KR20030086402A - Method and system for protecting copy of printed matter issued on on-line network - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method for preventing the copy of an output document issued by on-line and a system using the same are provided to prevent that a document issued and output by on-line is counterfeited and used. CONSTITUTION: A document DB(100) stores information about requested documents. A copy detection code information storing unit(50) stores copy detection code information according to a print-classified characteristic for preventing illegal copy. A code generating unit(220) receives a corresponding copy detection code from the copy detection code information storing unit(50) according to printer information of a user, and generates an image of the copy detection code. An output document generating unit(210) inserts the image of the copy detection code into a document generated according to information of the document DB(100), and generates one output document.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROTECTING COPY OF OUTPUT ISSUED ONLINE AND METHOD USING THE SAME {METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROTECTING COPY OF PRINTED MATTER ISSUED ON ON-LINE NETWORK}

The present invention relates to a method for copy protection of an output issued online and a system using the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and a system using the same for distinguishing the original from the copy in order to prevent unauthorized copying and use of the output after the various documents, etc. issued online are printed through a printer or the like. .

Recently, due to the development of computers and the popularization of the Internet, various procedures that have been performed offline have been simply performed online. For example, it was possible to perform various financial transactions only by going to a bank, and now it is possible to conveniently check accounts or transfer money at home / office using internet banking. In addition, the income deduction certificate was obtained through various card companies and insurance companies at the end of each year, but now it can be issued and printed online at any time through the Internet.

In particular, in the past, there were many issues that could be solved only by visiting the relevant companies or government offices. In recent years, however, the government has been pursuing e-government and computerizing the processing of all civil service services. In addition to providing access to the city, people are installing terminals in public train stations, so that some civil documents can be issued directly.

As an example of issuing a civil petition through online, patent application No. 2001-38490 establishes a network connecting a user side information terminal connected to the Internet, a plurality of public office servers, and a communication service provider server to complain at the information terminal side. Upon request of documents, the government will open a technology to send the civil documents and certification number received from the government office to the information terminal so that they can be printed and used, and to check the authenticity of the civil documents using the authentication number. have.

In addition, Patent Application No. 2002-17626 filed by the present applicant (the method of issuing the name of the invention, on-line certificates, etc., and issuing system using the same) improves the problems in the above-mentioned Patent Application No. 2001-38490. We proposed a technology that prevents forgery and prevents illegal use, such as income stamps issued online or a seal on documents.

Before implementing the online complaint service in the above manner, there is a matter to be resolved. Basically, various types of techniques for authentication or copy protection have been proposed for various types of document files themselves such as certificate documents transmitted from government offices or the like at the request of users. However, after a document file, which is a digital file, is output through a printer or the like, there is a problem in that unauthorized copying and use of the document file can not be prevented.

In order to prevent illegal copying using a copy function of an image scanner or a digital copying machine for documents and documents provided in a conventionally printed form, Korean Patent Publication No. 2000-51665 (Invention: Prevention of illegal copying of a digital color copying machine) Instruction printing method) proposed an illegal copy prevention instruction printing method that prints by copying an instruction indicating that copying is performed in the process of processing an image by reading the document.

In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-6644 (name of the invention: an image processing apparatus, a pattern detection method, an image processing control method, and a recording medium) prints a special pattern on the back side of a document so as not to damage the readability of the original document. A technique that can prevent fraudulent copying by a copying machine and the like while preventing easy separation of a pattern and a pattern has been proposed.

In addition to the techniques described above, prints can be identified with the naked eye but are printed with ink of a color outside the sensitivity range of the copier (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-114566), and prints whose images are disturbed by copying and become unidentifiable (Japanese Patent) 53-83831) and various forms of technology, such as printed matter by the combination of two colors (refer to Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 1-263686) which become substantially indistinguishable by reproduction, and become indistinguishable by copying.

However, the techniques proposed above have a problem of using a special printing paper or a special copier or a special ink that can recognize the printing paper. In addition, there is a problem that the copy is not properly detected depending on the state of the printer or printer.

