JP2003127494A - Method and system for authenticating printed matter and print system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an authentication system for printed matter exhibiting a high anti-copy or anti-forgery effect. SOLUTION: In the authentication system 1 for printed matter, a print system 2 selects one of a plurality of authenticity collation data as an authenticity collation data d for print based on the attributes of print data D, prints the print data D with visible ink and prints the data d with a second ink transparent under visible light on the surface of a sheet 11 thus forming a printed matter 12A, e.g. a note or a coupon. A scanner system 3 reads out the data d1 printed with the second ink from the printed matter 12A, collates it with the authenticity collation data d, judges authenticity of the printed matter 12A and displays the results. Since the authenticity collation data d for print is selected randomly, an authentication system exhibiting a high anti-forgery effect can be realized.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printed matter authentication method and system used to determine the authenticity of a printed matter on which a cash voucher, a gift certificate, a receipt, a ticket, a coupon, an amount display tag, confidential information and the like are printed. It is a thing.

The present invention also relates to a printing system used in such a printed matter authentication method and system.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art For printed matters such as cash vouchers that need to be protected from forgery and alteration, documents such as documents on which confidential information is printed, machine-readable collation using fluorescent ink that cannot be visually recognized. There is known a method in which authenticity verification data such as a bar code or a personal identification number is printed and the authenticity of the printed matter is determined based on the printed data. Further, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-346979, a printing pattern of symbols used for authenticity verification is
In some printers, the anti-counterfeiting effect is enhanced by subtly changing the font pattern and the like for each printing. Further, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-111131, a security mark having a special ink portion that cannot be visually identified is provided on an article, and the security mark is read by an identifiable sensor to prevent forgery. Some try to increase the effect.

[0004]

However, in recent years, there is a high possibility that the authenticity verification data such as a bar code can be easily read by using a scanner or the like and the authenticity verification data itself can be forged. As a result, the anti-counterfeiting effect is becoming poorer.

Further, in the method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-346979, the print pattern for authenticity verification slightly changes each time printing is performed, and the subtle difference is visually verified to verify the authenticity of the printed matter. Since it is determined whether it is false, it cannot be easily determined whether it is true or false, and the collation work is difficult. Moreover,
There is also a problem that the person in charge of collation easily gets confused about which print pattern should be used for collation because the print pattern for collation slightly changes for each printed matter.

Further, in the method described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-11131, since the same print pattern is used, there is a high possibility that the security mark will be forged once it is read, and there is a problem that the forgery prevention effect is poor. Further, in order to prevent this, a very special ink has to be used, and there is a problem that the cost becomes high.

An object of the present invention is to propose a method and system for authenticating a printed matter which can prevent the forgery of the authenticity verification data itself and can perform the authenticity verification operation easily, accurately and surely. .

Another object of the present invention is to propose a printing system suitable for use in the method and system for authenticating such printed matter.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the printed matter authentication method of the present invention prints the first print data on the paper sheet using the visible ink and the second print data.
By printing the authenticity verification data using the ink, the first printed matter is produced, the print data printed with the second ink is read from the printed matter, and the read print data is read as the true print. It is characterized in that whether or not the printed matter is the first printed matter is determined by collating with the false collation data.

Here, a plurality of authenticity verification data are prepared as the authenticity verification data, and one authenticity verification data selected from these authenticity verification data is printed on the paper sheet. It is desirable to do.

In this case, the printing authenticity checking data to be printed by the second ink is selected from a plurality of the authenticity checking data based on the attribute of the first print data. You can

Further, it is possible to select the printing authenticity checking data based on the attribute of the non-printing data not included in the first printing data.

Further, based on the randomly generated data, which is not related to the attribute of the first print data or the attribute of the non-print data which is not included in the first print data, Data for authenticity verification can be selected.

Next, the second ink may be an infrared light absorbing ink. Alternatively, the second ink can be fluorescent ink. In this case, it is desirable that the second ink be transparent under visible light.

Next, the printed matter authentication system of the present invention is
An authenticity verification data storage unit that stores and holds a plurality of authenticity verification data, and at least one authenticity verification data from the plurality of authenticity verification data as printing authenticity verification data. The data selection means for selection and the first print data are printed on the paper sheet using the visible ink, and the printing true / false verification data selected by the data selection means is printed using the second ink. Printing means for printing on paper sheets, data reading means for reading print data by the second ink, and read data by the data reading means for the printing true / false verification selected by the data selecting means It is characterized in that it has a judging means for judging the authenticity of the printed matter whose data is read by the data reading means by collating with the data for use.

