Patent Application
20070102920
The invention relates to secure documents and specifically features of secure documents that enable authentication, verification and forensic tracing to a particular source.
As counterfeiters become increasingly sophisticated in creating counterfeit secure documents (either from scratch or modifying valid documents), there is need for increasingly effective security measures to thwart them. One way to thwart counterfeiters is to insert features into documents that are difficult to reproduce. In some cases, these features are intended to be covert so that it is difficult for the counterfeiter to even identify their presence on the document. As an additional layer of security, these features should have a linking relationship with other features that interlock the features to increase the difficulty in accurately reproducing the relationship and show evidence of tampering when the relationship is broken. Finally, these features should include a means to provide forensic tracing capability so that analysis may be applied to trace the document to its source (e.g., manufacturer, printer, lot, operator, etc.). This enables detection and perhaps identification of an invalid source (or confirmation of a valid one) as well as useful information about the source for law enforcement.
The attributes identified above are needed for a broad spectrum of secure documents, and are particularly useful in identification documents. To provide context for forensic security features in identification documents, a description of these documents and methods for creating them follows below.
Secure documents, and in particular, identification documents (hereafter “ID documents”) play a critical role in today's society. One example of an ID document is an identification card (“ID card”). ID documents are used on a daily basis—to prove identity, to verify age, to access a secure area, to evidence driving privileges, to cash a check, and so on. Airplane passengers are required to show an ID document during check in, security screening and prior to boarding their flight. In addition, because we live in an ever-evolving cashless society, ID documents are used to make payments, access an automated teller machine (ATM), debit an account, or make a payment, etc.
For the purposes of this disclosure, ID documents are broadly defined herein, and include, e.g., credit cards, bank cards, phone cards, passports, driver's licenses, network access cards, employee badges, debit cards, security cards, smart cards (e.g., cards that include one more semiconductor chips, such as memory devices, microprocessors, and microcontrollers), contact cards, contactless cards, proximity cards (e.g., radio frequency (RFID) cards), visas, immigration documentation, national ID cards, citizenship cards, social security cards, security badges, certificates, identification cards or documents, voter registration cards, police ID cards, border crossing cards, legal instruments, security clearance badges and cards, gun permits, gift certificates or cards, membership cards or badges, etc.
Many types of identification documents carry certain items of information which relate to the identity of the bearer. Examples of such information include name, address, birth date, signature and photographic image; the cards or documents may in addition carry other variable data (i.e., data specific to a particular card or document, for example an employee number) and invariant data (i.e., data common to a large number of cards, for example the name of an employer). All of the cards described above will be generically referred to as “ID documents”.
Referring to
To facilitate printing of data on the card structure, an image receiving layer is applied to the card structure prior to printing for some printing technologies. One type of printing technology that uses an image receiving layer is D2T2 printing. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,066,594 and 5,334,573 describe image receiving layers for D2T2 printing. A sheet or layer which is comprised of a polymer system of which at least one polymer is capable of receiving image-forming materials from a donor sheet upon the application of heat. The polymer system of the receiving sheet or layer is incompatible or immiscible with the polymer of the donor sheet at the receiving sheet/donor sheet interface to minimize adhesion between the donor sheet and the receiving sheet or layer during printing. The polymer system of the receiving sheet or layer can be substantially free from release agents, such as silicone-based oils, poly(organosiloxanes), fluorinated polymers, fluorine- or phosphate-containing surfactants, fatty acid surfactants and waxes. Binder materials for the dyes are immiscible with the polymer system of the image-receiving layer. The most common image-receiving layer polymers are polyester, polycaprolactone and poly(vinyl chloride). Processes for forming such image-receiving layers are also described in detail in these patents; in most cases, the polymer(s) used to form the image-receiving layer are dissolved in an organic solvent, such as methyl ethyl ketone, dichloromethane or chloroform, and the resultant solution coated on to the polymer layer using conventional coating apparatus, and the solvent evaporated to form the image-receiving layer. However, if desired the image-receiving layer can be applied to the polymer layer by extrusion casting, or by slot, gravure or other known coating methods.
Other forms of image receiving layers include image receiving layers for Xerographic printing and inkjet printing. These image receiving layers are applied to substrates such as paper or plastic and comprise materials that enhance reception of ink or dye to the substrate. Image receiving layers for Xerographic printing are sometimes referred to as “laser lock” or “toner lock.”
To protect the information that is printed, an additional layer of transparent overlaminate 24 can be coupled to the card blank and printed information. Illustrative examples of usable materials for overlaminates include biaxially oriented polyester or other optically clear durable plastic film.
“Laminate” and “overlaminate” include, but are not limited to film and sheet products. Laminates used in documents include substantially transparent polymers. Examples of laminates used in documents include polyester, polycarbonate, polystyrene, cellulose ester, polyolefin, polysulfone, and polyamide. Laminates can be made using either an amorphous or biaxially oriented polymer. The laminate can comprise a plurality of separate laminate layers, for example a boundary layer and/or a film layer.
