Instant ticket redundancy via multi-chromatic indicia

Abstract

A redundantly printed security-enhanced document, printing method and system are provided for ensuring the meaning of the information imparted by variable indicia printed on documents with removable scratch-off coatings by the redundant printing. By printing the variable indicia with multiple colors, redundancy and integrity of the intended indicia is achieved. Additionally, inverted color indicia countermeasures to pinprick attacks are also disclosed. The redundantly printed document, methods and systems enhance the overall appearance of the redundantly printed document, and reduce the consequences possibly resulting from misprinted variable indicia.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to documents, such as lottery tickets, having indicia under a Scratch-Off-Coating (SOC), and more particularly to methods for enhancing the redundancy of the documents while adding to the aesthetics of the documents.

BACKGROUND

Lottery scratch-off or instant games have become a time-honored method of raising revenue for state and federal governments the world over. Indeed, the concept of hiding indicia information under a SOC has also been applied to numerous other products such as commercial contests, telephone card account numbers, gift cards, etc. Literally, billions of scratch-off products are printed every year where the Scratch-Off-Coatings (SOCs) are used to ensure that the product has not been previously used, played, or modified.

Typically the indicia are printed using a specialized high-speed ink jet printer or imager with a water-soluble dye. Normally, the indicia are monochromatic black or in some cases red in color, but in all cases each type of indicia is imaged as a discrete spot color.

This use of single spot color indicia imaging has repeatedly proven to be problematic with traditional spot color inkjet heads partially clogging, such that a portion of the indicia prints while other portions do not. For example, in January 2015, a Roswell, N. Mex. lottery player believed he won over $500,000 in an instant ticket key number match game. The lottery player believed that he was holding a winning ticket 100 (FIG. 1) because the key number match indicia was “1” and the lottery ticket misprint, due to clogged inkjet, made the intended indicia numbers of “18” and “13” to appeared to be two occurrences (101 and 102) of the winning key match number “1” (i.e., two $250,000 winners) with the intended second indicia digits barely appearing (101 and 102) on the ticket 100. A similar $500,000 misprint due to clogged inkjet heads occurred with the Florida Lottery (FIG. 2-110) with the ticket holders filing a lawsuit against the lottery after they were told their apparent winning ticket was a misprint. Again, in the case of the Florida Lottery, the misprinted ticket 110 displayed misprinted key match indicia 111, which when matched to game indicia 112 readily appeared to be a $500,000 winner. Indeed, there are many other documented cases (e.g., Wisconsin Lottery apparent $1,000 winning ticket) of instant ticket misprints due to clogged inkjet imager heads with some news media and attorneys claiming that the lottery or the ticket manufacturer should be forced to pay for the apparent misprinted prize value.

Some attempts to mitigate the problem of clogged lottery inkjet misprints have been attempted with the incorporation of detailed legal disclaimers, abbreviated captions of indicia, and the development of elaborate automated press monitoring systems—e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,665,400 (Duke). However, legal disclaimers do nothing to mitigate bad press resulting from misprinted lottery tickets and so far have not stopped lawsuits. Additionally, most players do not notice any indicia captions due to small size and abbreviated spelling—see FIG. 3 magnification of Florida ticket 110′ misprinted key match indicia 113 and associated caption 114. Automated press monitoring systems, while commendable in theory, have in practice proved to be both expensive and unreliable—e.g., the previously cited New Mexico Lottery misprinted ticket 100 of FIG. 1 and Florida Lottery misprinted ticket 110 of FIG. 2 were both printed with the support of an automatic press monitoring system as disclosed in the cited Duke patent.

