JP3323907B2 - Printed material reading inspection method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of applying a latent image, which cannot be identified by the naked eye, to a collective pattern of curved lines included in a printed material which requires forgery and falsification prevention, and mechanically detects the applied latent image. The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for reading and inspecting a printed material, which can determine the authenticity of the printed matter.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Counterfeiting and falsification prevention are important factors in printed matter such as securities such as banknotes, stock certificates and bonds, various certificates and important documents. These countermeasures for counterfeiting and alteration of printed matter mainly use a method that uses a pattern that makes extensive use of geometric patterns for design, and if any means are applied to the printed matter, a latent image that can not be recognized visually will appear. There is such a method. A typical example of the former uses a geometric pattern such as a tint block, a color pattern, and a relief pattern that are widely used in the design of securities prints and the like, but forgery or falsification using the geometric pattern is used. As a preventive measure, a pattern is basically configured by a set of curved objects with a constant image width. These patterns take into account the design properties of the printed matter, etc., and use colors that are difficult to be extracted by a photoengraving device or reproduced by a copier, or are converted into complex curved lines for the scanning input and output of a copier and a scanner. However, it has been increasing its role as a countermeasure against forgery by generating moiré.However, recently, the advent of sophisticated photoengraving devices or copiers has not resulted in sufficient counterfeiting and alteration prevention effects. is there.

[0003] Of the latter typical examples of applying some means and actions to the printed matter, the most widely used countermeasures for preventing forgery and alteration are a series of countermeasures generally called a copy-protection image. In technology, a latent image applied to a printed matter cannot be visually recognized, and the latent image appears when copied by a copying machine. A latent image is printed using silver ink on the surface of the image, the characters being composed of, for example, halftone dots of 85 lines and 30% of halftone dots. Then, a blank portion other than the latent image is coarser or denser than the latent image. For example, 150 lines 30
%), And a printed matter containing a latent image suitable for preventing forgery by copying (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-20395). Also, print a latent image on the surface of the paper with halftone dots, simultaneously print a background with the same density as the latent image on a line, and print the decorative pattern on the top of the latent image including the background in a light color that cannot be reproduced by copying. By overprinting with transparent ink, the surface of the printed matter is finished well, and the pattern becomes invisible when copied, the background is reproduced and the latent image is not reproduced, and the difference in density between the background and the latent image becomes obvious Printed matter suitable for copy prevention, which can be seen at a glance as a copy (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-79991).
And a latent image composed of halftone dots of 150 lines and 10%, and 50-60 lines 1 on a white ground around the latent image.
Using a latent image plate with a background consisting of about 0% line,
Apply a dark print on the surface of the paper, and use an overprint plate with a waveform pattern consisting of parallel lines that form a moiré pattern when it interferes with the background lines. Overprinting creates a moiré pattern on the surface of the printed material that distracts the naked eye, making it difficult to identify the presence of the latent image.When applied to a copier, the latent image and waveform pattern are not reproduced but only the background The latent image is distinguished from the background so that the latent image can be distinguished from the background.
No. 0) is disclosed.

In all of the printed materials disclosed in the above publications, a latent image is formed by the density of an image group (hereinafter referred to as a screen pattern) in which dots and lines such as halftone dots or lines are continuously arranged at a constant period, and a printed surface is formed. The entire pattern is a screen pattern having a uniform density. When the printed matter on which the latent image has been applied is copied by a copying machine, a density difference occurs between the screen pattern of the dense configuration that is not reproduced and the screen pattern of the coarse configuration that is reproduced, and the screen pattern of the coarse configuration that is reproduced is generated. On the other hand, a latent image portion of a screen pattern of a dense configuration that is not reproduced is made to appear at a glance as a copy. However, each of the above publications is characterized by a screen pattern having a uniform density on the entire printing surface, so that even with the naked eye, different screen patterns on the same printing surface cause different feeling due to differences in screen shape and a latent image generated due to the screen pattern. Has a drawback that the existence of the latent image can be identified by the interference portion with the boundary line. Therefore, as a method for solving the above-mentioned drawbacks, all of the above publications and the like apply another pattern, a light-colored transparent ink, or a light-colored overprint for cam-flagging the latent image. Although it is effective in making it difficult, it has a disadvantage that the number of steps is increased and it is not economical.