Here, it is preferable to have a data transmission means for transmitting the printing authenticity verification data selected by the data selection means to the determination means.

Further, the read data by the data reading means is collated with the printing authenticity verification data transmitted by the data transmitting means, and the authenticity of the printed matter whose data is read by the data reading means is verified. It is desirable to judge.

In this case, the data selection means may be configured to select the printing authenticity verification data based on the attribute of the first print data printed by the printing means.

Further, the data selecting means selects the printing authenticity checking data based on an attribute of non-printing data not included in the first printing data printed by the printing means. can do.

Further, the data selection means performs the printing according to a random selection method regardless of the attribute of the first print data or the attribute of non-print data not included in the first print data. It can be configured to select data for authenticity matching.

On the other hand, the second ink may be infrared light absorbing ink or fluorescent ink. in this case,
The second ink is preferably transparent under visible light.

Next, the present invention is a printing system for use in the above-mentioned printed matter authentication system, wherein the authenticity verification data storage means stores and holds a plurality of authenticity verification data, and the plurality of authenticity verification data storage means. Data selection means for selecting at least one authenticity verification data from among the false verification data as printing authenticity verification data, and the first print data is printed on a paper sheet using visible ink, And a printing unit that prints the printing authenticity verification data selected by the data selection unit on the paper sheet by using two inks.

Also in this case, the data selecting means may be configured to select the printing authenticity checking data based on the attribute of the first print data printed by the printing means. Also, the data selection unit may be configured to, based on an attribute of non-print data not included in the first print data printed by the printing unit,
The printing authenticity verification data may be selected.

Further, the data selecting means prints the print data according to a random selection method regardless of the attribute of the first print data or the attribute of non-print data not included in the first print data. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the data for true / false verification is selected.

Next, the second ink may be infrared light absorbing ink or fluorescent ink. in this case,
The second ink is preferably transparent under visible light.

[0026]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An example of a printed matter authentication system to which the present invention is applied will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a printed matter authentication system of this example. Explaining with reference to this figure, a printed matter authentication system 1 of the present example includes a printing system 2 for creating a printed matter on which genuine / counterfeit matching data is printed, and a true / false matching data read from the printed matter. A scanner system 3 for discriminating false and a host system (host computer) 4 for these are provided.

The printing system 2 includes a receiving unit 5 that receives print data from the host system 4, a storage unit 6 that stores and holds a plurality of types of authenticity verification data, and attributes of the received print data. Based on the data, the data selection unit 7 for selecting printing true / false matching data from the true / false matching data held in the storage unit 6, the printer control unit 8, and the printer 9 are provided. The printer 9 is driven under the control of the printer control unit 8, and the print data D supplied from the higher-level system 4 and the printing authenticity verification data d selected by the data selection unit 7 are fed into the paper sheet 11 To produce a printed matter 12 such as a cash voucher or a gift certificate.

The printing authenticity verification data d printed on the created printed matter 12 is transmitted from the selected data transmitting unit 13 to the scanner system 3 via the host system 4 or directly. The authenticity verification data stored in the storage unit 6 may be previously supplied from the host system 4.

The printer 9 is composed of, for example, an ink jet printer, and has an ink nozzle group for printing with visible ink and a second ink transparent under visible light (infrared absorbing ink, which emits fluorescence when irradiated with ultraviolet rays). It is provided with an ink nozzle group that prints watermark data using fluorescent ink). The print data D is printed with visible ink, and the printing authenticity verification data d is printed with the second ink.