To date, some state jurisdictions have attempted to pass legislation forcing lotteries or their ticket providers to pay out apparent prizes on misprinted tickets with comments like: “That's a real problem because people are throwing away tickets all the time that could very well be winning tickets if these misprints are out there . . . ” It is therefore highly desirable to develop techniques and methodologies for ensuring the redundancy and integrity of scratch-off ticket indicia. Ideally, these redundancy mechanisms would also provide added security against pin-prick attacks of instant tickets where a nefarious person attempts to identify winning indicia via a series of small holes on the SOC such that the attacked ticket still appears to be intact and unplayed to the untrained eye. Particularly, these redundancy and security techniques should enhance the aesthetics of the ticket or document rather than detracting from its appearance. The present invention essentially eliminates or solves problems of misprints or tampered tickets or other documents.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aspect of the present invention relates to a redundantly printed security-enhanced document comprising a substrate and at least two different printed variable indicia directly or indirectly on the substrate having a general area, the at least two different printed variable indicia having at least first printed variable indicia printed in the same general area of the substrate as at least second printed variable indicia, the at least first printed variable indicia and the at least second printed variable indicia being present so as to overlap with or be registered so closely together such that failure of the printing of one or more portions of either or any of the at least two printed variable indicia does not alter a meaning of information represented by variable indicia on the redundantly printed security-enhanced document.

The at least first printed variable indicia and the at least second printed variable indicia are printed in different colors, such as or preferably in two or four different colors. The colors can be process colors.

One of the at least first printed variable indicia and the at least second printed variable indicia at least partially can comprise numerals and wherein another of the at least first printed variable indicia and the at least second printed variable indicia at least partially can comprise words.

One of the at least first printed variable indicia and the at least second printed variable indicia at least can comprise drawings or photographs.

Another aspect of the present invention is a method of making a redundantly printed security-enhanced document comprising a substrate having a general area and at least two different printed variable indicia directly or indirectly on the substrate, the method comprising printing directly or indirectly on the substrate at least first printed variable indicia and at least second printed variable indicia in the same general area of the substrate, and during the printing, registering and maintaining registration of the at least first printed variable indicia and the at least second printed variable indicia so as to overlap with or be registered so closely together such that failure of the printing of one or more portions of either or any of the at least two printed variable indicia does not alter a meaning of information represented by variable indicia on the redundantly printed security-enhanced document. The method can print the variable indicia to produce the redundantly printed enhanced-security document having the features set forth above.

Objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the following description, or may be apparent from the present description, or may be learned through practice of the invention.

In accordance with aspects of the invention, a security-enhanced document with a removable SOC is produced, which may be an instant lottery ticket in certain embodiments. The document includes any variable imaged indicium that determines if the document wins any prize(s) or contains data that is otherwise secure under the SOC. Thus, as used herein, “ticket” or “instant lottery ticket” includes both lottery tickets and other types of security enhanced documents using scratch-off coatings.

In a first embodiment, the variable indicia are imaged using all or some of the standard CMYK (i.e., Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and blacK) process colors. In this embodiment, redundancy is achieved via multiple ink applications due to the serial application of the individual CMYK process colors.

In another embodiment, the variable indicia itself is imaged in one color with at least one secondary color providing a written description of the indicia in the background. Like the first embodiment, this embodiment achieves redundancy via multiple ink applications. In this particular embodiment, the indicia and background colors do not necessarily have to be CMYK.

In still another embodiment, the variable indicia are imaged utilizing patterns of multiple colors. Again, redundancy is achieved via multiple ink applications.

In yet another embodiment, the variable indicia are imaged with an inverted background color with redundancy achieved via the inverted foreground and background different colors. As used herein, “inverted” colored indicia in the foreground or background of a printed substrate uses a light-colored background with dark-colored foreground or vice versa, or uses different contrasting colors, or uses complementary colors or otherwise different colors for the background and foreground, such that the color indicia in both the foreground and background are visible and legible. This embodiment also has the advantage of creating confusion coloration as a countermeasure to pin pricking attacks.

In all of these embodiments, the variable indicia and their background are composed of at least two separate colors. The essential concept of the invention is to provide imaging redundancy since different colors require different ink applications with the different ink applications providing redundancy due to different ink hardware, ink, etc. for each color.

