RU2253148C2 - Identification device with protected photograph and also means and method for authentication of such an identification device - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: identification devices.

SUBSTANCE: device has photographic image of a person and microprocessor, which has processor, memory, connected to processor and containing authentication data, and interface means, connected to said processor to organize communication with external device. Said photographic image has specially concealed information, contents of which when combined with said authentication data provides for authentication of said photographic image, and said microprocessor is made with possible realization of at least a portion of said authentication.

EFFECT: higher efficiency.

5 cl, 4 dwg

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an identification device with a photograph, such as passports and (credit) cards, used to identify people and then grant these people authority to perform a predetermined action, such as entering a building, crossing a border, conducting an automatic financial account debit transaction, and etc.

State of the art

The invention relates to the use of identification (ID) documents provided with an image of a document holder, for example a driver’s license or a plastic card having the dimensions of a credit card or passport. In the normal use of such an ID document, a human operator compares the image on the document with the face of the owner of the document in order to assess the rights claimed by the owner of the document, based on the authority determined by the additional data in the document. For example, a passport gives the right to enter the country based on the citizenship of the owner of the document.

The problem that one has to face when such documents are present is that they are often copied, indicating false credentials or entering a fake image.

A general solution to this problem is to use physical methods for detecting fakes, such as applying a sealing film coating on both the photograph and the document itself, and this is often combined with special monitoring tools, such as polarized light, for sensing when implementing the method for detecting fakes. However, the use of such controls often requires a qualified operator.

Another possible solution, mentioned in paragraph [0002] of EP-B1-0539439 and used to combat counterfeiting an image attached to an ID document, is to use smart cards equipped with a microprocessor having a processor and memory. The memory in the card chip stores a digital copy of the image on the card. A terminal is provided for reading the contents of a memory card with an integrated chip and for displaying a stored image on a monitor for an operator. The operator then compares the image displayed on the monitor with the face of the actual card holder. This decision may even eliminate the need to attach the image to the card itself. At the same time, this solution requires expensive imaging equipment, which, among other reasons, made this solution unsuitable in specific areas of industry, which has great potential for using smart cards, for example, in public transport systems, where smart card IDs are considered to be an effective improvement in ordinary preferential travel documents.

An additional problem that ID systems have to deal with is the protection of confidential information about the person using the ID document. In particular, if such a document is implemented as an intellectual card read by electronic means, protection from uncontrolled and / or unauthorized collection of data identifying a person, as well as the use of his intellectual card, may be required.

To protect confidential information about the cardholder, you can use encryption techniques, for example, anonymous signatures for the process of reading the data ID, as well as credential data from the smart card. However, the use of images stored in the memory of the card and reading with the terminal for display on the monitor for the operator in principle violates such cryptographic protection of confidential information. In this case, not only the terminal creates the ability to collect specific and accurate identifying data about people, for example, their images, but also the nature of these data creates an additional threat, which consists in the fact that a person can be compromised through digital image manipulation methods.

In US-A-5748763, see text starting at line 24 in column 58 and ending at line 45 in column 62, a method and apparatus for improving the protection of credit and debit cards are described. The proposed device has a computer configured to receive a digital image of the card holder. After analyzing the digital image, the computer generates an image with noise type “snow”, which is usually orthogonal to the digital image, and adds it to the digital image to obtain a corrected special image. This is done to achieve the effect of “texturing” the original digital image. An image with a “snow” type interference is not necessarily itself invisible to the person looking at this image. However, the image of the card holder may not be hidden by means of an image with interference such as “snow”. The adjusted special image is printed on the card. In addition, special information is also stored in the central accounting network.

In a steganographic specific embodiment, the snow image is such that it is hidden in the photographic image of the person on the card. More information about steganography can be found in US patent No. 5613004, as well as in the primary sources mentioned in this document. In the context of the present invention, it will be understood that the term “steganography” (which generally means protecting information by writing hidden code to sections of files) refers to any method of hiding information that would otherwise be clearly visible. Such information is hidden in another environment. This method is used as an alternative to encryption. For example, spreadsheets or image files may contain a text message that is invisible to an uninformed person. People who are not aware of hidden information will not detect the presence of steganographically hidden information, even if the information is clearly visible.

