MXPA00002182A

MXPA00002182A - Improved secure documents

Info

Publication number: MXPA00002182A
Application number: MXPA/A/2000/002182A
Authority: MX
Inventors: Robert Christiansen; Robert T Durst Jr; Jonathan D Greene; Lester H Keepper Jr
Original assignee: Neomedia Technologies Inc
Priority date: 1997-09-08
Filing date: 2000-03-02
Publication date: 2001-03-05

Abstract

A method of generating and verifying secure documents (12) wherein the secure document (12) is printed with machine-readable symbols (28) representing physical parameters of the secure document prior to application of hand or machine-printed indicia, human and/or machine-printed indicia appearing thereon, biometrics (finger and voice prints), and transaction history.

Description

DOCUMENTS WITH IMPROVED SECURITY CROSS REFERENCE WITH RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is based on and claims the priority of the co-pending provisional patent application with serial number 60 / 065,033 filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on November 10, 1997 and the co-pending provisional patent application series 60 / 60,058,153 filed with the United States patent and trademark office on September 8, 1997. FIELD OF THE ART This invention relates to secure documents and in particular to the use of features of emission of electromagnetic waves and machine-readable symbols in order to create secure documents. BACKGROUND ART The generation of fraudulent documents has greatly increased in recent years due in large part to the immense progress of printing and photocopying technology and its availability to individuals of all media. The average person will not find it difficult to obtain a color copying machine, a color scanning machine, or a color laser printer for substantially less than what a reasonably well-equipped personal computer could expect to pay for. With such equipment, a user could scan the document thereby obtaining a digital image that could then be manipulated using an appropriate program that operates on a personal computer. Said program could then be used to make modifications to the digital image including, for example, the amount to be paid and the bearer of a check, while retaining everything else including the issuer's signature. Then the color laser printer could have the ability to reproduce the image with such precision that the check would be processed by the compensation cameras and the emitter bank without detection. U.S. Patents of prior art 4,588,211; 4,634,148; and 4,724,309, incorporated herein by reference, indicate the application of fluorescent material to specific areas of negote instruments in order to allow a machine to explore the handwritten indications applied to these areas such as the signature, the quantity, the carrier, etc. United States Patent No. 4,1,157,784; incorporated herein by reference, indicates the use of coatings, inks and protective paper on a printing ink that has properties that would be altered and would be detectable if it were to be erased. Another alternative that is disclosed in this patent is the addition of fluorescent properties to inner layers of the paper. If you try to erase the top coat or paper layer it would be removed revealing the fluorescent properties of the inner layer that would immediately be detectable under ultraviolet light. While the above methods tend to protect against the alteration of the manuscript elements of negote instruments, it would be useful if in addition to or instead of these prior art methods the information in the negote instrument could be verified by means of machine readable elements in order to to provide an extra level of protection against alteration or fraud that is relatively simple efficient and cheap. This method could also be applied to the verification of any document (for example, deeds, testaments, contracts, birth certificates, bank drafts, certificates, passports, labels, etc.) or any other object that could benefit from a secure means to ensure authenticity The current system used for check processing provides financial institutions with well-defined time limits within which they must determine whether or not a check is paid. There is a growing demand that requires legislation to provide financial institutions with legislation that provides institutions with longer periods to make this decision (floating time). However, such legislation would only make matters worse for a check clearing process that is already considered by many to be archaic. It would therefore be useful for financial institutions to have additional time to decide whether or not to pay a check while retaining or even shortening the overall duration of the check clearing process.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, a method is provided for generating and verifying secure documents such as checks, bank drafts, traveler's checks, passports, boarding passes, food stamps, and electronic fund transfers comprising legible symbols. per machine. In a first embodiment, the secure document is printed with machine-readable symbols that represent physical parameters of the secure document before the application of the printed handwritten or machine indications. In a second embodiment, the secure document is printed with machine-readable symbols representing information not representative of the physical parameters of the secure document before the application of the indications such as human indications and / or machine forms appearing in the same, biometrics (fingers and voice impressions), and the history of the transaction. In a third embodiment, a two-stage image or filigree process that captures an image of indications within an area defined by an ultraviolet coating, prepares a bitmap thereof and encodes the bitmap and / or a derivative of the same in machine-readable symbols that are printed on the secure document. The intrinsic verification of the secure document is carried out by comparing the actual physical measurements and the scans of the secure document with the data content of the machine-readable symbols appearing in the secure document. The extrinsic verification of the secure document is done by comparing the content of the resident information in local and / or remote databases in relation to the secure document or its transfer with the data content of the machine-readable symbols that appear in secure document. Still in accordance with the present invention a fourth embodiment is provided which tracks the secure document in the form of a check using both intrinsic and extrinsic verification, which provides the advantage of increasing the amount of time in which the paying bank must take the decision to finalize the payment of the check. A fifth embodiment provides a method for traversing the secure document in the form of a bank draft, which provides the advantage of intrinsic and extrinsic verification of authenticity by almost every entity participating in the bank transfer transfer. A sixth embodiment provides a method for traversing the secure document in the form of a food voucher, which provides the advantage of intrinsic and extrinsic verification of authenticity by almost every entity involved in the transfer of the voucher for food and, of that way, withdraw or remove the need for government entities to maintain costly reserves in contemplation of fraudulent food stamps. A seventh embodiment provides a method for traversing a secure document that includes an electronic transfer, which provides the advantage of intrinsic and extrinsic verification of authenticity by almost every entity involved in the transfer of the secure document. Thus the present invention encompasses a method for authenticating documents securely, comprising the steps for manufacturing secure blank documents comprising secure portions, the secure portions comprising spectra and predetermined emission characteristics based on the exposure to electromagnetic radiation of a predetermined wavelength; the application of handwritten and machine-printed instructions to the blank secure document; explore the secure document in order to get an image; develop a bitmap or derivative thereof of the image; maintain a database comprising the predetermined emission spectrum, characteristics, wavelength, indications and bitmap or derivative thereof and the image as well as the relevant additional information related to. the secure document and the transactions involved in the secure document; encryption of the predetermined emission spectrum, characteristics, wavelength, indications and bitmap or derivative thereof; compress the predetermined encrypted emission spectrum, characteristics, wavelength, indications and bitmap; the coding of the predetermined emission spectrum, the characteristics, the wavelength, the indications and the bitmap or derivative thereof in machine-readable symbols; the printing of machine-readable symbols; the printing of machine-readable symbols on the blank secure document; obtain the emission spectrum, characteristics, wavelength, indications and bitmap or derivative thereof from the secure document; compare the emission spectrum, the characteristics, the wavelength, the indications and the bitmap or derivative thereof with the information contained in the machine-readable symbols in the decryption, decompression and decryption of the machine-readable symbols, by the same allowing the intrinsic verification of the secure document by the entities in a circulation chain; and comparing the emission spectrum, characteristics, wavelength, indications and bitmap or derivative thereof and the information contained in the machine-readable symbols at the time of deciphering, decompressing and decrypting the machine-readable symbols with the base of data, therefore allowing the extrinsic verification of the secure document by the entities in the circulation chain.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 illustrates a negotiable instrument comprising a readable cut by machine emitting electromagnetic waves of the present invention. Figure 2 illustrates a schematic view of the readable cut by electromagnetic wave emitting machine of the present invention comprising a linear bar code. Figure 3 illustrates a schematic view of the readable cut by machine emitting electromagnetic waves of the present invention comprising a two-dimensional bar code.