Described are a number of printing mechanisms and methodologies that provide practical details for reliably producing redundant indicia under a SOC that are immune to failure of any one high speed variable ink application system. Although the examples provided herein are primarily related to instant tickets, it is clear that the same methods are applicable to any type of document (e.g., telephone card, prepaid cards, vouchers, bank security instruments, coupons, etc.) where information is protected by a SOC.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The patent or application file contains at least one drawing executed in color. Copies of this patent or patent application publication with color drawings will be provided by the Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary view of an actual prior art ticket from the New Mexico Lottery that falsely appeared to be a $500,000 winner due to clogged inkjet heads using monochromatic color;

FIG. 2 is a second exemplary view of an actual prior art ticket from the Florida Lottery that falsely appeared to be a $500,000 winner due to clogged inkjet heads using monochromatic color;

FIG. 3 is a detailed view of the prior art Florida Lottery misprinted ticket of FIG. 2 highlighting the misprint and the associated abbreviated caption;

FIG. 4 is a front elevation view of a first representative example of modified lottery-type instant ticket indicia comprised of multiple (i.e., CMYK) ink applications of at least two different colors for redundancy;

FIG. 5 is a front elevation view of a second representative example of modified lottery-type instant ticket indicia comprised of primary indicia with secondary indicia background including at least one additional color;

FIG. 6 is a front elevation view of a third representative example of modified lottery-type instant ticket indicia comprised of dual indicia background colors with the primary indicia defined by the absence of an ink film;

FIG. 7 is a front elevation view of a fourth representative example of modified lottery-type instant ticket indicia comprised of at least two micro-patterned colors;

FIG. 8 is a front elevation view of a fifth representative example of a modified lottery-type instant ticket indicia comprised of inverted primary and background indicia colors;

FIG. 9 is a schematic front isometric view of an exemplary embodiment of an inline redundant digital imagers capable of printing the exemplary redundant instant ticket variable indicia of FIG. 4 through FIG. 8; and,

FIG. 10 is a schematic front isometric view of an exemplary embodiment of multiple digital imagers sharing a common offset drum capable of producing the redundant instant ticket variable indicia of FIG. 4 through FIG. 8

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As used herein, the words “image” or “print” are used equivalently and mean that whatever indicium or indicia is or are created directly or indirectly on any substrate may be done by any known imaging or printing method or equipment. Likewise, “imaging” or “printing” describing a method and “imaged” or “printed” describing the resulting indicium or indicia are used equivalently and correspondingly to “image” or “print.”

As used herein, the terms “multi” or “multiple” or similar terms means at least two, and may also mean three, four, or more, for example, unless otherwise indicated in the context of the use of the terms.

As used herein, “variable” indicium or indicia refers to imaged indicia which indicates information relating a property, such as, without limit, a value of the document, such as, without limit, a lottery ticket, coupon, commercial game piece or the like, where the variable indicium or indicia is or are ultimately hidden by a SOC until the information or value is authorized to be seen, such as by a purchaser of the document who scratches off the SOC, revealing the variable indicium or indicia.

Reference will now be made in detail to examples of the invention, one or more embodiments of which are illustrated in the drawings. Each example is provided by way of explanation of the invention, and not meant as a limitation of the invention. For example, features illustrated or described as part of one embodiment, may be used with another embodiment to yield still a further embodiment. The present invention encompasses these and other modifications and variations as come within the scope and spirit of the invention.

FIG. 4 depicts a first representative example of modified lottery-type instant ticket indicia 125 comprised of multiple (i.e., four—CMYK) ink applications overlaying the same image for redundancy. To better illustrate the concept of multi-application printing, redundancy indicia 125 include four simulated color misprints—127 through 130. The correctly printed portions 126, namely the decimal point and left half of the units place “0” and “5” numerals as well as the left half of the dollar sign “$”, of indicia 125 illustrate how the indicia would appear with no misprints. The misprints illustrated in indicia 125 are: the right half of the “$” symbol 127 missing the cyan ink application, the right half of the “5” numeral 128 missing the magenta ink application, the tens place “0” numeral 129 completely missing the yellow ink application, and the right half of the units place “0” numeral 130 missing the black ink application. As is readily apparent in the redundant variable indicia 125 of FIG. 4, the absence of any one of the CMYK process colors still leaves indicia 125 easily readable in its intended form. In fact, it is somewhat difficult for one not skilled in the art to detect any failure of ink applications in indicia 125. Thus, the redundant printing of all of the CMYK colors alleviates any reasonable misinterpretation of the information conveyed by the variable indicia 125, namely a value of $5.00.