[0005] In order to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, the inventors of the present invention have proposed a method of forming a latent image consisting of a pattern of halftone dots or lines on a paper surface and forming the latent image around the latent image. Printed matter suitable for copy protection characterized by cam flaring, such as a white circular pattern having different densities or a concentric pattern in which the halftone dot percentage of a partial screen pattern is increased with respect to the entire screen pattern No. 170569), another pattern for cam-flagging a latent image, a light-colored transparent ink, and a printed material that is not subjected to light-color overprinting and the latent-image pattern on which the latent image is applied cannot be recognized by the naked eye. Offered. However, as described above, since all of the above-mentioned prior arts apply a latent image by a screen pattern, there is no need for another pattern, a light-colored transparent ink, and a light-colored overprint for cam flaring. It is impossible to make a monochromatic print image pattern itself with an image into a freely designed pattern such as a color pattern or an artistic printed matter with a decorative effect. Furthermore, since the above-mentioned prior art methods must all be screen patterns consisting of dense and dense points and lines, such as halftone dots or lines,
There is a drawback that it is not suitable for use in existing products such as banknotes, stock certificates, bonds, and other securities that frequently use colorful patterns.

Accordingly, the present inventors have further proposed a method of sufficiently compensating for the drawbacks of the above described methods of preventing copying, in which a set pattern of curved image lines is formed by applying a single line and a latent image to portions where no latent image is formed. Is expressed as two or more lines, and the two or more lines in the part where the latent image is applied are the total object width of the two or more lines. A line which is equal to the line width of the main line and which branches off from the single line where the latent image is not formed, and furthermore, the boundary line on the line between the part where the latent image is not formed and the part where the latent image is formed is a tune. A method of creating a copy protection pattern, characterized in that the straight line intersects at a right angle with a straight line that is tangent to the basic curve at the intersection of the basic curve and the contour line of the latent image, which constitutes the set pattern of the object, and its printed matter ( No. 6-206140). Further, on the same day as the application of the present application, an application was made for a method of producing a copy-preventive pattern which further improved the above-mentioned invention and a printed material thereof. When the printed matter having the pattern of the present invention is copied by a copying machine, a portion provided with a latent image represented by two or more lines cannot be reproduced due to the resolution of the copying machine, and a portion not provided with a latent image represented by a single line. The generation of the grayscale difference makes it possible to determine the authenticity.
This makes it possible to use camouflage to collect patterns such as banknotes, stock certificates, bonds, and other securities that require copying prevention, various certificates and important documents, etc., as well as curved patterns such as ground pattern, colored pattern, and relief pattern. The present invention provides a method for producing a copy-preventive pattern provided with an effect of preventing forgery and alteration by a copying machine without requiring overprinting, and a printed material.

Further, in the above-described copy protection method, since the image is constituted by a simple screen pattern, the present day desktop publishing (hereinafter referred to as DT)
Due to the remarkable progress of technology), a large criminal organization having an excellent DTP system can obtain a counterfeit comparable to the real one. Since the image configuration is more advanced than the above-described copy prevention method, it is difficult to create a copy prevention print having a latent image in the same manner even when using an excellent DTP system. However, an inexperienced person can make an approximate image with the naked eye by using a feature that the printed matter by the above-described copy prevention method has a high invisibility of a latent image with the naked eye and creates it with a single line from the beginning. The possibility of producing a forgery of a tint block or a colored pattern having a line, that is, an image represented by a single line as in the related art is sufficiently considered.