The selection of the printing authenticity verification data d in the data selection section 7 can be performed by any of the following methods. (1) Based on the attributes of the print data D (product name, date, printer ID that printed the data, etc.), select product name, date, month, and year in that order, for example, according to preset selection criteria To do. (2) Set in advance based on the attributes of non-print data (printer ID or the above data is not printed as print data D, such as the lane number when there are multiple monetary payment lanes in a large store, for example) Select according to the selected criteria. (3) The selection is made according to the attribute of the print data D and the selection criterion randomly set based on the random number generated by using the random number generator or the like. For example, if the selected data is the product name, the day, the month, and the year, the generated random number is 4
When the remainder is 0, the product name is selected, when the remainder is 1, the day is selected, when the remainder is 2, the month is selected, and when the remainder is 3, the year is selected. (4) The selection is performed according to the selection criterion randomly set based on the attribute of the non-print data and the random number generated by using the random number generator or the like. (5) Any two or more of the above (1) to (4) are selected in combination. (6) A random number generator or the like is used to select regardless of the attributes of the print data D or the non-print data.

In addition, the data selecting unit 7 is configured so that all of the selection methods (1) to (6) can be adopted, and any of these selection methods can be selected for each print according to a selection routine incorporated in advance. It is also possible to select whether or not, and to select the printing authenticity verification data from among the plurality of authenticity verification data. Alternatively, when printing the print data D, the operator may manually select any one of (1) to (6).

As described above, in this example, since the authenticity verification data is selected from various attributes such as the printed matter and the printing time, it is determined by the third party which authenticity verification data is used. Of course, it is unknown to the parties. Therefore, since the forgery of the authenticity verification data can be prevented, a printed matter with high security can be provided.

Even if only the printer that prints the authenticity verification data is stolen, the same authenticity verification data cannot be printed, so that a system with high security can be realized from this point as well.

Next, the scanner system 3 uses the printed matter 12
The scanner 21 is capable of reading the print data D1 printed with the visible ink and the print data d1 printed with the second ink in A. In addition, a genuineness / counterfeit determination unit 22 is provided. Here, the printing authenticity verification data d and the print data d1 read by the scanner body 21 are received via the selection data receiving unit 23, and the read print is performed. The data d1 is collated with the printing authenticity verification data d to determine the authenticity of the printed matter 12A. The authenticity determination result of the determination unit 22 is output via the output unit 24 such as a display or a printer.

As described above, since the data printed with the second ink is mechanically read from the printed matter and the collation is performed mechanically, it is possible to determine the authenticity as compared with the case where the collation is visually performed. It has the advantage of being easy, accurate and reliable.

Further, since the authenticity verification data is printed with the second ink which is transparent under visible light such as fluorescent ink or infrared absorbing ink, the data cannot be visually confirmed. As in the case where the business data is printed with visible ink, the problem that the operator of the printed matter is confused by the authenticity verification data does not occur.

Further, the print data is printed with the visible ink, and the authenticity verification data is printed with the second ink which is transparent under the visible light. Since both data can be overprinted, the paper surface is effectively used. There is also an advantage that you can.

Furthermore, the printing authenticity verification data d is
No matter which system is stolen, a copy is made by selecting the data in the data selection unit 7 of the printing system 2 and transmitting it to the authenticity determination unit 22 of the scanner system 3 which is another system to determine the authenticity. Since it is not forged or forged, a system with high security can be realized.

(Explanation of Operation) FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory diagram showing an operation of the printed matter authentication system 1 of this example. Explaining according to this figure, on the printing system 2 side, the printer 9 is driven to print the supplied print data D on the paper sheet 11 with visible ink (flow of arrow 31). At the same time, the printing authenticity verification data d selected by the data selection unit 7 is printed by the second ink (the flow of arrow 32). The printing authenticity matching data d is selected based on the attribute of the printing data D, for example.

By reading the printed matter 12 on which the print data D and the print authenticity verification data d are printed by the scanner 21 of the scanner system 3, the print data D and the print authenticity verification data d are read ( Arrow 33
Flow of). Since the selected printing authenticity verification data d has been transmitted to the determination unit 22 (flow of arrow 34),
The determination unit 22 confirms that the data match, determines that the printed matter 12 is genuine, and displays the result via the output unit 24.

On the other hand, the print data D1 is printed with the visible ink, and the print data d1 is printed with the second ink.
In the case of the printed matter 12A on which is printed, the print data D1
Even if is the same as the print data D, if the print data d1 does not match the print authenticity verification data d, it is determined that the print data d1 is a forgery (flow of arrow 36).

In the present example, the selected printing true / false verification data is transmitted to the scanner system 3 for verification. Instead, the authenticity verification data is determined in advance as the date or the like of the print data D, and the scanner system 3 side is configured to perform authenticity verification with this data.
The authenticity verification data may be incorporated, and the printed matter may be authenticated depending on whether or not the print data of the second ink matches this data.