Multi-color indicia redundancy can be achieved with fewer colors, so long as at least two colors are applied to each indicium. The at least two redundant colors can be various spot colors and need not comprise the standard CMYK process colors.

FIG. 5 illustrates a second embodiment of a modified lottery-type instant ticket indicia providing three examples (150, 160, and 165) of indicia printing redundancy via different colors employed for primary indicia (151, 161, and 166 respectively) with a secondary associated indicia caption background (152, 162, and 167 respectively) comprised of at least one additional color. As shown in FIG. 5, the primary variable indicia color (151, 161, and 166) can be a spot (i.e., individual) or processed color with the primary variable indicia (151, 161, and 166) varying in darkness or contrast with respect to the secondary variable indicia caption background (152, 162, and 167). This is an example of redundancy of variable indicia, where the same symbol, numeral, word or letters are not overprinted in the same area, but in the same general area containing the variable indicia. As used herein, the term “same general area” means the area of a document to be printed with redundant variable indicia so that the meaning or information imparted to the document by the variable indicia is clear.

Notice that in the embodiments 150, 160, and 165, because of the redundant meaning of the variable indicia, failure of any one color to print in either the primary (numerical) variable indicia or the secondary background (caption) variable indicia would not obfuscate the intended meaning of the indicia in a game. When it is realized that the secondary background (caption) variable indicia 152, 162, 167 is imaged over or under the respective primary variable indicia 151, 161, 167, as is shown in example 165, it becomes apparent that redundancy is maintained even if either the primary or secondary variable indicia fail to print at all. Another advantage of the examples of FIG. 5 is that the combination of the primary and secondary variable indicia may be easier for persons with poor eyesight to read and understand the information imparted by the variable indicia on the ticket.

FIG. 6 is another embodiment of modified lottery-type instant ticket indicia 170 with printing redundancy achieved via multiple colors. As shown in FIG. 6, redundancy is achieved via two different colors; however, with variable indicia 170 the two different colors or shades that are readily visible when used together are utilized for the secondary caption variable indicia 171 (the caption “”FIVE”) and a background color or shade 172 (red) with the primary variable indicia 173 (the white “$5.00”) defined by the absence of the background color or shade 172. As before, a complete or partial failure of either the caption variable indicia 171 or background color or shade variable indicia 172 would still result in legible overall variable indicia 170 even if the inks of the caption variable indicia 171 and background variable indicia 172 were monochromatic spot colors.

FIG. 7 is yet another embodiment of modified lottery-type instant ticket variable indicia 180 or 180′ comprised of multiple micro-patterned colors 181 and 182. FIG. 7 is arranged such that the normal size (i.e., non-magnified) appearance of variable indicia 180 is shown, in contrast to a magnified example 180′ of the same variable indicia 180. The normal appearance of variable indicia 180 results in an overall grayish color. Only under magnification is it realized that the variable indicia 180′ are in fact comprised of red 181 and green 182 colors, here, arranged in adjacent vertical stripes, for example. Again, a partial or complete failure of either red 181 or green 182 colors would still result in legible indicia. This redundancy is maintained if the red 181 and green 182 are spot colors or are process colors—i.e., red (cyan+yellow) and green (magenta+yellow).

FIG. 8 is a presently preferred embodiment of modified lottery-type instant ticket variable indicia 190 and 195 comprised of inverted primary foreground variable indicia colors 191 or 196, for example showing the “$5.00” information, and background variable indicia colors 192 or 197. As before, a partial or complete failure of either the primary variable indicia colors 191 or 196 or the background variable indicia colors 192 or 197 would still result in legible overall variable indicia 190 and 195.

