WO2005120858A1

WO2005120858A1 - Digital passport

Info

Publication number: WO2005120858A1
Application number: PCT/GB2004/002862
Authority: WO
Inventors: Abraham Adizes
Original assignee: Icon Biometrics Plc
Priority date: 2004-06-10
Filing date: 2004-07-01
Publication date: 2005-12-22

Abstract

The invention relates to a passport document comprising one or more data pages and a plurality of visa pages, where the data pages and the visa pages comprise personalized and/or document-specific alphanumeric information and graphic elements. The data pages and the visa pages are printed together, substantially in one pass, utilizing variable digital printing technology. In a preferred embodiment, the entire document is printed as a single printing form. The passport is finished by appropriately folding the printed form, sewing, providing a protective cover, trimming and round-cornering. In a further aspect, the passport comprises a duplicate of one or more data, pages.

Description

Digital Passport

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the security document printing industry and, more specifically, to digitally printed security documents such as passports.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Passport documents are used by countries and certain international organizations to establish the bearer's identity and to provide diplomatic protection when crossing borders or traveling in foreign jurisdictions. Passports are traditionally produced as blank books comprising one or more data pages and a plurality of visa pages. The issuing process, therefore, consists in^' personalizing the data pages, protecting the personalized and/or document-specific information against fraud, and delivering the finished passport book to the holder. As security documents, passports of most countries are not easy to counterfeit. Two major forms of passport fraud, therefore, involve the misuse of illegally obtained blank books, and the replacement of personalized and/or document-specific information in already issued passports. The response to the first major form of fraud had been to provide the finished book with features that cannot be readily duplicated by the counterfeiters either because they are covert (e.g., passport numbers generated using complex algorithms, materials with covert characteristics, etc.), or because they are techno logically beyond the counterfeiters' reach. The second major form of passport fraud — modification for use by individuals other than those to whom the documents were originally issued - has proven to be more difficult to prevent. For example, it can be difficult to detect the skillful removal and replacement of the photograph. With the advent of computer technology, passport document are increasingly personalized using a digital printing processes. The process permits a single paper surface within the document to contain a photograph of the bearer, human-readable information such as name, birth date, birth place, etc. and machine readable data used at passport control points to provide quick verification of authenticity.

^' In spite of the advancements, the process is labor-intensive and slow, the proper positioning of information on the page of a finished book is hard to achieve and, most importantly, the main protection still lies in the application of security seals and laminates. It is therefore no surprise that pertinent prior art relates, for the most part, to data pages, laminates and methods of applying them in the process of personalizing passport documents.

Thus, for example, U.S. patent No. 5,211 ,424 to Bliss describes a passport document where the data page is personalized as a separate sheet and then mounted within- the document by means of a heat activated adhesive and covered by a transparent sheet. Mounting is facilitated by the use of a special folder. In U.S. patents Nos. 5,897,144 and 6,036,799, Uno also proposes a separate printed data page. The page is personalized, provided with the laminate and combined with the visa pages prior to assembling the whole book. In this manner, the laminate extends beyond the inner edge of the data sheet including the central folding line, and the thread binding is formed through the laminated area. In U.S. patent No. 6,017,409, the same author proposes a method where a portion of personalized data is printed before assembling the book, while the other portion - the machine-readable data - is added after the book had been bound. Other solutions, e.g. U.S. patent No. 6,146,777 to Waller and U.S. patent No. 6,220,327 to Rothwell et al. , teach the method of printing the personalized information on, or transferring it to the laminate, which is then sealed onto the data page. A number of issues relevant to the security of passport documents still remain to be addressed, particularly in the domain of preventing fraudulent modification of visapages, combining the contents of multiple passport documents, etc. At the same time, a separate and quite pressing group of issues have emerged as a result of sophisticated technologies becoming available to the general population.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION - It has been the objective of the present inventors to overcome tire problems inherent in the prior art by providing a completely personalized passport document which is virtually impossible to modify and, at the same time, extremely difficult to counterfeit. In addition, the objective was to provide a passport document that can be manufactured on a mass scale, without labor-intensive steps involved in the traditional issuing of passports. The present invention, therefore, relates to a passport document comprising one or more data pages and a plurality of visa pages, where the data pages and the visa pages comprise personalized and/or document-specific alphanumeric information and graphic elements. The data pages and the visa pages are printed together, substantially in one pass, utilizing variable digital printing technology.