Moreover, in the case of various documents and documents issued online, it is likely that the receiving and outputting site is a personal computer, not a public institution. Therefore, the output of such documents is also output through a special paper or a special device as described above. It is printed on plain paper using a normal printer. Therefore, in using a printed document, there is a problem that it must be forged / modified or authenticated as an original rather than a copy.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and a system using the same for preventing an unauthorized copy or use of a document or a document issued and output online.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and a system using the same so that a copy detection code that can be confirmed that a copy is displayed in the case of unauthorized copying of an output document or documents issued online.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method and a system using the same, which can be judged to be a copy even when using plain paper without using a special paper when a document or documents issued and outputted online are copied.

Still another object of the present invention is to generate a copy detection code optimized for the characteristics of a printer that outputs a document or a document that is issued and printed online, and a method for determining whether a copy is included in a document or a document and a system using the same. To provide.

1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a system for copy protection of an output issued online according to the present invention.

2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an output generated according to the present invention.

3 is a block diagram illustrating a functional division of the system of FIG. 1.

4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a copy detection code in the present invention.

5A and 5B are diagrams showing a horizontal portion and a vertical portion of the background line of the copy detection code in FIG.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view illustrating a background line of FIGS. 5A and 5B.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the form of dots forming a text portion of the copy detection code in FIG.

8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a background line of a copy detection code.

9A is a diagram showing an example of a sample of a copy detection code, and FIG. 9B is a diagram showing a result of the samples of FIG. 9A being copied by a copying machine.

FIG. 10 is a view showing a state in which the copy detection code in FIG. 4 and the document including the detection code are copied.

※ Explanation of codes for main parts of drawing

10 ... Requestor 20 ... Document issuing server

30 ... payment server 40 ... writer

50 ... Copy detection code storage

100 ... document issuance database

210 ... output document generator 220 ... code generator

Method for copy protection of the output issued online according to the present invention in order to achieve the above object

In a method for preventing copying of documents issued online,

Generating documents issued online based on the issuing information requested by the issuing requester;

Calling the printer information on the printer of the issuer and reading the copy detection code information corresponding to the printer information to form an image of the copy detection code;

Inserting the generated copy detection code into the document; And

And transmitting the document into which the copy detection code is inserted, to the issuing requester.

In addition, the copy protection system of the document issued online according to the present invention is a document issuance database for storing information about the documents requested to be issued;

A copy detection code information storage unit for storing copy detection code information according to printer-specific characteristics for copy protection;

A code generation unit for generating an image of a copy detection code by receiving a corresponding copy detection code from the copy detection code storage unit according to printer information of a user who has issued a document request; And

And an output document generating means for inserting an image of the copy detection code into the document generated according to the information from the document issuing database to generate one output document.

The document in which the image of the copy detection code is inserted is provided in the form of a user output requesting for issuance of the document.

Hereinafter, a method and a system using the same for copy protection of an output issued online according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, a schematic configuration of an entire system in which a request for a document and an issue and output thereof are performed online will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 1, the issuer system or issuer requestor 10 formed of a personal computer or terminal is connected to a homepage that provides a document issuance service through a network such as the Internet, and issues issue information necessary for issuance of documents. Send to the issuing server 20. The issuing server 20 processes the issuing information according to a predetermined method and issues the document to the issuing requester 10. The payment is made through the payment server 30 according to the type of documents issued. When the document is transmitted to the issuing requester 10, the document is printed through an output device 40 such as a printer, so that the issuing requester 10 may obtain an output 60 including predetermined information.

First, a process of issuing documents through the Internet will be described with reference to specific embodiments as an example to help understanding of the present invention. In order to obtain a land register, which is one of the civil documents, it can be issued online through the cyber complaint room through the homepage of the cyber ward office operated by the ward office. In this case, the applicant will first access the ward office website and register as a member. And in the case of documents requiring identity verification, the user downloads the certificate from an accredited certification body. Next, go to the application form and fill out the application form. Enter details such as address, branch number, owner's social security number and number of issues issued.