That is, the feature of the forgery is that the latent image component of the image is lost. However, since it is common sense that latent images cannot be identified with the naked eye, there is a risk that false counterfeits may be mistakenly recognized as genuine if the printed matter is not observed with special care. ing. Therefore, an effective authenticity discrimination method is to copy the counterfeit using a copying machine under normal copying conditions. That is, even if these counterfeit products are copied by a copying machine, the latent image components of the image are already lost, so that the latent image does not appear as if a real printed material was copied. However, the authenticity determination of a forged product is not sufficient to easily perform a large number of confirmation operations at a time since the copied material by the copying machine is visually checked.

As a solution to such a problem, a machine reading inspection method capable of performing a large amount and high-speed processing in authenticity discrimination is widely adopted. , Functional inks such as fluorescent inks, fibers that form printing media,
These technologies, such as the detection of materials by materials, chemicals, etc., are caused by specific electromagnetic waves that cannot be detected by humans, and often rely on material suitability in producing printed materials. It can only be given to products that are economically viable. Therefore, as a method that does not particularly consider the production cost of printed matter, an optical reading method for a pattern on a printed matter to which a printing material such as a general printing ink that can be seen is applicable is desirable. OCR, OMR, barcode, two-dimensional code, and the like are known as optical reading methods that are relatively easy to apply. However, these optical reading methods require the use of encoded print images, and naturally, When used in products, changes in design and specifications are required. In addition, these optical reading methods are also widely available in the market, and because the code can be seen as a print image, there is also a risk of being decoded by an intelligent criminal, and as a method for preventing forgery and falsification, Not enough. Therefore, in a forgery / falsification prevention method that does not depend on the material suitability of the printed matter, it is possible to determine whether a pattern having copy protection suitability suitable for securities such as banknotes, stock certificates, bonds, etc., various certificates and important documents by machine reading. There is a demand for the development of technology for effective inspection methods.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a collective pattern of curved lines with a latent image, which is usually indistinguishable to the naked eye, so that overprinting for cam flaring can be performed. It is not necessary to use a copy machine to prevent forgery and alteration of the copy-protected printed matter. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for reading and inspecting a printed matter which can determine a large amount of authenticity at a time without depending on the printing method.

[0011]

Means for Solving the Problems A first invention of the present invention is:
The collective pattern of the curved lines is expressed with one line for the part without the latent image and two or more lines for the part with the latent image, and the two or more lines for the part with the latent image, The total image width of the two or more lines is equal to the line width of the line of the single line where the latent image is not applied, and branches off from the single line of the portion where the latent image is not applied. In an image line that is a set of two or more lines of the portion where the latent image is applied, at a portion where the image lines of each pair intersect, one of the image lines of each pair is set. Is deleted within the range between the objects of the other set of objects, and the boundary between the part where the latent image is not applied and the part where the latent image is applied is the A printed matter having a copy protection pattern that is a straight line that intersects at a substantially right angle with respect to a straight line that intersects the straight line that intersects the basic curve at the intersection of the basic curve and the outline of the latent image that constitutes the aggregate pattern The copy protection pattern is input as an image by an optical image input device, and the image signal obtained by the input is subjected to image processing, and the image information corresponding to the image line of the portion where the latent image is provided on the input image, At the stage where the image information corresponding to the image line of the portion where the latent image is not applied on the input image is removed by binarization, and the pixel group corresponding to the image line of the portion where the latent image is applied is almost removed, A binary image is left in a portion corresponding to the image of the portion where the latent image is not applied, and further, the binary image and the remaining pixel group are expanded, and a portion corresponding to the image of the portion where the latent image is not applied. Pixels of the binary image become connected components,
The remaining pixel group of the portion corresponding to the image line of the portion where the latent image is applied becomes an expanded pixel group, and performs the same amount of contraction as when the connected component and the expanded pixel group are expanded, and the expanded pixel group is Returning to the contracted pixel group having the same size as the original remaining pixel group, the binary image that has become one connected component has only the pixels surrounding the connected component contracted, and the visualized state of the connected component changes. This is a method of reading and inspecting a printed material in which a contracted image is left as it is, and the authenticity of the printed material is determined by checking the presence or absence of a binary image shape of the contracted image.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a true binary image shape remaining at a position corresponding to an image of a portion where a latent image is not recorded, which has been recorded in advance in a true / false determining section, and the removal of the pixel group. This is a method of reading and inspecting a printed matter in which authenticity is determined by comparing the suitability of a binary image shape remaining at a position corresponding to an image line of a portion where a latent image is not applied later.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical image input unit for inputting an image for imaging the copy prevention pattern,
Image processing for binarizing, expanding, and contracting an image signal obtained by inputting in the optical image input unit to remove a pixel group corresponding to the image line of the portion where the latent image is formed on the input image And a true / false determining unit for determining the authenticity by recognizing, comparing, or collating a binary image shape remaining at a position corresponding to the image line of the part where the latent image obtained by the image processing unit is not applied. And a display unit for displaying a result determined by the authenticity determination unit.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image width direction of a binary image corresponding to a single line of the two or more lines in the portion where the latent image is applied, the line width is adjacent. 2 corresponding to the image of the part where the distance is less than the pixel distance and the latent image is not applied
This is a printed matter reading and inspection apparatus in which the resolution of the optical image input unit is set so that the image line width is constituted by pixels which are equal to or greater than the distance between adjacent pixels in the image line width direction of the value image.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the reading inspection method for printed matter, wherein the authenticity of the printed matter is determined by visualizing the remaining binary image shape on a CRT monitor.