The degree of transparency of the laminate can, for example, be dictated by the information contained within the identification document, the particular colors and/or security features used, etc. The thickness of the laminate layers can vary and is typically about 1-20 mils. Lamination of any laminate layer(s) to any other layer of material (e.g., a core layer) can be accomplished using known lamination processes.
In ID documents, a laminate can provide a protective covering for the printed substrates and a level of protection against unauthorized tampering (e.g., a laminate would have to be removed to alter the printed information and then subsequently replaced after the alteration.). Various lamination processes are disclosed in assignee's U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,783,024, 6,007,660, 6,066,594, and 6,159,327. Other lamination processes are disclosed, e.g., in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,283,188 and 6,003,581. A co-extruded lamination technology appears in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/692,463. Each of these U.S. patents and applications is herein incorporated by reference.
The material(s) from which a laminate is made may be transparent, but need not be. Laminates can include synthetic resin-impregnated or coated base materials composed of successive layers of material, bonded together via heat, pressure, and/or adhesive. Laminates also includes security laminates, such as a transparent laminate material with proprietary security technology features and processes, which protects documents of value from counterfeiting, data alteration, photo substitution, duplication (including color photocopying), and simulation by use of materials and technologies that are commonly available. Laminates also can include thermosetting materials, such as epoxy.
Commercial systems for issuing ID documents are of two main types, namely so-called “central” issue (CI), and so-called “on-the-spot” or “over-the-counter” (OTC) issue.
CI type ID documents are not immediately provided to the bearer, but are later issued to the bearer from a central location. For example, in one type of CI environment, a bearer reports to a document station where data is collected, the data are forwarded to a central location where the card is produced, and the card is forwarded to the bearer, often by mail. Another illustrative example of a CI assembling process occurs in a setting where a driver renews her license by mail or over the Internet, then receives a drivers license card through the mail.
A CI assembling process is more of a bulk process facility, where many cards are produced in a centralized facility, one after another. (For example, picture a setting where a driver passes a driving test, but then receives her license in the mail from a CI facility a short time later. The CI facility may process thousands of cards in a continuous manner.).
Centrally issued identification documents can be produced from digitally stored information and generally comprise an opaque core material (also referred to as “substrate”), such as paper or plastic, sandwiched between two or more layers of clear plastic laminate, such as polyester, to protect the aforementioned items of information from wear, exposure to the elements and tampering. U.S. Pat. No. 6,817,530, which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes approaches for manufacturing identification documents in a central issue process.
In contrast to CI identification documents, OTC identification documents are issued immediately to a bearer who is present at a document-issuing station. An OTC assembling process provides an ID document “on-the-spot”. An example of an OTC assembling process is a Department of Motor Vehicles (“DMV”) setting where a driver's license is issued to a person, on the spot, after a successful exam. In some instances, the very nature of the OTC assembling process results in small, sometimes compact, printing and card assemblers for printing the ID document.
OTC identification documents of the types mentioned above can take a number of forms, depending on cost and desired features. Some OTC ID documents comprise highly plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) or have a composite structure with polyester laminated to 0.5-4.0 mil (13-104 .mu.m) poly(vinyl chloride) film on the outside of typical PVC or Composite cards , which provides a suitable image receiving layer for heat transferable dyes which form a photographic image, together with any variant or invariant data required for the identification of the bearer. These data are subsequently protected to varying degrees by clear, thin (0.125-0.250 mil, 3-6 .mu.m) overlay patches applied at the printhead, holographic hot stamp foils (0.125-0.250 mil 3-6 .mu.m), or a clear polyester laminate (0.5-10 mil, 13-254 .mu.m) supporting common security features. These last two types of protective foil or laminate sometimes are applied at a laminating station separate from the printhead. The choice of laminate dictates the degree of durability and security imparted to the system in protecting the image and other data. One form of overlay is referred to as a “transferred panel” or “O-panel.” This type of panel refers to a panel in the print ribbon that is transferred to the document with the use of the printhead.
The invention provides security features for secure documents, including features that enable verification and forensic tracking of the document to a source. The invention also provides methods for making the security features, document structures including these features, and methods for evaluating these features in suspect documents.
One aspect of the invention is a forensic feature for a document comprising a base document layer and a covert material applied to the base document layer. The covert material includes a carrier and forensic material within the carrier. The forensic material includes a ratio of salts or oxides of metals, such as rare earth metals. The ratio is selected to correspond with a source of the document. The forensic material may be mixed into a coating or ink that is applied at predetermined locations on a secure document. The ratio is then measurable from metal ion signals of the salts or oxides. This ratio, or some metric derived from it, may be linked with information embedded elsewhere in the document to enable verification of the document.