In the aforementioned document US-A-5748763 it is said that a scanner is provided for scanning a card when the cardholder wants to use his card to perform a predetermined financial transaction, for example, to make an automatic payment from his account to pay for a product. The scanner is connected to a central accounting network. Using the secure communication protocol, the image on the card scanned by the scanner is transmitted to the central network. The central network is designed to receive transmitted information and to authenticate the authenticity of the image on the card.

Additional protection for a known system can be provided by asking the cardholder to enter a personal identification number (PIN) during the scanning process. In addition, additional protection is provided by instructing some third party during the scanning process to check whether the person trying to conduct a financial transaction using the card is exactly the person whose photograph is on the card.

The disadvantage of the system and method proposed in the document US-A-5748763 is that they can be applied only when there is a central network that has saved all the special images from all the cards involved in its work.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The first objective of the present invention is to develop an identification device with a photograph that eliminates the need for such a central network.

Therefore, the invention provides the creation of an identification device equipped with:

photographic image of a person and

microprocessor

moreover, this microprocessor contains

CPU,

a memory connected to the processor and containing authentication data, and

interface means connected to a processor for communicating with an external device,

wherein the photographic image contains steganographically hidden information, the content of which together with the authentication data provides authentication of the photographic image.

Thus, the invention allows to create an identification device, which is equipped with a microprocessor, containing authentication data necessary for authentication of the photographic image on the identification device. In other words, the key factor in authenticating a photographic image is the device itself, not the central network.

Such an identification device may be, for example, a passport or a plastic identification card similar to a smart card.

In one particular embodiment, the processor is configured to conduct at least a portion of the authentication. In order to achieve this effect, the processor will execute a program, preferably stored in the microprocessor memory.

Authentication data stored in the microprocessor memory may be part of a photographic image on an identification device. However, this may be data related to the photographic image. For example, they may be related to gray level, intensity distribution or image entropy for a photographic image.

The second objective of the invention is to develop a terminal that is configured to communicate with an identification device according to the invention and provides the required authentication process.

Therefore, in the first specific embodiment, the invention provides a terminal configured to communicate with an identification device, which identification device is provided with:

photographic image of man and

microprocessor

moreover, this microprocessor contains

CPU,

a memory connected to the processor and containing authentication data, and

interface means connected to a processor for communicating with a terminal,

wherein the photographic image contains steganographically hidden information, the content of which together with the authentication data provides authentication of the photographic image,

while the terminal is equipped with:

an image scanner for scanning a photographic image and for generating image data,

a terminal interface for communicating with the processor of the identification device, and

image processor designed

for receiving image data,

for analyzing this image data in accordance with a predetermined image analysis procedure for extracting hidden information,

for receiving authentication data from memory and

to perform at least part of the authentication of the photographic image based on the authentication data and hidden information.

In this first specific embodiment, the authentication of the photographic image is either partially or completely carried out by the image processor in the terminal.

In practice, the steps necessary to carry out the mentioned authentication will be stored in the terminal memory. In a particular embodiment, the method for performing these steps depends on the authentication data received from the memory of the identification device. In such a specific embodiment, the authentication performed by the terminal will depend on the data received from the identification device itself. This makes it impossible to predict the real authentication steps carried out by the terminal, which improves security.

However, protection can be improved in a particular alternative embodiment, in which the processor of the identification device itself conducts at least part of the authentication of the photographic image. Therefore, the invention also provides a second specific embodiment of the terminal. This second specific embodiment is intended to communicate with an identification device, wherein the identification device is provided with:

photographic image of a person and

microprocessor

moreover, this microprocessor contains

CPU,

a memory connected to the processor and containing authentication data, and

interface means connected to a processor for communicating with a terminal,

wherein the photographic image contains steganographically hidden information, the content of which together with the authentication data provides authentication of the photographic image,

moreover, the processor is configured to perform at least part of the authentication of the photographic image,

while the terminal is equipped with:

an image scanner for scanning a photographic image and for generating image data,

a terminal interface for communicating with the processor of the identification device, and

image processor designed

for receiving image data,

for analyzing this image data in accordance with a predetermined image analysis procedure for extracting hidden information and

for transmitting at least hidden information to the processor to ensure that the processor carries out at least part of the authentication of the photographic image.

In addition, the invention relates to a method for authenticating a photographic image on an identification device, wherein the identification device is provided with:

photographic image of man and

microprocessor

moreover, this microprocessor contains

CPU,

a memory connected to the processor and containing authentication data, and

interface means connected to a processor for communicating with an external device,

the photographic image contains steganographically hidden information, the contents of which together with the authentication data provides authentication of the photographic image, and

The method includes the following steps, in which:

scanning a photographic image and generating image data,

analyze this image data in accordance with a predetermined image analysis procedure to extract hidden information, and

authenticating the photographic image based on the hidden information and authentication data.

