IL96969A - Process and device for authenticating documents - Google Patents

Description

1732/91 PROCESS AND DEVICE FOR AUTHENTICATING DOCUMENTS 1732/91 PROCESS AND DEVICE FOR AITTHE TICATTNG DOCUMENTS This invention relates to a process and device for authenticating documents, such as fiscally relevant documents, e.g. bills, receipts and the' Iike, or documents bearing the seal of a company or a public authority or the like, or tickets or admission cards.

In particular, the fiscally relevant documents may be bills, which purport to have been issued by a person or company to another person or company, with respect to merchandise supplied or to services rendered, and it would be highly desirable to provide means for permitting the competent authority easily to determine whether any particular bill is truthful, viz. has been issued by the person or company purporting to have issued it, and is regular in all respects, whereby to prevent the counterfeiting of such bills or the preparation of bills that do not originate with recognized suppliers of bills or services or are irregular in other respects. For instance, in various countries the VAT offices keep a list of recognized suppliers of goods or services, each of which is identified by a supplier number and is required to issue a bill, bearing said supplier number as well as a progressive bill number. Said numbers, as well as the supplier's name and other data, are printed on the bill blanks. A person wishing to evade taxation by making it appear that he has incurred expenses, which in fact he has not incurred, can and sometimes does have letterheads printed, bearing a supplier's name and number and other data, or even bearing the name and number of an non-existent supplier, and issues bills to himself on said letterhead. The tax authorities are often not 1732/91 equipped, or at least do not have the time and the personnel required to check all the bills in a firm's or company's accounts to determine whether any of them are counterfeit. The problem which this inventive improvement solves, is to render such counterfeiting easily detectable and therefore practically impossible.

Authentication of documents is desirable in a number of other instances. For example, diplomas or certificates of various kinds may be counterfeited and the agency, such as a public office or an institute, that is purported to have issued them, may find it difficult to check their authenticity of many years are supposed to have passed since they have been issued. Again, public offices may not have the time and/or the personnel for checking the authenticity of documents submitted to them in support of an application for a registration, a compensation, and so on. It is another problem which his improvement invention solves, to make all such identification easy and immediate. Further, tickets which are issued to specified persons for admission to performances or games or the like, may be lost or stolen or counterfeited, and this is true of cards required granted admission to restricted premises, such as offices or laboratories engaged in confidential work; and the problem exists of checking whether the ticket or card has truly been issued to the person presenting it. As far as is known to the applicant, no satisfactory solution to the aforesaid problems has been offered so far in the art. 1732/91 In copending, parent application No. 96118 a process has been described and claimed for making printed matter. The said process comprises the following steps: 1- defining, at least ideally, at least one blank grid, consisting of a number of cells defined by intersecting grid lines, preferably a Cartesian grid; 2- creating a reference grid, which may be a random grid or a "scrambled grid", this latter consisting of a scrambled distribution of at least two digitizable values in the cells of the blank grid - wherein "digitizable values" means characteristics which can be represented by digital values - viz. being a grid which is sufficiently randomized to make the coded characters illegible without using the reference grid, and yet preferably contains less accumulations or "clots" of black (or 1 -) cells than would a truly or a practically random grid; 3- creating at least coded one font by: a. individually superimposing, at least ideally, each character (wherein by "characters" is meant letters, numerals, punctuation marks, mathematical or any other symbols, and in general any graphic signs) to be comprised in the font to at least a portion of the reference grid, viz. establishing in any suitable way a correspondence between the points of the character and the cells of the reference grid , and b. changing the digitizable values of the reference grid in the cells thereof comprised in the area covered by the superimposed character, whereby to 1732/91 create a random or a scrambled character grid which represents the character ("coded font" meaning therefore all the character grids deriving from a given reference grid); 4- storing the Character grids in the memory of a print-controlling device, viz. a device that determines what will be printed and thus, generally, a text composing device, such as a word processor or a printer or the like, but possibly an interface or other device for that purpose; - storing in the memory of a text composing device commands causing the print-controlling device alternatively to select and store characters or character grids, as desired; 6- composing the text, viz. defining by means of said text composing device the desired text, wherein any characters not comprised in a coded font - hereinafter "clear characters" - are represented in a conventional way and any characters comprised in a coded font - hereinafter "coded characters" - are represented by the corresponding character grids; 7- impaginating the composed text, and preferably providing correspondence marks at least in each page; and 8- printing the composed and impaginated text by graphically defining: a) any clear characters in the conventional way , b) any coded characters by signs representing the digitizable values of the respective character grids, and preferably c) said correspondence marks. 1732/91 The printed, at least partly coded text, is decoded and read: a) according to s&id parent application, by providing on a transparent * y · ' sheet at least a copy of the reference grid and further, preferably, providing thereon reference marks matching the correspondence marks; whereby when said transparent sheet is superimposed to a printed text so that a reference grid is superimposed to the grid of the coded characters which are to be read, preferably by suitably aligning the correspondence and reference marks, said coded characters become detectable and identifiable; or b) according to copending application for a patent of addition to the same parent application, filed together with this application and identified by Attorney Docket No. 1730/91, by scanning at least the coded part or parts of the text, identifying therein the positions of the character grids in which the digitizable values are different from those of the reference grid, and visualizing said part or parts in decoded form by visually differentiating said positions having different digitizable values from the remaining positions of the character grids (viz. the background), whereby said differentiated positions form the clear characters corresponding to the scanned coded characters - wherein by "visualizing" is meant rendering the content of a text or part thereof visible in any way, e.g. by showing it on a screen or display of any kind, or printing it, or both. 1732/91 When a word processor is used, this will compose the desired text by means of characters. Most of the text, more precisely the parts thereof which are to be printed plainly in the usual way, and not by means of a coded font, may he represented in any known and conventional manner, and in many cases by ASCII symbols, while the characters comprised in the coded fonts will be represented by the corresponding character grids.