After completing the above, complete the application process. Next, proceed to the page for paying the fee and pay the relevant amount according to the application information. The issuing server receives the application information input by the applicant and executes the issuing procedure. In the above process, the specific process related to user registration, use of the accredited certificate or payment of costs is performed in the same process even in the case of Internet banking, and thus description thereof will be omitted.

This general online document issuance is equally applicable to the present invention, but the characteristic part of the present invention is in the process for detecting a copy made in the document issuing server 20. When the document issuing server 20 generates the documents requested by the issuing requester 10, the document issuing server 10 receives information on the printer to output the documents to be issued by the requester from the copy detection code information storage unit 50, and the head corresponding to this printer. It receives the optimized copy detection code information and includes the copy detection code in the form of an image in the issued document and transmits it to the issuing requester 10. The copy detection code to be included in the issued document serves to prevent the copying and using the document after the issued requester 10 outputs the issued document using the printer 40. This portion will be described in more detail later with reference to the drawings.

2 shows an enlarged illustrated COPY DETECTION CODE, which is generated according to the present invention and output to a printer and included in this document. In the document issued as shown in FIG. 2, the copy detection code is printed in the form of an image at a predetermined position on the top, bottom, or both sides of the document except for the part containing the content to be printed. It doesn't happen. This radiation detection code looks like a continuous pattern of patterns with human eyes. However, when this document printed using a printer is copied with a copy machine, the copy detection code is transformed into another pattern to recognize that the copy is a copy.

This copy detection code is included in a document issued online, and the system for functionally dividing the system for copy protection of the output will be described with reference to FIG. 3.

As shown in FIG. 3, in the system according to the present invention, the issuing server 20 receives issuance information about documents to be issued from the issuing requester 10. The issuing server 20 generates a document file to be output based on the data stored in the document database 100 according to the content of the issuing information. To print and use this document file, select print item on browser menu and execute printing. When printing starts, the printer information on the printer used in the system used by the issuer 10 is called and transmitted to the issuer server 20.

The printer information is automatically called by the user's system by the program, and when the information cannot be obtained according to the printer type, the information is obtained through a forced setting. The values that can be called by the user's system are information about various printing conditions included in the print window that appears when the file-print is pressed on the browser. Therefore, the adjustment values of the fine printers that do not appear in the print window are not known through the print window because they are information of each printer company. For example, in the case of information such as dpi (dot per inch), most printer manufacturers indicate dpi values, but in the case of Epson, it appears as [unknown] in the dpi information. This dpi information is very important information affecting the copy detection code, but unknown values. Therefore, in such a case, force the setting to dpi = 600 before use. In other words, when the information on the printer is unknown, the information of the printer may be arbitrarily set as the default value.

Since the printers used by the users using the service by accessing the issuing server 20 are various, the printer information of the user is extracted as described above, and the information is transferred to the issuing server 20, and the issuing server ( 20) retrieves the most optimized copy detection code information corresponding to the printer from the corresponding printer information stored in the copy detection code information storage unit 50 according to the printer information, and the retrieved copy detection code information is converted into a code generation unit ( 220).

The copy detection code information stored in the copy detection code information storage unit 50 is data that can be changed for each printer. For example, looking at the background lines to be described later among the elements constituting the copy detection code, the output interval of these lines is very sensitive to the problem of which printer to use, that is, whether the printer is a laserjet or an inkjet. Therefore, among the elements constituting the copy detection code information, the elements that can be output differently for each printer are found, and a print test for each printer is used to test whether the copy detection code can be shown best. In other words, the printing test checks printer performance, ink bleeding, print density, etc., and prints a copy of the copy detection code in various cases. Such a test outputs a document using the corresponding copy detection code, copies it, and checks it with the naked eye to determine an optimal copy detection code.

The information for constituting the copy detection code is divided into printers, stored in a data file, and stored.In use, the copy request corresponding to the printer recorded in the data file according to the information of the printer to be issued by the issuing requester 10 is printed. Read and use code information.

The data of printer-specific information of the current copy detection code is used. The information on the printer includes a driver name for identifying the printer. The line elements that form the background include line spacing, line type, line thickness, and printing point. The number of points, the number of points that are not printed, and the first spacing of each line. In addition, there is a form of a dot forming the inside of a character as a character element. Information about this data can be added / modified for correct operation of the copy detection code.