Another aspect of the invention is a forensic document feature where a forensic metric is measurable from the covert material, and the forensic metric corresponds to a source of the document. A blocking layer applied over the covert material prevents access to the covert material such that at least partial destruction of the document is required to measure the forensic metric. In one embodiment, the blocking layer has a blocking property that blocks electromagnetic waves from activating the covert material, or blocks the electromagnetic waves from the covert material in response to the activating waves.
Additional aspects of the invention include methods for making the forensic feature as well as the documents that include these features.
Finally, the invention includes methods for analyzing secure documents. In particular, one aspect of the invention is a method for analyzing a secure document comprising reading information steganographically embedded in the document, at least partially deconstructing the document to measure a forensic metric of a covert material in the document, and evaluating a relationship between the forensic metric and the information to authenticate the document.
The advantages, features, and aspects of embodiments of the invention will be more fully understood in conjunction with the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, wherein:
Of course, the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, with emphasis rather being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. In the drawings, like reference numbers indicate like elements or steps. Further, throughout this application, certain indicia, information, identification documents, data, etc., may be shown as having a particular cross sectional shape (e.g., rectangular) but that is provided by way of example and illustration only and is not limiting, nor is the shape intended to represent the actual resultant cross sectional shape that occurs during manufacturing of identification documents.
We use salts or oxides of unique (e.g., rare earth metals) to provide a unique forensic feature in both CI and OTC ID cards. The feature is such that destruction of the card or, at least, a portion of the card is necessary to authenticate and validate the card as genuine. In other words, the presence of the feature can not be detected by even knowledgeable professionals without tearing the card open in the correct location or by destroying the card (or portions of the card) by combustion.
Additionally, more than one salt or oxide can be used so that the ratio of the individual metal ion signals can be used to verify authenticity. Analytical testing such as AE (atomic emission) or X-Ray fluorescence (ESCA) or other suitable techniques for which these metal ion compounds have distinctive signals are used to measure a forensic metric corresponding to the ratio. The use of combinations of salts or oxides offers up several advantages: 1) One does not have to be concerned with the amount of material laid down opening up the manufacturing/operational window considerably; 2) Matching the color or the base stock (TESLIN for example in our CI or OTC cards) becomes a much easier task allowing for the printing via offset or screen on any location (front or back) of the card; 3) Ratios can be chosen such that they are specific to a given issuer (e.g., a State or country) or device; and finally, 4) Multiple salts or oxides can be used to generate a forensic tracking scheme using specific ratios of compounds to define a given lot of material or day of manufacture. For example, a 4/2/1 ratio of Erbium oxide to Lanthanum oxide to Yttrium oxide could be used to indicate lot #23 for the State of Wisconsin and then a 4/1/1 ratio could be used to indicate lot #24 for the State of Illinois and so on. More specific identification of particular documents can be achieved using unique patterns and/or locations of covert material including the forensic material.
In our card implementations, the requirements of the salts or oxides chosen for government issued ID cards are: 1) They are stable over time and in a wide range of temperature and humidity conditions; 2) They can be milled or dissolved into a carrier such as offset, litho, gravure, or flexo inks and that they then present viable printing ink materials; 3) They have essentially the same color (white) if they are to be applied to the base stock in an invisible fashion; and 4) If not white, then they allow formulation into a known colored ink with standard vehicles and that the resultant ink is a commercially viable one.
Though not necessary, these materials can be printed in a known pattern. Preferably, the covert material comprising the salts or oxides is applied at a particular, predetermined location on the card—front or back. The back is preferred since there is less chance for either contamination of other printing mechanisms or interference with other printing processes or card function.
Another protective layer 116 is applied over the blocking layer in this example. In ID document applications, this protective layer 116 may comprise a laminate and the base document layer 112 may comprise a core of the ID document, with the blocking and covert materials comprising layers of printed material.
In one implementation, the covert material is activated by electromagnetic waves in a first band, and responds with electromagnetic waves in a second band. For example, the covert material becomes activated when exposed to electromagnetic radiation in the first band. It then responds by transmitting, emitting, reflecting or fluorescing electromagnetic waves in a second band, which may or may not differ from the first band. The blocking layer comprises a blocking property that blocks the first band, the second band, or both the first and second bands.
In one particular embodiment, the blocking layer allows the waves of the activating band to substantially pass through to the covert material, yet it blocks the response from the covert material. In another embodiment, the block layer substantially blocks the waves of the activating band such that the covert material is not activated so long as the blocking layer remains in tact on the document. In both cases, the blocking layer makes the covert material undetectable without destruction of the document.