In order thus to define the text, the word processor must register a command which indicates how each character is to be represented, and this can be done e.g. by indicating by means of an appropriate symbol the point at which the coded text begins and the point at which the coded text ends. The composed text must be impaginated and correspondence marks, e.g. graphic signs, are provided on each page or each predetermined portion of a page. Further signs may be provided, if desired, in particular when the text is to read by scanning, such as signs indicating the horizontal space occupied by a number of character grids in a row of coded text, the vertical dimension (height) of the character grids, and the orientation of the character grid axes, as fully explained in the aforementioned copending application Docket No. 1730/91 .

Once a text has been composed and impaginated, the coded characters are printed by attributing the appropriate color values to the various cells of the character grids. Usually the digitizable values are only two digital values (0 and 1) and the 1-cells are represented black pixels and the 0-cells by white pixels. 1732/91 It is a purpose of this improvement invention of the invention claimed in the parent application, to provide means for authenticating documents or tickets or cards and the like, comprising printed matter produced according to said parent application, that is partly coded, and when read in "decoded form ' by an authorized person will prove or disprove with certainty that the document has indeed been issued by the person indicated on it as its originator or to the person who bears it, and will optionally provide additional pertinent information.

In particular, it is a purpose of this improvement invention to provide a means by which the fiscal authorities may be ascertain, speedily and without difficulty or expense, whether any specific, fiscally relevant document is authentic, and especially whether it has been issued by the person or company purporting to have issued it; and to provide a means whereby any company, public office or institute may ascertain whether a specific document, such as a certificate or a diploma, has actually been issued by it.

It is another purpose to provide means whereby control personnel may speedily ascertain whether a person, exhibiting a ticket or card for admission to any premises, is the person to whom said ticket or card has been issued and who is authorized to make use of it.

It is a further purpose to achieve the aforementioned purposes without requiring any alteration in the document to be authenticated or any 1732/91 unusual provision in preparing it, such as, that it be printed on special paper or with special ink.

It is a further -purpose to permit verification of the authenticity of documents without the use of sophisticated or costly equipment or the use of special techniques, and to permit to carry out such verification anywhere, e.g. in the offices of a company in the course of a fiscal control, without bringing heavy or cumbersome equipment to the premises.

All the aforesaid purposes of this improvement invention, and other that will easily be understood by skilled persons, are achieved by the present improved process, which comprises the steps of providing, on a backing associated with the item, such as a document, ticket or card, to be authenticated, (which backing may be the item itself or a sticker or the like to be applied to it) a text which comprises data that are coded by the process of the parent application, said data being such that their comparison with the data marked in clear on the same or another related item permit to authenticate the item or recognize it as counterfeit, and, whenever the authenticity of the item is to be checked, rendering the coded data readable and identifiable by, alternatively, a) providing a transparent sheet, carrying the reference grid (hereinafter called "key") and superimposing it to the coded data, as described in the parent application, or b) scanning the coded data, identifying therein the cells of the character grids in which the digitizable values are different from those of the reference grid, and visualizing said data in decoded form by visually differentiating said cells having different digitizable values from the 1732/91 / background, according to the aforesaid copending application Docket No. 1730/91.

In a preferred form of this improvement invention, the backing on which the coded data are printed is a sticker to be applied to the item.