As such, after the copy detection code information according to the printer information of the issuer 10 is determined and transmitted to the code generation unit 220, the code generation unit 220 generates a copy detection code for printing based on this information. do.

The generated copy detection code is transmitted to the output document generation unit 210. The output document generator 210 inserts a copy detection code into the document data generated based on the data of the document database 100 to generate a document file to be provided to the issuing requester 10 through the issuing document server 20. send. At this time, when the document data is uploaded to the virtual memory for outputting the document, a copy detection code is generated on the memory to be imprinted on the document, and the copy detection code information is automatically deleted from the memory of the system.

When the document file with the copy detection code inserted for printing is transmitted to the system of the issuing requester 10, the system downloads the file using Active X, and the information is automatically printed. All information about document files contained in memory or storage in the system is automatically deleted.

The configuration and generation process of the copy detection code will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 4 to 7 with respect to the copy detection code included in the document file among the document files printed through the above process.

In the present invention, when the copy detection code is printed using a specific printer in the process of obtaining the original document file, only the characters indicating the characteristics of the document are displayed, but when the copy is made using a copying machine, the document is displayed. It is configured to show certain characters or glyphs to indicate that it is a copy rather than the original.

In order to generate an optimal image of a copy detection code having such characteristics, information of a printer to print an original is first extracted. The extracted printer information is a key for the optimum image for each printer. The data of the copy detection code corresponding to this information is extracted from the copy detection code information storage unit 50 to create an optimal copy detection code in the form of an image. Serve

As shown in Fig. 4, the image of the copy detection code is composed of three components: ① a background line composed of a set of dots forming a background, ② a background text entirely printed on the background, and ③ a printer. Although it is invisible in the original output printed through the copy, it is made of Copy Detector Text corresponding to the text part appearing profane when copied using a copier. Look at each of them separately.

① background line

The background line means a set of dots that form the background except for the text. Points imprinted on the background are divided into a horizontal portion and a vertical portion as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B. In the horizontal portion illustrated in FIG. 5A, a line dot (A) to be photographed and a line dot space (B) not to be photographed are repeated in the same pattern to photograph a dot pattern of a background. Thus points are taken at regular intervals. The number of dots taken and not taken can be adjusted in various ways.

The vertical portion shown in Figure 5b also has the same shape as the horizontal portion of the line (A) and the line (B) for taking a dot can be variously adjusted for each copy detection code. In this way, if one example of the shape of the background line taken is enlarged, the shape may be as shown in FIG. 6.

In forming the background line as described above, the reason for forming the line dot A and the line dot B that is not taken is to reduce the difference in brightness between the background and the copy. Forming a block in the form of a dot without processing the background line as a line is intended to produce an image that appears when copied, similar to the text of a copy. In particular, in the case of displaying a line rather than a dot, the line is output so clearly that it is difficult to complete the copy detection code according to the present invention.

② Background Text

A background character is a character (text) that is printed entirely on the background. This character is configured to mask the copy image of the copy detection code that appears when the original document originally printed out is copied using a copying machine or the like. In other words, it is a part of text that creates a kind of optical illusion for the purpose of masking the copy detection character part (③) that appears during actual copying from the copy detection code part imprinted on the printer output. In the background text, various fonts of the text, such as the appropriate font and the size of the text, can be changed and used, and the content to be entered is photographed.

③ Copy Detector Text

The copy detection character is a part of the character that is not seen in the original output printed using the issuing server, but appears to be rough when copied. This character is composed of three types of dots as shown in Fig. 7, and among them, one dot form is tested and used for each printer.

The copy detection character selects one of the three types of dot forms that is the most optimal, and inputs a character desired by the user, that is, a character or word desired to appear when copied, such as 'copy' or 'COPY'. Done.