Figure 4 illustrates "a bank draft comprising the machine readable cut of electromagnetic wave emissions of the present invention, Figure 5 illustrates a passport comprising the readable cut by machine emitting electromagnetic waves of the present invention. illustrates a boarding tag comprising the readable cut by machine emitting electromagnetic waves of the present invention, Figures 7A and 7B are block diagrams illustrating a method for generating and verifying a secure document using machine readable cut-out. of electromagnetic waves of the present invention Figure 8 is a block diagram illustrating a method for issuing information from financial institutions necessary in the order to decide whether or not to pay a check using the readable cut by wave-emitting machine electromagnetic waves of the present invention Figure 9 is a block diagram illustrating the a method for circulating safe money equivalent using the readable cut by machine emitting electromagnetic waves of the present invention. Figure 10 is a block diagram illustrating the customer support services provided by a service office in Figure 9.

Figure 11 is a block diagram illustrating a method for distributing a secure food coupon using the machine-readable cut-out of the electromagnetic wave machine of the present invention. Figure 12 illustrates a negotiable instrument comprising a readable cut by machine emitting electromagnetic waves of the present invention which also comprises watermarks. Figures 13A-C is a flow diagram illustrating a 2-step image or filigree process of the present invention. Figure 14 is a block diagram illustrating the issuance and verification of hardware packages for implementing the two-stage image or filigree process of Figures 13A-C. Figure 15 is a block diagram illustrating a recursive implementation of a two-stage image or filigree process of Figures 13A-C. Figure 16 is a block diagram illustrating a method for distributing a secure suspended EFT using the readable cut by the electromagnetic wave emitting machine of the present invention. Figure 17 is a flow chart illustrating a method for issuing safe bank drafts. Figure 18 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for issuing safe gift coupons. Figure 19 illustrates a credit card and bank draft comprising a travel card embodiment with signature of the present invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Figure 1 illustrates a negotiable instrument in the form of a check 12 comprising a readable cut by machine emitting electromagnetic waves 10 of the present invention. The check 12 also comprises zones having information or indicia printed thereon, which are typically found in all commonly issued checks such as the name and address area of the shipper 14; an area of the name of the bearer 16; an area of the numerical quantity 18; a zone of alphanumeric quantity 20; a track buffer 22, a check number zone 24; and a signature area of the shipper 26. These zones may additionally utilize the prior art techniques disclosed in U.S. Patent Nos. 4,588,211.; 4,634,148; 5,456,498; and 4,724,309; incorporated herein by reference. Briefly, the aforementioned patents disclose a method by means of which a fluorescent coating is applied to one or more of these zones and at the time of application of ultraviolet light to these zones, the handwritten or machine-printed indications on the upper part of the Fluorescent coating, stand out allowing its detection and exploration by machine or human operator. Figure 2 illustrates the readable cut by electromagnetic wave emitting machine 10 of the present invention comprising a machine-readable symbol, or in the case of Figure 1, a linear bar code 28 within a coating or cut-out of ultraviolet light ( UV) 30 having predetermined luminescent, phosphorescent or fluorescent properties. The machine-readable application command 28 with respect to the coating 30 is not critical to the scope of the present invention. However, the order can be important during the scanning and detection steps depending on the characteristics of the application processes. The preferred embodiment or most convenient scenario is that of the coating that is applied for example, using a lithography technique during the manufacture of blank check 12 or product and the machine readable symbol 28 will be printed on the coating 12 at some point then. The machine-readable symbol 28 is printed by the sender before the check 12 and / or the check printing company is issued before the checks are made available to the sender. Therefore, an attempt to alter the machine-readable symbol 28, such as scraping the machine-readable symbol 28 from the surface of the check 12 would spoil the coating 12, would make it look uniformly non-uniform at the time of inspection during verification by elements well known in the art. For example, areas where the coating 12 is removed will appear as darkened areas against the lighter background of the lower uniform coating, for example, ultraviolet light. Furthermore, making the fraudulent alterations appear valid is made more difficult by the fact that only certain sequences within the machine-readable symbol 28 are accepted as valid as well as the use of additional authentication methods which can optionally be applied to the machine-readable symbol such as check sums, Cyclic Redundancy Review Sequences (CRC), parity sequences as well as other equivalent elements well known in the art. These methods protect against alterations that include addition or removal of portions of the machine-readable symbol 28. Figure 3 illustrates the substitution of a two-dimensional bar code 36 by the linear bar code 28 illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. 