And finally, the invention relates to storage media equipped with a computer program, and to computer programs as such, designed to implement this method.

The following is a description of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, which should be considered as illustrating the invention, and not as limiting the scope of its claims.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 presents a conditional drawing of a system corresponding to the invention, depicting a smart card and terminal;

figure 2 presents the conditional image of the functional blocks of the microprocessor of the smart card;

figure 3 conditionally shows how you can hide information in a photographic image;

figure 4 shows a block diagram of the sequence of steps of the method corresponding to the invention.

Detailed Description of Specific Embodiments

Figure 1 shows the smart card 1, equipped with a photographic image 3 of the card holder. The smart card 1 is equipped with an interface 5, depicted in the form of metal pads. However, the interface 5 may take other forms, for example, the shape of an antenna hidden inside the smart card 1 and providing contactless communication with an external device.

As shown in FIG. 2, the interface 5 is connected to a card processor 7, which is also connected to the card memory 9.

Returning now to FIG. 1, it is noted that the smart card 1 is preferably provided with one or more orientation symbols 2 to assist the scanner during scanning of the photographic image 3, as will be explained below.

It can be seen that figure 1 shows a smart card 1, but the invention is equally applicable to other types of documents having a photographic image of the document holder and a processor configured to communicate with an external device.

The smart card 1 can be inserted into and removed from the hole 14 in the terminal 11. The terminal 14 is equipped with an image scanner 13 and a connector 15.

The image scanner 13 is arranged so that it can scan a photographic image 3 either during the insertion of the smart card 1 into the hole 14 or after the smart card 1 is fully inserted into the hole 14.

The connector 15 will come into contact with the interface 5 of the smart card 1 when the smart card 1 is fully inserted in the hole 14. Of course, when the interface 5 is made in a different form, for example in the form of an antenna, the connector 15 must be replaced by a different type of interface designed to implement communication with interface 5.

The image scanner 13 is connected to the processor 17, which is also connected to the connector 15 and to the memory 19.

Figure 1 also shows several input means, for example, a mouse 21 and a keyboard 23, providing the operator with the ability to enter data into the processor 17. A monitor 25 is provided, connected to the processor 17 and providing this processor with the ability to display the necessary information for the operator. Of course, you can provide any other type of display means instead of the monitor 25 or in addition to it.

In a specific alternative embodiment of the terminal shown in FIG. 1, processor 17 is configured as a processing unit within an image scanner 13. Then the image scanner 13 is connected directly to the connector 15 (or any other interface) through a direct communication line indicated by 16.

Figure 3 conditionally shows that the photographic image 3 is provided with additional information 4. This additional information 4 is added to the photographic image 3 so that it is invisible to the human eye. Moreover, the additional information 4 can be so small that it is essentially impossible to detect automatic scanners if they “do not know” where to look for additional information. Additional information 4 is added to the photographic image 3 using steganographic methods that are known to specialists in this field of technology.

In FIG. 3, it can be seen that the additional information 4 is shown on such an enlarged scale that it is visible, but in practice it will not be visible to the human eye. Moreover, in a preferred embodiment, the individual points of information 4 are distributed throughout the image 3, which makes them difficult to find.

The additional information 4 may not be related at all to the content of the photographic image 3. However, the photographic image 3 can be pre-processed before printing on the smart card 1 so that the additional information 4 will be calculated depending on the content of the photographic image 3, so that the degree of its concealment in photographic image 3 will be the most possible.

According to the present invention, the card memory 9 is provided with authentication data. The content of this authentication data along with additional information 4 provides authentication of the photographic image 3.

In its simplest form, the authentication data uniquely corresponds to the hidden information 4. However, the hidden information 4 can be present within the photographic image 3 in an encrypted form, for example, this information can be encrypted, so that the authenticity of the hidden information 4 can only be verified by the device, “Knowing” the key to this encrypted signature. Then such a key is stored in memory 9 of the card.

The hidden information 4 is such that it can be recognized by converting the photographic image 3 into digital form, even if it is incomplete or otherwise violated. Hidden information may take the form of a digital watermark.