In one specific embodiment, the covert material comprises a covert ink such as an IR ink. For example, an IR ink pattern is printed on the core of an ID document via offset printing. The blocking layer either blocks the waves needed to activate the IR material (e.g., cause it to fluoresce) or it allows these waves, yet blocks the response from the IR material, such as blocking the waves from the fluorescing of the IR material (which may be in a different band from the activating band). The blocking of waves in or out of the blocking layer may be achieved by putting a material in the blocking layer that absorbs light in a particular band. For example, a carbon pigment may be used to block both the activating band and the response that would otherwise result from the covert material in the absence of the blocking layer. This carbon pigment may be printed over the covert material, or contained in a coating, laminate, film or other layer applied over the covert material.
Referring again to
The interlocking relationship may be conveyed through the use of machine readable data carriers (chip, RFID, magnetic strip, bar code, optical readable media, digital watermark, etc.). Items 110 and 118 themselves may be conveyed in carriers, such as inks or other media, which constitute machine readable data carriers. The machine readable data carriers may be used to: 1. store data used to logically interlock security elements on the document; 2. store the forensic metric of the covert material, such as a pattern, hash, ratio of materials, location, or other measurable attribute of the covert material; 3. store a key or other information necessary to locate, decrypt or decode the forensic metric of the covert material. In one implementation, inks used to print visible or covert inks, including the inks used to convey the covert forensic material are used to print images that include steganographically embedded information, such as digital watermarks. These digital watermarks, in turn, are used to store the information to identify, locate and verify other security features, including the forensic feature embedded in the document.
The left hand side of
Block 308 illustrates that the process includes computing a relationship between the forensic metric and information to be embedded on the document. In one implementation, this relationship means that the metric is embedded elsewhere or some mathematical derivative of it is embedded elsewhere on the document. This relationship may be encoded in a pattern and embedded on the document. In some cases, it is preferable to apply the forensic material, measure the metric, and then encode this metric in the database and/or document. This enables any changes to the metric due to application of the metric to the document to be taken into account before recording it. Alternatively, if the forensic metric is expected not to change, it may be embedded on the document before the forensic material is applied to the document.
Next the forensic feature is analyzed to measure the forensic feature (508). This may include an analysis of metal ion signals to measure the ratio of compounds. It may also include analyzing covert pigments revealed after deconstruction of a blocking layer. The covert pigment may be designed to have a unique signature, or convey a unique pattern as a forensic metric. The validity of the document is checked by evaluating the relationship between this measured metric and the metric stored in the embedded information on the document and/or information in a database. Further, the forensic metric itself conveys data as to the source of the document in cases where the metric is specifically chosen to correspond to the source (lot, time of manufacture, issuer, issuer location, device of manufacture, etc.). To check the source, the metric may be looked up in a database to find the source information corresponding the metric measured in the document.
Having described and illustrated the principles of the technology with reference to specific implementations, it will be recognized that the technology can be implemented in many other, different, forms, and in many different environments.
The technology disclosed herein can be used in combination with other technologies. Also, instead of ID documents, the inventive techniques can be employed with product tags, product packaging, labels, business cards, bags, charts, smart cards, maps, labels, etc. The term ID document is broadly defined herein to include these tags, maps, labels, packaging, cards, etc.
It should be understood that, in the Figures of this application, in some instances, a plurality of method steps may be shown as illustrative of a particular method, and a single method step may be shown as illustrative of a plurality of a particular method steps. It should be understood that showing a plurality of a particular element or step is not intended to imply that a system or method implemented in accordance with the invention must comprise more than one of that element or step, nor is it intended by illustrating a single element or step that the invention is limited to embodiments having only a single one of that respective elements or steps. In addition, the total number of elements or steps shown for a particular system element or method is not intended to be limiting; those skilled in the art will recognize that the number of a particular system element or method steps can, in some instances, be selected to accommodate the particular user needs.
To provide a comprehensive disclosure without unduly lengthening the specification, applicants hereby incorporate by reference each of the U.S. patent documents referenced above.
The technology and solutions disclosed herein have made use of elements and 25 techniques known from the cited documents. Other elements and techniques from the cited documents can similarly be combined to yield further implementations within the scope of the present invention.
Thus, the exemplary embodiments are only selected samples of the solutions available by combining the teachings referenced above. The other solutions necessarily are not exhaustively described herein, but are fairly within the understanding of an artisan given the foregoing disclosure and familiarity with the cited art. The particular combinations of elements and features in the above-detailed embodiments are exemplary only; the interchanging and substitution of these teachings with other teachings in this and the incorporated-by-reference patent documents are also expressly contemplated.
In describing the embodiments of the invention illustrated in the figures, specific terminology is used for the sake of clarity. However, the invention is not limited to the specific terms so selected, and each specific term at least includes all technical and functional equivalents that operate in a similar manner to accomplish a similar purpose.
This patent application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/702,725, filed Jul. 26, 2005, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60702725 | Jul 2005 | US |
