermark data is hidden from all areas of the ticket and converts analog data into digital data.

There may be various ways to separate the area where the watermark is inserted. When inserting a watermark, there may be a method of displaying a region by inserting a special identifier as a watermark also at the beginning and end of the watermark region. By separating the watermark region in this way, it is possible to separate the correct region.

Alternatively, when an identifier indicating a watermark area is not inserted, a corner of the ticket may be detected by an edge detection technique of a general image, and a watermark area at a relative position may be separated therefrom. Do.

After separating the watermark region as described above, the second step is to amplify the converted data and extract the watermark image from the image data.

Next, ticket authentication information is detected from the extracted watermark image (step 270). Subsequently, the ticket issuing information and the user information are retrieved from the data storage device 60 using the ticket issuing number input by the user (step 280).

The authenticity of the ticket is verified by checking whether the detected ticket authentication information and the ticket issuance information stored in the data storage device 60 and the input ticket issuance number match (step 290). The authentication result, admission permit or disallowed result is transmitted to the ticket recognition apparatus 300, and the ticket recognition apparatus 30 outputs the authentication result 310.

On the other hand, the ticket authentication process (steps 260 to 290) does not necessarily have to be performed in a separate ticket authentication server 50. In addition to the result of the ticket recognition and authentication after ticket recognition in the ticket recognition device 30, all the authentication process (steps 260 to 290) of the ticket is performed, and the data storage device 60 is connected to the ticket recognition device 30 The interlocking embodiments are of course also possible.

In order to implement the present invention, an optical scan device connected to a ticket authentication server must be provided at each ticket use destination. The device basically serves to scan the inserted ticket and read its image data. This device works in conjunction with the server to check the ticket, it can be said to act as an unmanned ticket collector.

According to the present invention for issuing a ticket through a communication network, it is possible to eliminate the inconvenience of having to go to the ticket issuing place and break the ticket as it is now. The effect can be avoided.

Therefore, it is possible to provide more pleasant service to customers by reducing the waiting time of customers who have to get a ticket issued in line at each point of use that allows a ticket.

In addition, the ticket issuing agency can also obtain the effect of reducing the loss of human and physical resources required to provide a ticket release service.

In addition, unlike a barcode that can be easily copied and modulated, the watermarking system used in the present invention can prevent copying because the watermark information inserted in the ticket is not identified by the naked eye of the user.

In addition, optical watermarking using optical interference, a surface latent phenomenon, or the like may be further applied to prevent copying of an output ticket or forgery through a scanner. Of course, in the case of the tickets mentioned above, one-time tickets are checked once at the time of collection, and when the same tickets are collected again, the tickets cannot be used again to prevent re-use and other coupons or In the case of tickets such as gift certificates, copying of the tickets is prevented.

Claims (24)