A sixth aspect of the present invention is a method for reading and inspecting a printed material which enables the remaining binary image shape to be output to a CRT monitor.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for reading and inspecting printed matter provided with a CRT monitor on a display unit in order to output the remaining binary image shape as a visible image.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for reading and inspecting a printed material, wherein the visible image is output by a printer to determine the authenticity.

A ninth aspect of the present invention is an apparatus for reading and inspecting printed matter, wherein a printer is provided on a display unit for outputting the visible image and determining whether the image is true or false.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The printed material reading inspection method and apparatus according to the present invention are designed so that a set pattern of curved lines can be formed by a single line at a portion where a latent image is not applied and a two or more lines at a portion where a latent image is applied. Expressed as a line, the object width of two lines or more of the part where the latent image was applied is the total object width of the objects of two or more lines, and the object width of the single line object where the latent image is not applied In the object which is equal to and which is branched from one line of the portion where the latent image is not applied, and which is a set of two or more lines of the portion where the latent image is applied, At the intersections, the object of either one of the objects of each pair is deleted within the range between the objects of the object of the other group, and no latent image is applied. The boundary between the part and the part where the latent image is applied is drawn directly on the intersection of the basic curve and the outline of the latent image that make up the curved pattern. On the other hand, a printed matter having a copy prevention pattern that is a straight line that intersects at a substantially right angle is input as an image with a CCD camera or an optical scanner, and the input image signal is subjected to image processing to form a latent image on the input image. The binarized removal of the image information corresponding to the object line of the portion where the latent image is applied and the image information corresponding to the object line of the portion where the latent image is not applied on the input image is performed. At the stage where almost all the corresponding pixel groups have been removed, those in which the binary image remains in the portion corresponding to the image of the portion where the latent image is not applied are determined to be authentic, and those in which the binary image does not remain are determined to be counterfeit. Further, in order to make the visibility work effectively, the binary image and the remaining pixel group are expanded, and a portion corresponding to the object line of the portion where the latent image is not applied is used.
The pixels of the value image are connected components, and the remaining pixels in the portion corresponding to the image of the portion on which the latent image is applied become expanded pixels, and the same amount as when the connected components and expanded pixels are expanded. Perform shrinkage. As a result, the expanded pixel group returns to the original size, that is, the contracted pixel group having the same size as the remaining pixel group, and in the binary image that has become one connected component, the pixels around the connected component are contracted. The contracted image is obtained without changing the visualized state of the connected component. As a result, the latent image applied to the printed matter can be displayed as a visible image on a CRT monitor as a binary image, so that the latent image on the printed matter can be easily visually recognized and the authenticity can be determined. Further, the visible image can be output by a printer as needed, for example, for confirmation when it is determined that the forgery is forged, so that more authenticity determination can be made.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
As shown in the system flowchart of FIG. 1, an optical image input unit for inputting a copy protection pattern on a printed material as an image, and binarizing the image to form an image of a portion where a latent image is applied on the input image. An image processing unit for removing the located image information and expanding the image, a true / false judgment unit for recognizing or comparing a binary image shape remaining in a portion where no latent image is applied, and a collation unit, Display the judgment result of
If necessary, a method of inspecting the authenticity of a copy prevention pattern on a printed material to be inspected by a printed material reading inspection device including a display unit that displays the binary image shape as a visible image on a CRT monitor or a printer. However, devices such as an optical image input device (CCD camera or optical scanner) and an image processing device used in the printed matter reading inspection apparatus of the present invention are not particularly limited, and can be general-purpose devices. Further, the image processing method for recognition in a binary image shape and comparison and collation in the authenticity determination unit can be performed by a generally used pattern recognition method, a threshold method, or the like. Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with an example using a colorful pattern, which is a collective pattern of curved lines, which is often used for securities such as banknotes, stocks, bonds, etc. It is not limited.