In another preferred form of this improvement invention, the coded data comprise identity data, that are exclusive to the true or alleged issuer of the item, and ordinal data, that are exclusive to a single item, such as a bill number or the like.

Additional data, which may be carried, in clear or in coded form, by the printed matter provided on the item, particularly on the sticker, may be provided, but they are not essential to this invention and are not relevant to its inventive character.

Other optional features of this improvement invention will appear as the description proceeds.

The invention will be better understood from the description of embodiments thereof, with reference to the appended drawings, wherein: - Fig. 1 shows the letterhead of a bill to which an embodiment of the invention is to be applied; 1732/91 - Fig. 2 shows the identifying data to be marked on a sticker attached to bill, according to said embodiment - Fig. 3 shows a sticker bearing the data of Fig. 2 in coded form.

-' · * The means and operations for composing and printing a text that comprises a coded part or parts, will not be illustrated nor exemplified herein, as they are the same as described in the aforesaid copending application.

Fig. 1 shows the letterhead, the fiscal registration number, and the bill number, appearing on a bill for goods supplied, alleged to be a bill No. 937 issued by Joseph Smith and Co., VAT number 7988451. To authenticate said bill, a sticker is printed in coded form, as described in the parent application, by the operations hereinbefore listed as 1- to 8-. The data printed on the sticker should have a relationship, to the those carried by the bill, such that is apparent to anyone viewing them, but cannot be guessed by unauthorized persons, as they do not conform to a general rule that can be learned by the comparison of a few unrelated cases. Said data are chosen by the issuer of the bill, and should comprise letters identifying it. In this instance, it is assumed that the firm Joseph Smith and Co. has chosen the letters "Josth". Anyone reading those letters will see the relationship to the firm's name, but whoever should wish to counterfeit a bill to make it appear as issued by said firm, will not know what letters to choose. The firm, further, may change the letters from time to time and use, e.g., instead of "Josth", "phSm". Another way of preparing the 1732/91 sticker, is to use the entire firm's name, or a main part of it - e.g. in this case "J. Smith" - but print it in a font different from that of the letterhead. A person wishing to counterfeit a bill, might guess the use of "J.Smith", but'not the particular font used, which also may be changed from time to time; Still another' way of preparing the sticker will be to register on it the registration number or the last few digits thereof - again, optionally, in a font different from that of the letterhead. Additional indications may be added, and one that is highly desirable is the ordinal number of the bill, in this case 937. This will be a safeguard against the danger of a number of stickers of the firm being stolen: the thief will not know what number is marked in coded form on each of them and will be unable to prepare a counterfeit bill bearing the same number as the particular sticker which he uses. The data to be printed in coded form for the bill of Fig. 1 are shown in Fig. 2.

Said data are then coded by using a specific reference grid. If the document is to be authenticated only by the issuer, this latter will be the only one to posses the reference grid. If it is to be authenticated by a controlling authority, e.g. by a tax office, this latter will decide what reference grids should be used, and e.g. will assign different reference grids to different areas of the country and to different fiscal periods, e.g. years or parts of years, or according to any other criterion. The reference grids will be printed only by an authorized, supervised printer, by the process of the parent application, and will be kept only by the controlling authority. Persons or companies that intend to issue bills, e.g. that are registered with a VAT office, will order their stickers from the said 1732/91 authorized printer, only to whom they will communicate what should appear on the stickers. The printer will know in each case what reference grid to use, according to the instructions of the controlling authority. The data of Fig. 2 will appear in coded form on the sticker, e.g. as shown in Fig. 3. · ·'" The sticker will be attached to the bill, taking care that the ordinal number be the same on the bill and on the sticker. When the books of the person or company that has paid, or alleged to have paid, the bill are checked by a tax controller, this latter will carry with him a number of keys, viz. transparent sheets bearing the reference grids. These are only small pieces of transparent sheet material and are easy to carry, but only a limited number is required in practice, e.g., if the territory covered by the fiscal authority is divided into 10 districts and 5 years are to be covered, 50 keys suffice. The tax controller will find among them the key corresponding to the zone and the period of time in which any bill that looks suspicious has been issued; but if hot, he will note the relevant particulars of that bill and return later with the appropriate key or request that the bill be brought to his office for control. By merely superimposing the key to the sticker, he will ascertain whether this latter bears the correct indications and is therefore authentic, or not.

There is no way in which a counterfeiter may pass such a check. He might learn from an unfaithful employee the data by which a given company identifies itself on the stickers, but he still will not be able to have the stickers printed, since he does not have the reference grid. For the 1732/91 same reason, he will not be able to issue bills in the name of an imaginary supplier, as is done sometimes by counterfeiters, since he will not be able to have stickers printed bearing its imaginary identification. He might come into possession of a number of stickers of a given company, but still he will not know the bill numbers marked on them and will be unable to have counterfeited, matching bill blanks printed.