(Other Embodiments) In the above example, the scanner system 3 determines whether the scanner system 3 is true or false. It may be transmitted to the system 3 and output by the output unit of the scanner system 3.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram showing a printed matter authentication system having such a configuration. As shown in this figure, the authentication system 1A has a printing system 2A and a scanner system 3A, which are connected to a host system 4A. The printing system 2A is the printing system 2 described above.
It has the same configuration as. However, the scanner system 3 is provided with only the scanner 21A and the output unit 24A, and the higher-level system 4A receives the selected authenticity verification data d from the printing system 2A and stores the selected data storage unit 41. And a determination unit 22A for authenticity determination.

The determination data 22A of the upper system 4A is supplied with the print data d1 of the second ink read from the scanner system 3A, and the authenticity verification data d held in the selection data storage 41. Is supplied. By comparing these data, the determination unit 22
In A, the authenticity is determined and the determination result is supplied to the scanner system 3A. The scanner system 3A outputs the received determination result via the output unit 24A.

In the case of this example, the configuration of each scanner system is simpler than that of the previous example, so that the scanner system can be manufactured at a low cost.

Further, configurations different from the above two examples are possible. In the above two examples, printing system 2 or 2A
Further, although the authenticity verification data is stored and the printing authenticity verification data d is selected, for example, the authenticity verification data is stored in the upper system 4 and the printing authenticity verification data is stored. It is also possible to select and send the selected print authenticity verification data d to the printing system 2 or 2A, and to determine the authenticity of the print data d1 read by the scanner system 3 or 3A. .

In this case, since the higher-level system 4 can collectively manage the authenticity verification data to be printed by each printing system, higher security can be secured and the configuration of each printing system can be simplified, so that it is inexpensive. It has the effect that it can be manufactured by.

[0050]

As described above, in the present invention, since the authenticity verification data is selected from various attributes such as printed matter and printing time, which authenticity verification data is used. It is unknown to the parties as well as the third party. Therefore, since the forgery of the authenticity verification data can be prevented, a printed matter with high security can be provided.

Even if only the printer that prints the authenticity verification data is stolen, the same authenticity verification data cannot be printed, so that a system with high security can be realized in this respect as well.

Furthermore, since the data printed with the second ink is mechanically read from the printed matter and the collation is performed mechanically, it is easier to determine the authenticity as compared with the case where the collation is visually performed. It also has the advantage of being accurate and reliable.

Furthermore, when the authenticity verification data is printed with the second ink which is transparent under visible light, since the data cannot be visually recognized, the authenticity verification data is printed with the visible ink. As described above, the problem that the operator of the printed matter is confused by the authenticity verification data does not occur.

When the print data is printed with visible ink and the authenticity verification data is printed with transparent ink under visible light such as fluorescent ink or infrared absorbing ink, both data are printed. Since overprinting is possible, there is also an advantage that the paper surface can be effectively used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of a printed matter authentication system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory diagram showing an operation of the system of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram showing another example of a printed matter authentication system to which the present invention is applied.

[Explanation of symbols] 1, 1A printed matter authentication system 2, 2A printing system 3, 3A scanner system 4, 4A Upper system 5 Receiver 6 Data storage unit for authenticity verification 7 Data selection section 8 Printer control unit 9 Printer 11 Paper sheets 12, 12A printed matter 13 Selected data transmitter 21, 21A scanner 22, 22A Judgment unit 23 Receiver 24, 24A output section 41 selection data storage D, D1 print data Data for print authenticity verification d1 print data printed with the second ink

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G07D 7/12 G07D 7/20 7/20 H04N 1/387 H04N 1/387 B41J 29/00 Z 1/40 H04N 1/40 Z F Term (Reference) 2C061 AQ05 AS02 CL10 2H113 AA01 AA03 AA04 BB02 BC09 BC13 CA32 CA39 CA42 FA00 FA24 FA44 3E041 AA01 BA14 BB04 BB05 BB06 CB04 PQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQOQ

Claims (22)