First, the printed matter suitable for the printed matter reading inspection method of the present invention is the conventional printed matter (1) shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3 as an example, the colored pattern (5) of the printed matter (4) has a latent image formed thereon, while the colored pattern (2) is formed by one solid line (3). It is composed of a two-line object (7) of the part (6) and a one-line object (8) of the part where no latent image is formed. The image width of each of the double-line objects (7) in the portion where the latent image is applied is 58 μm, and the single object line (8) in the portion where the latent image is not applied has an image width of 116 μm. The interval between the two lines of the image (7) where the latent image is applied is 50 μm. The printed matter (4) is a commercially available offset ink (gray) using commercially available coated paper (SK coat) as the paper and adjusting the rheological suitability of the ink to a general suitability of a viscosity of 99 poise and a tack value of 4.4. The offset printing is carried out to produce a solid image with a solid density of 0.36 and a paper density of 0.09.

Next, an image of the object to be inspected (printed material) is input as a continuous tone image of 400 ppi in an image input section. Since the adjacent pixel distance of the resolution at this time is 64 μm, the image width of each of the two lines of the image (7) where the latent image is applied is 58 μm, which is shorter than the adjacent pixel distance, and no latent image is applied. The object line width of the object line (8) is 116 μm, which is longer than the distance between adjacent pixels. As a result, the input image (9) shown in FIG. 4 has a pixel group (10) corresponding to the image (8) of the portion where the latent image is not applied due to the influence of the resolution, and a double line of the portion where the latent image is applied. A density difference occurs in the pixel group (11) corresponding to the image line (7), and the pixel group (10) becomes dark and the pixel group (11) becomes light. FIG. 5 shows an image cross section (A) of the pixel group (10) corresponding to the image (8) of the portion where the latent image is not applied in FIG. FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a density distribution of an image section (B) of a pixel group (11) corresponding to (). Input image (9) in this example
Are 0 to 255 levels (0 is 255 for high density)
Is a low concentration. ), The density level of the pixel located at the center of the pixel group (11) corresponding to the double-line image (7) of the portion where the latent image is applied is about 210, and the image of the portion where the latent image is not applied is The density level of the pixel located at the center of the pixel group (10) corresponding to the line (8) was about 190. Therefore, in order to remove the pixel group (11) corresponding to the two lines of the image (7) in the portion where the latent image has been applied, the threshold value of binarization is set to 200, so that 200 to 255 It corresponds to a pixel group (11) corresponding to the double-line image (7) of the portion where the latent image is applied, and corresponding to the image line (8) of the portion where the latent image is not applied, which is present in the range of the density level. Pixel group (1
In 0), all of the low-density pixels are 255, which is the lowest density. When this input image (9) is binarized by the threshold value 200, as shown in FIG. 6, an image group (11) corresponding to the double line image (7) in the portion where the latent image is applied, and A pixel group (10) corresponding to an image (8) in a portion where the latent image is not applied;
The low density pixels are partially removed, and the high density pixels of the pixel group (10) corresponding to the image (8) in the portion where the latent image is not applied remain without being removed. As a result, a binary image (12) is obtained only in the portion corresponding to the image line (8) in the portion where the latent image is not applied. Therefore, an image in which the binary image remains is determined to be authentic, and an image in which the binary image does not remain is determined to be counterfeit. Further, since the shape of the binary image remaining in the portion where the latent image is not applied is genuine as shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 6, the genuine binary image shape previously described is replaced with the shape of FIG. It is stored in a genuine image file of the authenticity determination unit, and is compared with the image shape of the inspected object sent from the image processing unit and collated, so that the authenticity of a counterfeit product similar to the image configuration applicable to the present invention is obtained. False determination is also possible.