Other data, coded or not, e.g. bar codes, may be added to the sticker, but these are not a part of the invention.

Authentication of any documents other than bills may be carried out in the same way, with the obvious modifications if the person or company or institute that issues the document is also the one that authenticates it and therefore the one that decides which reference grids are to be used and keeps the same.

If the coded data are uncoded by the process and devices described in said copending application Docket No. 1730/91, the controller of the document will carry with him, instead of a number of keys, a scanner coupled with suitable computer or microcircuit means. Such devices can be relatively inexpensive and light to carry and their operation requires only a moderate training and skill. The various reference grids are then stored in the scanner and/or computer or microcircuit memories and an extremely large number of such grids can be thus stored, so that the controller will be able to control any bill or other document that looks suspicious, by loading the appropriate reference grid. Since the grids are 1732/91 identified by codes, all that the controller needs to carry, besides the device, is a list of the codes relative to the possible zones and periods of time or other criteria of choice of the reference grids. Usually, it will be enough for him ^ to feed to the computer or microcircuit the district number and the year, to which any suspicious bill refers, and to scan said bill. The device will automatically load the appropriate reference grid, will construct a scanner grid and compare it to the reference grid, identify the cells of the two grids which have different digital values (generally 0 or 1 instead of 1 or 0, respectively) and visualize said cells, which define the clear configuration of the data, preferably on a display provided in the device - all as described in said copending application Docket No. 1730/91. All these operations will be carried out almost instantaneously, so that the tax controller will immediately read on the display the data coded on the sticker and check whether they are the correct ones. This way of decoding the stickers permits easily to deal with situations in which a high number of keys would be required, such as when a large number of districts are to be covered; however it may be preferable even when the number of keys is moderate, as it involves a simpler manipulation.

The use of scanners is also highly desirable when tickets or admission cards are to be checked, especially when they have been sent by mail, as it often happens, and there is a danger that, if they are valuable, they be stolen. In this case the check must be practically instantaneous, as the tickets or admission cards may be exhibited in rapid succession by visitors, spectators or participants in meetings, seeking admission. Such persons will present the ticket or card, together with an identity 1732/91 document, to the checker at the entrance to the pertinent premises; the checker will scan the ticket or card and read on the display of his device, or on a fixed display, the name or other identity datum coded thereon, and verify that it corresponds . to that of the identity document. This can be done very quickly, without delaying the stream of admission seekers.

The decoding by scanning permits to carry into practice another embodiment of the invention, which provides higher security. The printed, coded item may comprise two or more successive segments. The first segment is coded according to a reference grid or key that is communicated to the checker and may be changed at relatively long intervals. The second segment is coded according to a different reference grids, which may differ from group to group of items, e.g. documents or tickets, and which is identified by a grid code that is printed, in coded form, in the first segment. The computer or microcircuit will select or build the first reference grid, based on the information fed to it by the checker, read the grid code marked thereon without visualizing it, select or build a second reference grid identified by said grid code, and read and visualize the coded data marked on the second segment of the printed item. This operation can be repeated once or several times more, by providing three or more segments in the coded print.

The device for carrying out the process according to the invention, when decoding is done through scanning, may comprise a scanner and a computer connected thereto, provided with a display and programmed to carry out all the necessary operations, as described in said copending 1732/91 application. Alternatively, a single structural unit may be provided, which embodies scanner, display, and microcircuit means adapted for carrying out the aforesaid decoding operations, which microcircuit means may be hardware, designed solely for that purpose or may be more general-purpose and be suitably programmed. All such devices for carrying out the process according to this improvement invention are a part of this latter.

It will be evident from the foregoing embodiments how the invention may be carried out for authenticating any document other than a fiscal document or a ticket or admission card. The coded data may be printed on a sticker, which is applied to the document, or may be printed directly on the document when the identity of the bearer thereof is not important or is to be checked in other ways. For example, an institute which releases certificates or diplomas, such as a university, may print on each of them coded data that will permit to ascertain its authenticity even after a considerable time, by decoding them by means of keys or scanner devices, based on reference grids, the definition of which is known only to the university.

While certain embodiments of the invention have been described by way of illustration, it will be obvious that the same can be carried out in many ways and with many modifications and adaptations by persons skilled in the art, without departing from its spirit or from the scope of the claims.