The passport of the invention may be printed on several printing forms which are folded, cut and combined into the finished personalized passport document. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, however, the entire document is printed as a single printing form and comprises only digitally printed personalized pages.

The personalized and/or document-specific alphanumeric and graphic page elements include digital security features such as, without limitation, antl-tamper borders, personalized background images, overprint elements, micro lettering and machine readable features.

In addition to the personalized and document-specific elements and security features, the passport pages will typically comprise non-variable security features such as, without limitation, latent images, anti-copy patterns, watermarks, UV-active fibers, guilloche, micro lettering, rainbow-printed patterns, holographic stamps, optical variable devices and tamper-evident features. The digital passport is finished by appropriately folding and sewing the printed form which is then provided with a protective cover, trimmed, round-cornered and delivered to the passport holder. In a further aspect of the invention, the passport document further comprises a duplicate of one or more data pages. The duplicate the data page is provided with a micro-perforation, or otherwise treated to allow for its detachment from the finished passport. These and other embodiments and features of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE^'DRA WINGS Figure 1 illustrates a data page of an ICAO-compliant machine readable passport incorporating certain digital security features; Figure 2 depicts a personalized visa page of a digital passport of the present invention; Figure 3 shows the digital passport printed, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as a single printing form; and Figures 4a - 4c illustrate the procedure of finishing the digital passport of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Fig. 1 illustrates the data page of a machine readable passport (MRP) according to the International Civil Aviation Organization Doc. 9303 - Machine Readable Travel Documents. This ICAO document has been approved by the Intemational Standards Organization as ISO 7501-1 and the majority of passport documents issued worldwide conform to the requirements comprised therein. It will be obvious, however, that the present invention may be applied in the manufacture of other types of passport documents and similar personalized security products.

The data page 1 1 comprises a visual inspection zone (VIZ) 12 and a machine readable zone (MRZ) 16. VIZ typically comprises alphanumeric personal data and a photograph 13. When, according to the invention, the data page is printed in its entirety in one pass, using the variable digital printing^' process, a wide range of digital security features may be incorporated into the VIZ layout. Examples of variable security features include an anti-tamper border 14 around the photograph 13, and a personalized ghost image 15. In addition, digital printing process allows for the use of non-variable digital security features such as latent images, anti-copy patterns, etc.

The layout of MRZ 16 in Fig. 1, also in accordance with ICAO Doc. 9393, comprises two standard OCR (optie-al eharaster recognition) lines of data 17, as well as-an optional bar code. 18. A passport document may comprise additional data pages, such as one or more pages with information on dependants traveling with the passport holder, etc. Apart from one or more data pages, a passport document comprises a plurality, of visa pages. According to the main aspect of the present invention, the visa pages are printed in their entirety in one pass, together with the data pages. Each visa page is personalized and protected by variable and non-variable security features. In an example depicted in Fig. 2, the visa page 21 comprises alphanumeric personal data 22 such as the holder's name and passport number. Printed in the background is a personalized ghost image 23. The visa page may also comprise a scaled-down version of the holder's photograph 25, optionally overprinted with the page number 26 for additional security. Replacement of visa pages wiuh pages from another original passport (e.g., a passport that had been reported stolen), in order to conceal the time spent out of the country or visits to certain jurisdictions, has been recognized as one of many forms of passport fraud. To prevent this, a micro-text line 24, comprised of document-specific information such as the date of issue, may be added to each visa page. The particular personalized security features illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 are given as an example only. It will be obvious that their number and nature, as well as the design of the layouts, will vary depending on the requirements of a specific passport project. It will also be obvious that the personalized security features in the visa pages will be applied in a manner that does not collide with the main purpose of those pages - application of visa stamps and filling in of required information.

Traditional, non-personalized passports are usually printed in several separate printing forms, which are later folded, cut and combined into a finished blank book. While^'the digital passport according to the invention may also be printed in a plurality of separate forms and t en combined into a finished personalized book, this approach may cause substantial data integrity problems. It would require a lot of manual intervention to ensure that pages personalized for person A do not end up in a passport personalized for person B. The manual intervention would, in turn, result in slow and inefficient operation and in an unacceptable level of rejected products.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, therefore, the complete digital passport is printed as a single printing form. Fig. 3 illustrates a form 31 , entirely printed on both sides in one pass and comprising all the pages 32 of a finished personalized digital passport.