The relatively low resolution (240 dpi) of and monochromatic nature of existing variable indicia on standard lottery tickets dictates that the fonts for these characters be simple and straightforward so that even consumers with poor eyesight can readily differentiate between different information imparted by the variable indicia. This simplistic representation of information reduces the amount of entropy in the image and therefore makes it possible to more easily identify particular variable indicia with very little visual information, such that microscopic pinprick patterns (where the SOC would appear to be substantially intact to the unaided eye) can enable pick-out of illicit winners, since the pinprick patterns would be more discernible. In the preferred embodiment of FIG. 8, the inversion of the variable indicia 191, 192 and 196, 197 would be pseudo randomly distributed from ticket to ticket such that there is no indication which version (i.e., 190 or 195) was imaged on any given unplayed ticket. This pseudorandom distribution of inverted variable indicia provides a countermeasure to pinprick attempts to discern winning tickets without appearing to have the SOC removed. In other words, with the pseudorandom distribution of inverted images on a ticket, any would-be pinprick attacker would not know if any particular pinhole color revealed was the foreground variable indicia 191 or 196 or the associated inverted background variable indicia 192 or 197. This would be true if the primary foreground variable indicia 191 or 196 and background variable indicia 192 or 197 were spot or processed colors.

One possible press configuration 250 capable of producing the redundant variable indicia embodiments of FIG. 4 through FIG. 8 is illustrated in FIG. 9. As illustrated in FIG. 9, press configuration 250 shows two redundant print heads (e.g., inkjet) 253 and 256 inline and registered on the same web 251 feed. Web 251 is pulled over rollers 252 and 257 to ensure correct positioning and registration for the redundant print heads 253 and 256 (respectively) with the web immediately routed through driers 254 and 258 after each print head (253 and 256 respectively) to ensure the printed variable indicia does not smear before contacting a press roller on the same side of the web. Press configuration 250 is representative of incorporating multicolor redundancy with printed variable indicia using drop on demand inkjet technology typically used for producing instant lottery tickets.

A different press configuration 275 is illustrated in FIG. 10 illustrating utilizing multiple print heads 280 to print redundant variable indicia via an offset printing process. As illustrated in FIG. 10, four separate print heads 280 for each of the (CMYK) process colors apply ink to a rotating photo imaging cylinder 279 where the desired variable indicia is initially formed. Also, typically in contact with the photo imaging cylinder is a photo charging unit 276 that applies a charge to portions of the photo imaging cylinder which correspond to areas desired for the variable indicia. The charged portions of the photo imaging cylinder 279 attract the ink and form the desired variable indicia pattern on the photo imaging cylinder 279 for each color in a sequential process. This variable indicia ink pattern is then transferred to the blanket cylinder 278 where the process is repeated until all colors are transferred to the web substrate 282 via the impression roller 277 forcing contact of the substrate to the blanket cylinder 278. Thus, redundant variable indicia ink applications are imaged via a common photo imaging cylinder 279 and associated blanket cylinder 278 with no requirements for the web to travel to separate print heads positioned in different locations in the path of web motion.

Of course, all press configuration embodiments must ensure that sufficient registration is maintained between multiple ink or dye applications such that the redundantly printed variable indicia appear to be one coherent object to the human eye. Thus, it is essential that registration be maintained between the various applications of redundant indicia, preferably to between 1 and ½ print dot.

Of course, there are other variations of the disclosed embodiments (e.g., process color indicia images comprised of a balance of at least two different colors, etc.) that would be apparent to anyone skilled in the art in view of the present disclosure, and would be within the parameters of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method of printing a redundant security-enhanced document with a substrate and at least one variable indicium, which provides information regarding an intended value of the document, printed directly or indirectly on the substrate using at least two separate color print heads, wherein the at least two separate color print heads each print a separate portion of the same at least one variable indicium, thereby allowing any one print head printed output to be omitted or reduced without loss of information regarding the intended value of the document, the method comprising: (a) parsing the at least one variable indicium such that the complete information regarding the intended value of the document is printed with at least two separate print heads, wherein the at least two separate print heads image different portions of the at least one variable indicium printed; and(b) printing the at least one variable indicium with at least two separate print heads, wherein the at least two separate print heads image different portions of the at least one variable indicium with no overlap of printed areas,thereby providing redundant printing via the separate print heads that print the same information regarding the intended value of the document such that the failure of any one print head to print does not result in the loss of the information regarding the intended value of the document.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one variable indicium is printed in two different colors.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one variable indicium is printed in process colors.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising: (c) printing with at least two separate print heads different portions of the at least one variable indicium with at least two micro-pattern colors.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least two micro-pattern colors are printed as parallel lines.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising: (c) printing with at least two separate print heads different portions of the at least one variable indicium with inverted primary foreground variable indicium colors.