In the method for issuing a ticket in which ticket authentication information is inserted as a watermark through a communication network, (a) a ticket purchaser inputting ticket issuing request information and transmitting the ticket issuance request information to a ticket issuing server through a communication network; (b) in response to the ticket issuance request of the ticket purchaser, generating ticket authentication information for authentication of the ticket as a watermark; (c) embedding the watermark in a ticket image; (d) transmitting the ticket image containing the watermark to a ticket purchaser through a communication network; And (e) printing the transmitted ticket image by the purchaser. In the method for issuing a ticket in which ticket authentication information is inserted as a watermark through a communication network, (a ') a ticket purchaser inputs ticket issuing request information and user information, and transmits it to a ticket issuing server through a communication network; (b ') in response to the ticket issuing request of the ticket purchaser, generating ticket authentication information for authentication of the ticket as a watermark according to the user information and the ticket issuing information; (c ') inserting the watermark into a ticket image; (d ') transmitting the ticket image containing the watermark to a ticket purchaser through a communication network; And (e ') printing the transmitted ticket image by the purchaser. The method of claim 2, And the user information includes one or more of a buyer name, a buyer ID, and a buyer password. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The (d) or (d ') step of the ticket issuance method comprising the step of transmitting a predetermined ticket issuance number to the ticket purchaser. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The watermark is smaller than the ticket image, (C) or (c ') is a step of inserting the watermark in a predetermined watermark area of the ticket image. The method according to claim 1 or 2, And the ticket authentication information includes one or more of ticket purchaser information, ticket issuance number, ticket issuer, and watermark insertion authority information. The method according to claim 1 or 2, To insert the watermark A digital video image watermarking method using a wavelet transform and a discrete cosine transform, a text watermarking method, or both, are used. The method of claim 7, wherein The watermark is A ticket issuing method, characterized in that it is generated by a key generation method, a logo method, or both. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The inserting of the watermark comprises inserting a strong watermark, a fragile watermark, or both at the same time. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The optical issue or surface latent phenomenon is used to insert the watermark, so that when the issued ticket is illegally copied, whether the illegal copying is possible or not. In a ticket authentication system including a data storage means for storing user information and ticket issuance information, a ticket recognition means for recognizing a ticket, and a ticket authentication server, a ticket in which ticket authentication information, issued through a communication network, is inserted as a watermark In the method of authenticating, (a) recognizing the ticket through the ticket recognizing means to generate a ticket image and transmitting it to the ticket authentication server; (b) extracting the watermark from the ticket image; (c) detecting the ticket authentication information from the extracted watermark; And (d) authenticating a ticket by comparing the ticket authentication information with the ticket issuing information stored in the data storing means. In a ticket authentication system including data storage means for storing user information and ticket issuing information, the method for authenticating a ticket in which ticket authentication information, issued through a communication network, is inserted as a watermark, (a) recognizing the ticket and generating a ticket image; (b) extracting the watermark from the ticket image; (c) detecting the ticket authentication information from the extracted watermark; And (d) authenticating a ticket by comparing the ticket authentication information with the ticket issuing information stored in the data storing means. The method according to claim 11 or 12, After step (a) and before step (b), (a1) The ticket purchaser further comprises the step of inputting the ticket issuance number. The method according to claim 11 or 13, After step (d), (e) transmitting the authentication result for the ticket from the ticket authentication server to the ticket recognition means; And and (f) outputting the received ticket authentication result from the ticket recognition means. The method according to claim 11 or 12, Step (b) is Detecting a predetermined watermark region into which the watermark is inserted; And And extracting the watermark image from the detected predetermined watermark region. In the system for issuing a ticket, the ticket authentication information is inserted as a watermark through a communication network, Ticket issuing request means for requesting issuance of a ticket by a ticket purchaser inputting ticket issuance request information and user information; Data storage means for storing the user information and ticket issuing information necessary for issuing a ticket; And In response to the ticket issuance request of the ticket purchaser, a watermark including ticket authentication information necessary for authentication of a ticket is generated according to the user information and the ticket issuing information, and the watermark is inserted into a ticket image to insert the watermark. A ticket issuing system comprising a ticket issuing server for transmitting to a ticket purchaser. The method of claim 16, The ticket issuing request means, Ticket issuing system, characterized in that for transmitting the user information and the ticket issuing request information on the Internet through a web browser. The method of claim 16, The ticket issuing request means, And a means for transmitting the user information and the ticket issuing request information through a wired telephone network, a mobile phone, or a personal digital assistant (PDA). The method of claim 16, The ticket issuing server, Means for analyzing the ticket issuing request information sent from the ticket purchaser; Means for retrieving the ticket issuing information from the data storing means; Means for generating ticket authentication information according to the user information and the ticket issuing information into a watermark; Means for inserting the generated watermark into a ticket image; And Means for transmitting said ticket image and ticket issuance number to a ticket purchaser. In a ticket authentication system for authenticating a ticket in which ticket authentication information issued through a communication network is inserted as a watermark image, Data storage means for storing user information and ticket issuance information; Ticket recognition means for recognizing the issued ticket, generating a ticket image, and transmitting the generated ticket image to the ticket authentication server; And And a ticket authentication server extracting a watermark from the generated ticket image and detecting ticket authentication information from the extracted watermark. The method of claim 20, The ticket recognition means Means for allowing the ticket purchaser to enter a ticket issuance number. The method of claim 20 or 21, The ticket authentication server, Means for extracting a watermark from the ticket image; Means for detecting ticket authentication information from the extracted watermark; Means for authenticating a ticket by comparing the detected ticket authentication information with the ticket issuing information stored in the data storage means; And And a means for transmitting the authentication result for the ticket to the ticket recognition means. The method of claim 20 or 21, The ticket recognition means further comprises means for outputting the ticket authentication result received from the ticket authentication server in the ticket recognition means. In a ticket authentication system for authenticating a ticket in which ticket authentication information issued through a communication network is inserted as a watermark image, Data storage means for storing user information and ticket issuance information; And And a ticket recognition and authentication device for generating a ticket image by recognizing the issued ticket, extracting a watermark from the generated ticket image, and detecting ticket authentication information from the extracted watermark. Ticket authentication system.