The copy detection code configured as described above may have a clear background when the copy of the original is blurred so that the letter 'copy' appears clearly when copying the original. However, when the original is printed, the letter 'copy' should not appear well, so the difference between the background and the letter such as 'copy' is not good. Therefore, the optical illusion has a lot of brightness difference between the image of the background and the copy. Therefore, the effect of eliminating the clarity of the text that appears during printing is to put a small white letter on the background to cover the two brightness differences slightly. It can be called an effect. By inserting this small background character, the effect of masking the outer appearance of the character of the copy can be made slightly. By this effect, it is possible to form a copy detection code that does not appear clearly at the time of printing.

In order to form an optimal copy detection code having the above characteristics, as described above, the characteristics of the copy detection code use the phenomenon that printed dots do not appear due to the reflection of light during copying. Due to the significant impact it is very sensitive to the characteristics of the actual printer. Due to these characteristics, the copy detection code can be formed and tested in various forms and various numbers.

As an example of the test, the values of the background line are included among the elements that make up the copy detection code. First of all, there are numbers of horizontal and non-printing points. In Fig. 8, ① indicates the ratio of the point to be taken and the point not to be taken out of the numerical value of the horizontal portion. The ratio of the line to the line and the line to be taken of the vertical portion is 1: 7. Like this image, the background line is changed from 1 to 1, and the printer works by extracting the maximum and minimum values having the characteristics of the copy detection code.

In this way, sample data is generated by applying the values of the data forming the copy detection code one by one. It works with variable data that is not fixed, and it also dates out fixed property values, such as the size of a font or the size of two layers of text. As a result of the test, among the fonts, archery type and human old type showed the best copy detection code characteristics. Thousands of samples of the copy detection code thus appeared were able to be adapted to different printers to find the most optimal copy detection code. The copy detection code information which can form the optimal copy detection code thus obtained is constructed as a database.

9A and 9B show the samples applied to the above-mentioned printer and the result of copying the samples with a copier. 9A shows that the background lines have ratios of 4: 7, 4: 8, 5: 3, and 5: 4 in the preparation of the samples, while also maintaining the ratio of the background lines while not being photographed with respect to the copy detection characters. It shows the form of changing the ratio of dots from 1: 1 to 5: 6. In the samples printed in FIG. 9A according to the above ratio, when the background line ratio is 5: 3 and the background character ratio is printed from a copy detection code in the range of 1: 4 to 5: 7, the copy is called 'copy'. The copy-detected letters were not noticeable, and the letters 'copy' were prominent in the rest of the samples. That is, the samples in which the letter 'copy' is prominent among the above samples are the ones which are not suitable for the copy detection code because they appear when printing by the printer.

The results when the samples such as in FIG. 9A were copied through the copier are shown in FIG. 9B. Looking at the results shown, the copy detection character of 'copy' after copying the samples in the box-shaped range of 2: 4 to 5: 7 among the ratio of 5: 3 to the background line, which is a suitable sample Appeared prominently. Therefore, the samples belonging to this range are suitable forms as the copy detection code, and the information for forming the copy detection code constitutes the copy detection code information.

The copy detection code extracted from the copy detection code information storage unit 50 constructed as described above is stamped on a predetermined portion of the document in one image form. That is, the copy detection code extracts printer information at the same time as the print command, and obtains the best copy detection code information from the copy detection code information storage unit 50 using this information as a key to construct an image of the copy detection code in memory. do. The image of the configured copy detection code is not created as a separate file but actually exists in memory. In the form of creating a virtual image, three parts are drawn using a function called a mask, but the overlapping parts are drawn. To make it invisible, a mask is used to create an image in the form of three layers and insert it into the document to be created. Therefore, the copy detection code can be said to be a binary code that is printed in dots.

When the copy detection code information is constructed for all available printers formed through the above process, the document in which the copy detection code is inserted may be provided as an output to the issuing requesters requesting the issuance of the document. The image of the copy detection code that is optimally set for the printer to be printed by the issuer does not have a special mark, but when the copy is made by using a copying machine, a mark indicating that the copy is displayed on the copy detection code by using the light scattering effect is displayed. do. That is, when a document is copied using a copying machine by outputting a document stamped with a copy detection code, as shown in FIG.