Further, in the present invention, in a window service such as a bank and an immigration control examination, a visual inspection by an inspector is also an important factor in the authenticity discrimination. The visualization can be performed by visually confirming, but a binary image (12) is added to a portion corresponding to the image (8) of the portion where the latent image is not applied.
Is obtained, and when it is possible to determine the authenticity, if the color pattern (5) of the printed matter (4) is temporarily visualized, FIG.
As a result, the latent image applied is visualized. The characteristic of the object of the inspected object (printed matter) used in the present invention is that a set pattern of curved objects is formed by a single line for a portion not provided with a latent image and a two or more lines for a portion provided with a latent image. Expressed as an object, the object width of two lines or more in the part where the latent image is applied is the total object width of the object lines of two or more lines, and the object line of one line in the part where the latent image is not applied In the object which is equal to the width and which branches off from one line of the portion where the latent image is not applied, and further forms a set of two or more lines of the portion where the latent image is applied, In a portion where the objects intersect each other, the object of either one of the objects of each set is deleted within an inner range between the objects of the object of the other set, thereby achieving the present invention. When looking at the copy protection pattern as a whole, even if it appears that there is a portion that intersects with the curved line in the pattern, it is actually Streaked intersection of each other does not exist. Therefore, since the high density and the increase in the number of pixels in the intersecting portion are prevented, after binarization, the portion (13) where the two lines (7) of the portion where the latent image is applied in FIG. ), The number of remaining pixel groups (13 ') that could not be removed in the part opposite to the part where the latent image was formed is one set of two or more lines of the latent image. In a portion where the objects intersect each other, binarization is performed on a printed matter in which one of the objects in each set is not deleted within an inner range between the objects of the other set. The feature of the present invention is that the amount of residual pixels removed by the shrinking and anti-copying pattern forming method of the present invention is significantly smaller than that of the method of the present invention, whereby the visibility can be further improved.

Therefore, in order to make the visibility effective, the image processing section shown in FIG. 1 expands the image, and then performs the same amount of contraction as the next expansion. That is, the binary image (12) and the remaining pixel group (13 ') in FIG.
Was expanded by 6 pixels to obtain an expanded image as shown in FIG. Thereby, the image (8) of the portion where the latent image is not applied
The binary image (12) of the portion corresponding to
The value image (14) was obtained, and the remaining pixel group (13 ') became an expanded pixel group (15). Further, the binary image (14) and the expanded pixel group (15) are reduced by 6 pixels. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 9, the expanded pixel group (15) has the original size,
That is, returning to the contracted pixel group (15 ') having the same size as the remaining pixel group (13') in FIG. 8, in the binary image (14) as one connected component, pixels around the connected component are contracted. The contracted image (16) without changing the visualized state of the connected component
Becomes As a result, the latent image applied to the printed matter (4) in FIG. 3 becomes a contracted image (16) as shown in FIG. 9, that is, the latent image becomes a binary image of a visible image, and is output to a CRT monitor. The determination can be made easily. Further, for example, for confirmation when it is determined to be forgery, since the binary image of the visible image can be output by a printer as needed, the inspection staff of the counter business can easily determine the authenticity,
This makes it possible to double-check the above-described authenticity determination by the machine and visual identification.