Fig. 4 depicts one of the possible ways in which the printed form may be finished into a completed personalized digital passport book. In Fig. 4a, the form 41, comprising pages 42, is first folded in an accordion-like fashion along the lines 43. As illustrated in Fig. 4b, tire form is folded one more time along the line 44. Finally, in Fig. 4c, the 2-up folded form is sewn along the, central line using a security thread 45. The book is then provided with a durable vinyl or leather cover in a traditional nanner, trimmed and round-comered, and ready to be delivered to the passport holder. According to another aspect of the present invention, the printing form includes a duplicate of the data page. During the finishing, the duplicate data page may be provided with a micro-perforation, or otherwise treated to allow for its detachment from the finished book. Printed on the same sheet of security paper, in the same pass, such a duplicate is an identical copy of the original data page and could serve as an ideal forensic tool. Obviously, any additional data pages may be treated in the same manner. The duplicate data page may be detached and retained directly by the passport issuing authority. In another scenario, upon receiving the book, the passport holder will detach the duplicate data page, sign it, and send it back to the passport issuing authority. The passport will be deemed valid only upon the receipt of the signed duplicate data page, which serves as a positive proof that the document was received by the intended recipient.

A person skilled in the art will appreciate that the digital passport of the present invention, in addition to variable and non-variable digital security features, may and often will incorporate a wide range of traditional security features. Those features include, without limitation, security paper incorporating visible and invisible features such as watermarks and UV-active fibers; visible and invisible pre-printed features such as guilloche, micro-lettering or rainbow-printed patterns; laminates applied on data pages, which laminates may incorporate holographic stamps, optical variable devices and tamper- evident features; etc. For added security, the laminate may extend beyond the inner edge of the data page, in which case it would be applied before sewing the passport together as suggested by Uno in U.S. patent No. 6,036,799.

While the present invention has been described with respect to certain preferred embodiments, it will be manifest to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the underlying inventive concept. For example, while the embodiments disclosed pertain to an ICAO-compliant machine readable passport, any type of passports and other similar products may be manufactured in a substantially same manner. In addition, even though printing of the complete passport book as a single printing form represents a preferred embodiment of the present invention, multiple forms may be used. Further, in addition to personalized pages, the complete book may comprise one or more traditionally printed, non-personalized pages. Therefore, the underlying inventive concept is not limited to the particular embodiments presented herein and should be construed solely within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

What is claimed is: 1. A passport document comprising at least one data page comprising personalized and/or document-specific alphanumeric information and graphic elements, and a plurality of visa pages, at least a portion of said visa pages comprising personalized and/or document-specific alphanumeric information and graphic elements, wherein said at least one data page and at least a portion of said plurality of visa pages are printed together, substantially in one pass, utilizing variable digital printing technology.

2 A passport document of Claim 1, wherein the entire document is printed substantially in one pass, utilizing variable digital printing technology.

A passport document of Claim 2, wherein the entire document is printed as a single printing form.

4. A passport document of Claim 3, wherein tire passport book is finished by folding the printing form in an accordion-like manner to obtain a layout comprised of a single row of pages, folding the resulting layout in half to obtain a two-page layout, sewing the two-page layout along the central line, and providing the sewn book with a protective cover, folding, trimming and round-cornering to obtain a finished passport document.

5. A passport document of Claim 1, wherein said personalized and/or document-specific . alphanumeric and graphic page elements include digital security features.

6. A passport document of Claim 5, wherein said digital security features are selected from a group consisting, without limitation, of anti-tamper borders, personalized background images, overprint elements, micro lettering and machine readable features.

A passport document of Claim 1, wherein said at least one data page and said plurality of visa pages further comprise non-variable security features.

A passport document of Claim 7, wherein said non-variable security features are selected from a group consisting, without limitation, of latent images, anti-copy patterns, watermarks, UV-active fibers, guilloche, micro lettering, rainbow-printed patterns, holographic stamps, optical variable devices and tamper-evident features.

A passport document of Claim 1 , further comprising a duplicate of said at least one data page.

10. A passport document of Claim 9, wherein said duplicate of the data page is provided with a micro-perforation, or otherwise treated to allow for its detachment from the finished passport.