A in Fig. 10 is an image of a copy detection code stamped on the output original document. To the naked eye, the image of the copy detection code appears to have a uniform pattern of fine dots. A 'at the bottom is an enlargement of A. As described above, the user can visually check only the background character. B is the image of the copy detection code when the document is copied to the copier. Unlike A, the image of the copy detection code in the original text, B is clearly marked as 'copy'. B 'is an enlargement of B, and the copy detection character of the copy detection code called' copy 'is displayed on the background character, so that the original document and the copy can be clearly distinguished.

In particular, the present invention having the configuration as described above is a variety of documents, such as official documents used in administrative institutions, civil documents issued by government offices, documents used for private business between individuals, commercial documents between individuals or companies for profit-making purposes, various certificates, etc. And when the documents are issued to the user on-line, it is possible to prevent the unauthorized output is copied and used through the printer on the user side. Therefore, by detecting an unauthorized copy of the original document issued and printed online, unauthorized copying and use of the copy offline can be prevented, and the document itself can be confirmed without using any detector or special tool. This prevents the duplication of original documents.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the above embodiments, it has been used for the purpose of illustration and those of ordinary skill in the art, having the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. Various modifications can be made without departing.

Claims (13)

In a method for preventing copying of documents issued online, Generating documents issued online based on the issuing information requested by the issuing requester; Calling the printer information on the printer of the issuer and reading the copy detection code information corresponding to the printer information to form an image of the copy detection code; Inserting the generated copy detection code into the document; And And copying the document into which the copy detection code is inserted, to the issuing requester. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of printing the transmitted document by the printer to generate an output. The image of claim 1 or 2, wherein the image of the copy detection code is printed at a predetermined position where the contents of the output printed according to the issuing information are not taken. The copy detection code is A first portion formed as a dot pattern in which line dots taken in a block form formed in a predetermined area and line dots not taken are repeated in the same pattern; A second portion forming a portion serving as a background character on the first portion; And And a third portion which is invisible in the printout output by the printer as a character imprinted on the first portion, but which appears intact in the copied state. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first to third portions forming the image of the copy detection code are sequentially formed and the overlapping portions are not visible. 4. The copy protection method of claim 3, wherein the image of the copy detection code is automatically deleted after being inserted into the document. The method of claim 3, wherein the copy detection code information is information that varies according to the type of the printer. 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the copy detection code information includes a printer drive name, a line element, and a character element for specifying a printer, wherein the line element is a line spacing, a line shape, a thickness of a line, a number of points to be printed, and a non-printing point. And a number of first intervals per line, wherein the letter element includes a form of a dot that forms the inside of a letter. 4. The copy protection method of claim 3, wherein the transmitted document is deleted at the same time as printing is performed. An apparatus for copy protection for documents issued online, the apparatus comprising: A document issuing database for storing information on documents requested to be issued; A copy detection code information storage unit for storing copy detection code information according to printer-specific characteristics for copy protection; Code generation means for receiving the copy detection code from the copy detection code storage unit and generating an image of the copy detection code according to the printer information of the user who requested the issuance of the document; And And an output document generating means for inserting an image of the copy detection code into the document generated according to the information from the document issuing database to generate one output document. And a document in which an image of the copy detection code is inserted is provided in the form of a user output requesting issuance of the document. 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the code generation unit forms an image of the copy detection code at a predetermined position where the contents of the output are not printed. A first portion formed as a dot pattern in which line dots taken in a block form formed in a predetermined area and line dots not taken are repeated in the same pattern; A second portion forming a portion serving as a background character on the first portion; And A system for copy protection for documents issued online characterized in that it consists of a third part which is invisible in the printout output by the printer as a character imprinted on the first part, but which appears coarse in the copied state. . 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the first to third portions forming the image of the copy detection code are sequentially formed, but the overlapping portions are not visible. . 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the copy detection code information is information that varies according to the type of the printer. 13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the copy detection code information includes a printer driver name, a line element, and a character element for specifying a printer, wherein the line element is a line spacing, a form of a line, a thickness of a line, a number of points to be printed, or a point not to be printed. And a number of first intervals per line, wherein the letter element includes a form of a dot that forms the inside of a letter.