[0026]

According to the conventional machine reading inspection method which can be processed in a large amount and at a high speed in the authenticity determination of printed matter, functional inks such as magnetic ink, infrared reflection absorbing ink, fluorescent ink, fibers forming a printing medium, and the like can be used. Although it relied on material suitability such as detection of materials by materials, chemicals, etc., the method for reading and inspecting printed matter of the present invention is based on printing on printing materials applicable to commonly used printing inks. Optical reading method for the patterned pattern,
A feature that makes it impossible to identify that latent images have been applied to aggregate patterns of curved lines such as banknotes, stock certificates, bonds and other securities, various certificates and important documents such as ground pattern, colored pattern pattern, relief pattern etc. Not only does it not only depend on the material suitability of the printed matter, but also can be used in large quantities at a time, thanks to its effective use, not only the effect of suppressing the counterfeit production by the copying machine, but also the reading inspection method and its device that can easily detect the latent image on the printed matter. Can be determined. In addition, by outputting a visualized image of the latent image in the printed matter to a CRT monitor, a person in charge of a bank, immigration control and other window operations can easily determine the authenticity. It enables double confirmation of authenticity.
Furthermore, for example, for confirmation when it is determined to be forgery, since the visualized image can be output by a printer if necessary, more reliable authenticity determination is possible, and generally referred to as low resolution Since the system can cope with the problem, an inexpensive reading inspection apparatus can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system flowchart of a printed matter reading inspection apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a conventional printed matter having a colored pattern and an enlarged view of the pattern.

FIG. 3 shows a printed matter having a copy-prevention color pattern of the present invention and an enlarged view of the pattern.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an image input by a printed matter reading inspection apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing image cross sections of a portion where a latent image is applied and a portion where a latent image is not applied.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which pixels remain.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a binary image from which a latent image has been removed while a residual pixel group remains.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a binary image subjected to expansion processing with a residual pixel group.

FIG. 9 shows a diagram in which a erosion process is performed on a binary image that has been subjected to an expansion process with a residual pixel group remaining.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Printed matter having conventional colored pattern 2 Conventional colored pattern 3 Object line of colored pattern of conventional printed matter 4 Printed material of colored pattern with latent image 5 Colored pattern with latent image 6 Latent image Part 7 subjected to latent image processing 8 Area of object not subjected to latent image 9 Input image 10 Pixel group corresponding to image processing of part not subjected to latent image 11 Image of part subjected to latent image Pixel group 12 corresponding to the line 12 Binary image corresponding to the image in the portion where the latent image is not applied 13 Part where the image where the latent image is applied intersects 13 ′ Remaining pixel in the portion where the image where the latent image is applied intersects Group 14 Connected components of the pixels of the binary image corresponding to the image of the portion where the latent image is not applied 15 Expansion pixel group 15 'Shrinkage pixel group 16 Shrinkage image A of the pixel group corresponding to the image where the latent image is not applied Image cross section B Image cross section of the pixel group corresponding to the image of the portion where the latent image is applied

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Claims (9)