[Claims] 1. A first printed matter is produced by printing a first print data using visible ink on a paper sheet and printing authenticity verification data using a second ink. Whether the printed matter is the first printed matter by reading the print data printed with the second ink from the printed matter and collating the read print data with the authenticity verification data to determine whether the printed matter is the first printed matter. A method for authenticating a printed matter, which comprises performing authenticity determination. 2. The authenticity verification data according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of authenticity verification data are prepared as the authenticity verification data, and one authenticity verification data selected from these authenticity verification data is used as the paper. A method for authenticating printed matter, which is characterized by printing on leaves. 3. The printing true / false checking data printed by the second ink from among a plurality of the true / false checking data based on the attribute of the first print data according to claim 2. A method for authenticating printed matter, characterized in that. 4. The printed matter authentication according to claim 2, wherein the printing authenticity verification data is selected based on an attribute of non-printing data not included in the first printing data. Method. 5. The randomly generated data according to claim 2, which is unrelated to both the attribute of the first print data and the attribute of the non-print data that is not included in the first print data. A method for authenticating a printed matter, characterized in that the printing authenticity verification data is selected based on the above. 6. The method for authenticating a printed matter according to claim 1, wherein the second ink is an infrared light absorbing ink. 7. The method for authenticating a printed matter according to claim 1, wherein the second ink is fluorescent ink. 8. The method for authenticating a printed matter according to claim 6, wherein the second ink is transparent under visible light. 9. An authenticity verification data storage means for storing and holding a plurality of authenticity verification data, and at least one authenticity verification data from the plurality of authenticity verification data for printing. Data selection means for selecting as false collation data, the first print data is printed on a sheet using visible ink, and the printing true / false selected by the data selection means using second ink The printing unit that prints the collation data on the paper sheet, the data reading unit that can read the print data using the second ink, and the read data that is read by the data reading unit are selected by the data selecting unit. Authentication of a printed matter, characterized by having a judging means for judging the authenticity of the printed matter whose data is read by the data reading means by collating with the printing authenticity collating data. Stem. 10. The authentication system for a printed matter according to claim 9, further comprising a data transmission unit that transmits the printing authenticity verification data selected by the data selection unit to the determination unit. . 11. The data reading unit according to claim 10, wherein the read data by the data reading unit is collated with the printing authenticity collating data transmitted by the data transmitting unit, and the data is read by the data reading unit. An authenticating system for printed matter, characterized by determining authenticity of the printed matter. 12. The data selection means according to claim 9, 10 or 11, wherein the data for printing collation for printing is selected based on an attribute of the first print data printed by the printing means. A printed matter authentication system characterized in that 13. The data selection unit according to claim 9, 10, 11 or 12, wherein the printing is performed based on an attribute of non-print data that is not included in the first print data printed by the printing unit. An authentication system for printed matter, characterized by selecting data for authenticity verification. 14. The data selection unit according to claim 9, 10 or 11, wherein the data selection unit is associated with both the attribute of the first print data and the attribute of non-print data not included in the first print data. The authentication system for printed matter, characterized in that the authentication data for printing is selected according to a random selection method. 15. The printed matter authentication system according to claim 9, wherein the second ink is an infrared light absorbing ink or a fluorescent ink. 16. The printed matter authentication system according to claim 15, wherein the second ink is transparent under visible light. 17. A printing system used in the printed matter authentication system according to claim 9, wherein the authenticity verification data storage means stores and holds a plurality of authenticity verification data, and the plurality of authenticity data. Data selection means for selecting at least one authenticity verification data from among the verification data as printing authenticity verification data, and the first print data is printed on a paper sheet using visible ink, And a printing unit that prints the printing authenticity verification data selected by the data selection unit on the sheet by using the ink. 18. The data selecting means according to claim 17, wherein the data authenticating verification data for printing is selected based on an attribute of the first print data printed by the printing means. Printing system. 19. The authenticity check for printing according to claim 17, wherein the data selection unit is based on an attribute of non-print data not included in the first print data printed by the printing unit. A printing system characterized by selecting data for use. 20. The data selection unit according to claim 17, wherein the data selection unit is random regardless of an attribute of the first print data and an attribute of non-print data not included in the first print data. A printing system, wherein the printing authenticity verification data is selected according to a different selection method. 21. The printing system according to claim 17, wherein the second ink is infrared light absorbing ink or fluorescent ink. 22. The printing system according to claim 21, wherein the second ink is transparent under visible light.