2-dimensional bar code such as the two-dimensional portable data file PDF 417, comprises multiple rows of code words. Each code word is a mark pattern comprising a plurality of elements or marks. The marks may have various heights, such as in the linear bar code, or may have a relatively small height to form a "Point Code". Not every pattern of marks can constitute a code word, however, each code word belongs to a specific family or a specific set of brand patterns that adapt to a particular descriptive rule that regulates a characteristic of each brand pattern, for example , a rule about the width of each brand and the total width of each brand pattern. The code words in either of the two adjacent rows are written in mutually exclusive subsets of the mark pattern set (although in some embodiments the joining of the subsets is not exhaustive of the set itself). In particular, each subset of the mark pattern set is defined so that it includes as valid codewords for the subset only the mark patterns that satisfy certain discriminator function criteria. Said two-dimensional bar code has the capacity to store up to one kilobyte of memory of 1 to 4 square inches representing approximately. 250 English words, almost the size of a page or the screen display. As an information unit, said unit is well adapted to many applications of the present invention. U.S. Patent No. 5,504,322 describes said two-dimensional bar code in greater detail and is hereby incorporated by reference. Additional applications for readability readable by electromagnetic wave emitting machine 10 of the present invention are illustrated in Figures 4-6 in the form of a bank draft, a passport and shipping label, respectively. These applications are merely potential uses for the present invention and as such represent only a small subset of applications that would benefit from the many security advantages provided by the present invention. An embodiment of the present invention comprises using machine-readable symbols printed on the document securely in order to ensure the authenticity of the blank secure document or merchandise. Physical parameters and merchandise characteristics such as the wavelength of light required to excite the coating for a predetermined emission spectrum; for example the emission spectrum of the coating, the wavelength of the light emitted at the time of exposure to a predetermined source of electromagnetic energy, etc .; manufacture pass identification or number of existence; identification of the printer used to carry out the lithography of the merchandise, and a plan.ill or identification of quantity, place, size and characteristics of the coated areas that appear in the secure documents in order to guide and align the reader, explorer and the printer during the generation and verification phases. Said information, however, can be applied anywhere in the document safely, (inside the coating or outside the coating), the application inside the coating will produce additional protection against intentional or unintentional alteration revealing more quickly the alterations to the symbols readable by machine . Said information may optionally be encoded, encrypted, in machine-readable symbols and applied by the manufacturer or the lithographer responsible for applying the coating to the product. For example, the information can be summarized in micro PDF represented by the absence of ultraviolet ink including the name of the printing plant, the identification number of the printing machine, the name of the customer, the date of the print run and the number of ultraviolet cutouts that appear in the document. Alternatively, the product manufacturer could provide relevant information to a service office that would optionally encode, compress and summarize the information into machine readable symbols and return the symbols to the product manufacturer for application thereon. In addition, the document issuer could securely optionally encode, compress and summarize this information into machine-readable symbols and apply the symbols to the product if this information were made available in some form such as in the package of the product that could be sold comprising a variety of different values for these parameters. The machine readable symbol could take the form of PDF format or even an alphanumeric representation that requires explosion using optical character recognition (OCR) techniques. The process for verifying the authenticity of the product is described in detail in the following section (C) under the secondary heading titled "Verification Process", however, this essentially includes a comparison of the actual physical parameters and the characteristics of the product according to they are obtained through the physical manipulation of the product (intrinsic verification) or through remote and / or local databases (extrinsic verification) for the data content of the machine-readable symbols that appear on the product. If the two are substantially the same then the authenticity the product was verified. Thus, this embodiment (which can be combined with the embodiment described in the following section (I) (C)) provides a first level of authentication that enlivens the authenticity of the product without taking into account the additional information contained in the surface of the secure document or in corresponding places of relevant local and remote databases.