The verification of the authenticity of hidden information can be based on calculations of any type carried out using both hidden information 4 and authentication data available in the memory 9 of the card.

As shown in FIG. 4, in order to provide authentication, the cardholder has to insert his smart card 1 into the hole 14 of the terminal 11. During insertion or upon completion of the insertion, the image scanner 13 scans the photographic image 3, while the interfaces 5 and 15 can communicate together. In the process of detecting the place where you want to search for hidden information 4, the orientation symbols 2 can help the image scanner 13. The image scanner 13 processes the photographic image 3 and generates image data that is sent to the processor 17, see step 30.

The processor 17 performs digital processing of the received image data, as well as authentication data stored in the card memory 9, in accordance with a predetermined program. According to this predetermined program, which is preferably stored in the memory 19, the processor 17 separates the hidden information 4 from the photographic image 3, see step 32, and uses the hidden information 4 to establish the authenticity of the photographic image 3, see step 34.

Authentication data received from the smart card 1 can be protected by any encryption means known to those skilled in the art. In addition, this data can be digitally signed.

The authentication process conducted by the processor 17 may depend on the authentication data received from the smart card 1, and this dependence may be such that for different authentication data a different authentication process will need to be conducted. This further improves protection.

In a specific alternative embodiment, it is not the processor 17 in the terminal 11, but the card processor 7 that is configured to conduct the authentication process. To this end, he receives the hidden information 4 through the terminal 11.

However, since the card processor 7 and its memory 9 will have only limited capacity, in practice, an option will be preferred in which both the processor 17 of the terminal 11 and the card processor 7 carry out part of the authentication process. For example, the card processor 7 may conduct the final step of the authentication process.

In a specific further embodiment, the card memory 9 may be provided with credential data, i.e. data indicating the predefined actions of the cardholder that he is allowed to take, such as entering a building or entering a region, debiting an account, etc. In this case, the card processor 7 is preferably configured to transmit this credential data to the processor 17 only after it has successfully completed “its” part of the authentication process. Thus, while receiving credentials, the processor 17 receives information that no problems have been identified during the authentication steps performed by the card processor 7. When the processor 17 does not receive credentials, it “finds out” that the authentication process has failed.

To further improve security, authentication data stored in card memory 9 may be associated with one or more special or general characteristics of image 3 itself, for example, gray level, intensity distribution, or image entropy. These parameters will be extracted by the image scanner 13 and transmitted to the processor 17. These parameters can be used by the processor 17 during the authentication process. However, to further improve security, these parameters can be passed through processor 17 to card processor 7, which will use one or more of these parameters during the “own” authentication steps.

Instead of setting the value of one or more of these parameters using the image scanner 13, these parameters can be stored digitally in the photographic image 3. The digitized value of these parameters can be printed after encoding. Before adding these digitized values of these parameters to the photographic image 3, they can be encoded.

In the particular embodiment described above, terminal 11 is depicted as including memory 19. As is obvious to those skilled in the art, memory 19 can be any type of memory, for example random access memory, read-only memory, erasable programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, etc., or any combination thereof. To achieve the objective of the present invention, the memory 19 need not be physically located inside the terminal 11.

In addition, the processor 17 is depicted as a single unit. However, if this is preferable, the processor 17 can be made in the form of several subprocessors that communicate with each other, each of which will be specialized for solving a certain predetermined task. In a preferred embodiment, the processor 17 is made (or sub-processors made) in the form of a computer with suitable software. However, if desired, they can be performed in the form of specialized digital circuits.

The method in accordance with the present invention is preferably carried out using suitable software. This software can be delivered in the form of data carriers, for example, CD-ROMs, or via the Internet or other data transmission medium.

Claims (15)