Claims (18)

-17- 9 6 9 6 9 / 2 1732/91 C L A I M S 1 - Improved process for authenticating printed items, such as document, tickets, cards or the like, comprising the steps of associating thereto identifying data printed by a process according to application No. 96118 by

1. ) defining, at least ideally, at least one blank grid, consisting of a number of cells defined by intersecting grid lines, preferably a Cartesian grid;

2. ) creating a reference grid, which may be a random grid or a "scrambled grid";

3. ) creating at least one coded data font by: a. individually superimposing, at least ideally, each character to be comprised in the font to at least a portion of the reference grid, and b. changing the digital values of the reference grid in the cells thereof comprised in the area covered by the superimposed character, whereby to create a random or a scrambled character grid which represents the character;

4. ) storing the character grids in the memory of a print-controlling device; 1732/91

5. ) storing in the memory of a text composing device commands causing the print-controlling device alternatively to select and store characters or character grids, as desired; ■ .' ¾ * - - . ' · "

6. ) composing the text, wherein the coded data are represented by the corresponding character grids;

7. ) printing the composed text on a backing, associated to the item to be authenticated, by graphically defining: a) any clear characters in the conventional way , b) any coded data by signs representing the digitizable values of the respective character grids; and subsequently, when the document is to be authenticated, scanning at least the coded part or parts of said text, containing the authenticating data;

8. ) identifying in said coded data the cells of the character grids in which the digitizable values are different from those of the reference grid;

9. ) visualizing said data in decoded form by visually differentiating said cells having different digitizable values from the remaining cells of the character grids, whereby said differentiated cells form the clear characters, corresponding to the scanned coded data, against the background of said remaining cells; and

10. ) checking the accuracy of the visualized data. 1732/91 2 - Process according to claim 1, wherein the digitizable values related to cells of the various grids used are only two digital values, 0 (or white) and 1 (or black), and, correspondingly the cells of the character grids having the ) or the 1 vStliie where the corresponding reference grid cells have the 1 or the 0 value, respectively, which cells form the clear characters, are visually differentiated from the background by using different colours for the ones and for the other. 3 - Process according to claim 1, wherein the coded part or parts of the text are visualized in decoded form by printing them in such form. 4 - Process according to claim 1, wherein the coded part or parts of the text are visualized in decoded form by showing them on a screen or on a display. 5 - Process according to claim 1, comprising transmitting the printed text, comprising the coded part or parts, by telecopier (fax), and scanning, decoding and visualizing the transmitted coded part or parts thereof. 6 - Process according to claim 1, wherein a number of reference grids are stored in an electronic memory and the particular one relative to the particular coded text that is to be decoded at moment is selected. 1732/91 7 - Process according to claim 1, wherein the particular grid that is required for decoding a particular coded text is constructed prior to or concurrently with the scanning operation. * . - '. ,J · ' 8 - Process according to claim 1, wherein the backing on which the coded text is printed is the item to be authenticated. 9 - Process according to claim 1 , wherein the backing on which the coded text is printed is a sticker to the applied to the item to be authenticated. 10 - Process according to claim 1, comprising printing on the item to be authenticated, before the identifying data, at least one grid code, decoding the same by means of the corresponding reference grid, and decoding the coded data by means of the reference grid corresponding to said grid code.

11 - Apparatus for producing printed matter comprising, in combination with means for composing and printing, by a process comprising steps 1 to 7 according to claim 1, a text at least a part of which is coded, scanning means, means for comparing the reference grid used in composing the text with the character grids detected by said scanning means and for identifying the cells of the scanned character grids in which the digitizable values are different from those of the corresponding cells of said reference grid, means for visually differentiating said cells having different digitizable values from the remaining cells of said character grids, whereby said differentiated cells form the clear data corresponding to the scanned characters grids and said remaining cells form the 1732/91 background, and means for visualizing said clear data against said background.

12 -· Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the means for comparing the reference grid ' with the character grids comprise means for storing in a memory a number of reference grids and selecting from among them the particular reference grid corresponding to the text to be decoded.

13 - Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the means for comparing the reference grid with the character grids comprise means for selectively constructing said particular reference grid.

14 - Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the means for visualizing the clear data consist of or comprise means for displaying and/or printing the same.

15 - Apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the visualizing means comprise means for providing a sharp colour contrast between clear data and background.

16 - Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the means for identifying and visually differentiating character grid cells are structurally associated with the scanning means. 1732/91

17 - Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the means for identifying and visually differentiating character grid cells comprise microcomputer means. * - ■■ * . . y ··.

18 -Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the means for identifying and visually differentiating character grid cells comprise a XOR gate. LUZZATTO & LUZZATTO