(57) [Claims] 1. A collective pattern of a curved image is expressed by a single line for a portion where a latent image is not applied and a line of two or more lines where a latent image is applied, and two or more lines of a portion where a latent image is applied. The total object width of two or more lines is equal to the line width of one line of the part where no latent image is applied, and from the line of the part where no latent image is applied. Branching, further, in the object line that is a set of two or more lines of the portion where the latent image is applied, at a portion where the object lines of each pair intersect, the image lines of each pair Either set of objects is deleted within the area between the objects of the other set of objects, and the boundary between the non-latent image portion and the latent image portion is drawn. A mark having a copy protection pattern that is a straight line that intersects at a right angle to a straight line that intersects the straight line tangent to the basic curve at the intersection of the basic curve and the contour line of the latent image that constitutes the set pattern of the curved image lines With respect to a printed matter, the copy prevention pattern is input as an image by an optical image input device, and the image signal obtained by inputting is subjected to image processing to correspond to the image line of a portion where a latent image is applied on the input image. The image information and the image information corresponding to the object line of the portion where the latent image is not applied on the input image are subjected to binarization removal, so that a group of pixels corresponding to the object image of the portion where the latent image is applied can be almost removed. The binary image is left in a portion corresponding to the image of the portion where the latent image is not applied, and further, the binary image and the remaining pixel group are expanded to obtain the image of the portion where the latent image is not applied. The pixels of the binary image of the portion corresponding to are the connected components, the remaining pixel group of the portion corresponding to the object line of the portion on which the latent image is applied becomes the expanded pixel group, and the connected component and the expanded pixel group are expanded. And the same amount of contraction as when the Returning to the contracted pixel group of the same size as, the binary image that has become one connected component becomes a contracted image while the pixels around the connected component are only contracted, and the visualized state of the connected component does not change, A method of reading and inspecting a printed matter, wherein the authenticity of the contracted image is determined by confirming the presence or absence of a binary image shape. 2. A genuine binary image shape remaining at a position corresponding to an object line of a portion where a latent image is not applied, which is recorded in advance in a true / false determining section, and a latent image after removing the pixel group. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the authenticity is determined by comparing the suitability of the binary image shape remaining at the position corresponding to the image in the portion where the image is not applied. 3. A set pattern of a curved image is represented by a single line for a portion where a latent image is not applied, and a line of two or more lines for a portion where a latent image is applied, and two or more lines of a portion where a latent image is applied. The total object width of two or more lines is equal to the line width of one line of the part where no latent image is applied, and from the line of the part where no latent image is applied. Branching, further, in the object line that is a set of two or more lines of the portion where the latent image is applied, at a portion where the object lines of each pair intersect, the image lines of each pair Either set of objects is deleted within the area between the objects of the other set of objects, and the boundary between the non-latent image portion and the latent image portion is drawn. A mark having a copy protection pattern that is a straight line that intersects at a right angle to a straight line that intersects the straight line tangent to the basic curve at the intersection of the basic curve and the contour line of the latent image that constitutes the set pattern of the curved image lines An optical image input unit for inputting an image to image the copy prevention pattern with respect to a printed matter, and binarizing an image signal obtained by the optical image input unit, expanding the image signal. By shrinking, an image processing unit that removes a pixel group corresponding to an image of a portion where the latent image is applied on the input image, and an image processing unit that does not apply the latent image obtained by the image processing unit. A true / false judgment unit for judging the authenticity by recognizing, comparing, or collating the binary image shape remaining at the corresponding position; and a display unit for displaying a result judged by the authenticity judgment unit. Characterized printed reading inspection device. 4. In the image width direction of a binary image corresponding to an image of a single line among image lines of two or more lines in a portion where the latent image is applied, the image line width is smaller than an adjacent pixel distance. In the image width direction of the binary image corresponding to the image line of the portion where the latent image is not provided, the optical image input unit of the optical image input unit is configured such that the image line width is constituted by pixels equal to or greater than the distance between adjacent pixels. 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a resolution is set. 5. A printed matter reading inspection method according to claim 1, wherein said remaining binary image shape is visualized on a CRT monitor to determine whether it is true or false. . 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said remaining binary image shape can be output to a CRT monitor. 7. The printed matter according to claim 3, wherein a CRT monitor is provided on a display unit in order to output the remaining binary image shape as a visible image. Read inspection device. 8. A reading inspection of a printed matter according to claim 1, wherein said visible image is output by a printer to determine the authenticity. Method. 9. The printed matter according to claim 3, wherein a printer is provided on a display unit for outputting the visible image and determining whether the image is true or false. Read inspection device.