1. An identification device (1) provided with a photographic image (3) of a person and a microprocessor (8), this microprocessor (8) comprising a processor (7), a memory (9) connected to the processor (7) and containing authentication data, and interface means (5) connected to said processor (7) for communicating with an external device, said photographic image (3) containing steganographically hidden information, the contents of which together with said authentication data provide authentication said photographic image (3), and said microprocessor (8) is configured to conduct at least a portion of said authentication. 2. The identification device (1) according to claim 1, wherein said memory (9) contains credential data, and the microprocessor is configured to transmit said credential data to said external device only when said microprocessor (8) performs at least at least part of the mentioned authentication is successful. 3. The identification device (1) according to claim 1 or 2, which is one of the following set of documents: passport and plastic identification card. 4. The identification device (1) according to claims 1, 2 or 3, wherein said hidden information is provided with an encrypted signature. 5. An identification device (1) according to any one of the preceding paragraphs, wherein said authentication data is at least partially associated with some feature of a photographic image (3). 6. An identification device (1) according to any one of the preceding paragraphs, in which said hidden information is associated with some sign of a photographic image (3). 7. The identification device (1) according to claim 5 or 6, wherein said feature is at least one of the following set of features: gray level, intensity distribution and image entropy. 8. The terminal (11), configured to communicate with an identification device (1), and this identification device (1) is equipped with a photographic image (3) of a person and a microprocessor (8), and this microprocessor (8) contains a processor (7) , a memory (9) connected to the processor (7) and containing authentication data, and interface means (5) connected to the processor (7) for communicating with the terminal (11), while the photographic image (3) contains steganographically hidden information contains which, together with said authentication data, allows authentication of said photographic image (3), said microprocessor (8) is configured to perform at least a portion of said authentication of said photographic image (3), wherein said terminal is equipped with a scanner (13) images intended for scanning a photographic image (3) and for generating image data by the terminal interface (15), providing communication with said an identification processor (7) of the identification device (1), and an image processor (17) for receiving said image data, for analyzing these image data in accordance with a predetermined image analysis procedure for extracting said hidden information, for transmitting at least said hidden information to said processor (7) in order to enable said processor (7) to perform at least partially said authentication of said photographic image (3) . 9. The terminal of claim 8, wherein said authentication includes a set of predefined steps stored in the terminal memory (19), and the manner in which said steps are performed depends on said authentication data received from said memory (9) of said identification device (1). 10. The terminal of claim 8 or 9, in which the image processor (17) is configured to perform an additional part of said authentication of said photographic image (3) only when it receives credential data from said microprocessor (8). 11. The terminal as claimed in claims 8, 9 or 10, having an opening (14) for accommodating said identification device (1) in such a way that both said image scanner (13) and said terminal interface (15) are inside said opening (14). 12. A terminal according to any one of claims 8 to 11, wherein said image processor (17) is integrated into said image scanner (13). 13. A method of authenticating a photographic image on an identification device (1), wherein said identification device (1) is provided with a photographic image (3) of a person and a microprocessor (8), this microprocessor (8) comprising a processor (7), memory (9) connected to a processor (7) and containing authentication data, and interface means (5) connected to said processor (7) for communicating with an external device, wherein said photographic image (3) contains steganographically hidden information, the content of which, together with the authentication data mentioned, provides authentication of said photographic image (3), and said method includes the following steps, which scan a photographic image (3) and generate image data, analyze these image data in accordance with a predetermined an image analysis procedure for extracting said hidden information, and performing said authentication of said photographic image (3) based said hidden information and said authentication data, said authentication being performed at least partially by said microprocessor (8). 14. A storage medium equipped with a computer-readable program for implementing a method for authenticating a photographic image (3) on an identification device (1), wherein said identification device (1) is provided with a photographic image (3) of a person and a microprocessor (8), wherein this microprocessor (8) contains a processor (7), a memory (9) connected to the processor (7) and containing authentication data, and interface means (5) connected to the said processor (7) for communicating with the other device, wherein said photographic image (3) contains steganographically hidden information, the contents of which together with said authentication data allows authentication of said photographic image (3), and said method includes the following steps in which the photographic image is scanned (3) and generating image data, analyzing this image data in accordance with a predetermined image analysis procedure for extracting said of hidden information, and said authentication of said photographic image (3) is performed based on said hidden information and said authentication data, said authentication being performed at least partially by said microprocessor (8). 15. A computer program product for implementing a method of authenticating a photographic image (3) on an identification device (1), wherein said identification device (1) is provided with a photographic image (3) of a person and a microprocessor (8), this microprocessor (8) comprising a processor (7), a memory (9) connected to the processor (7) and containing authentication data, and interface means (5) connected to said processor (7) for communicating with an external device, wherein said photographer The image (3) contains steganographically hidden information, the contents of which, together with the authentication data, allows the authentication of the said photographic image (3), and the method includes the following steps, which scan the photographic image (3) and form the image data, analyze this image data in accordance with a predetermined image analysis procedure for retrieving said hidden information and performing said out ntifikatsiyu of said photographic image (3) based on said hidden information and said authentication data, said authentication is performed at least partially by said microprocessor (8).

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