Figures 7A and 7B illustrate a flowchart describing a detailed approach for the generation and verification of a secure document using the readable cut by machine emitting electromagnetic waves 10 of the present invention. In step 40 a secure blank document is manufactured comprising secure portions that are coated, impregnated or otherwise treated with a substance having predetermined spectral emission specific characteristics (emission of electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength in the range of 539 -549nm) in response to exposure to electromagnetic radiation of a specified wavelength (ultraviolet light). These secure portions may also be referred to as ultraviolet trim or coating. The secure document could take the form of bank drafts, gift vouchers, passports, deeds, testaments, licenses, packing labels, negotiable instruments, titles, tickets, traveler's checks, food stamps or any other document for which verification Secure authenticity was a useful attribute. A user would then insert the blank secure document into a printer and call a computer program in step 44 that conforms to the coded information entered by the user into the machine readable symbols suitable for printing on the top of the cutout ultraviolet. The typical information that the user could enter during step 46 in order to authenticate the document comprises the following. 1. - Biometrics (for example, fingerprints by scanning or capturing an image of the fingerprint and digitizing it before coding it into machine-readable symbols); and 2.- Infometry such as birthdays, social security numbers, personal identification numbers (PINs), demographics of those in the chain of negotiation, signatures (for example, digital signatures or a digitized version of a signature). handwritten as disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 5,138,140, which is hereby incorporated by reference), identification of financial institutions, carriers, amount payable, issuing banks, and other human-readable and machine-readable information. in the secure document as well as the information contained in the relevant local and remote databases.

The information entered by the user is optionally encoded during step 48, optionally compressed during step 49 and summarized in the machine-readable symbols during step 50 by any of the numerous techniques well known in the art. The machine-readable symbol is then printed on the secure document in step 52. The user then completes the rest of the areas of the secure document by entering by hand or keyboard into the personal computer in step 54 and issues the document. secure in step 56. This essentially ends the generation phase of a secure document of the process using the readable cut by machine emitting electromagnetic waves 10 of the present invention. The generation process described above could alternatively or in addition be performed by the printer that prints the information on the check after the lithographer covers the check but before the user issues it. At this point in secure document is ready to be issued, distributed, transferred or stored until necessary. For example, if the secure document takes the form of a check, passport or boarding pass, it can be transferred to an establishment *****, to the customs authorities, or to the shipping company or to the transport company respectively, which then perform the intrinsic and / or extrinsic verification in the secure document. The verification phase of the secure document begins with its insertion in a browser that scans both the machine-readable symbol and the human-readable information content of the secure document in step 60. Content of the data in the human-readable symbol scanned machine is then decrypted in step 58, decompressed in step 61 and deciphered in step 62 if the machine-readable symbol was compressed and encoded during the generation phase of the secure document. Content of the information found in the human readable information of the secure document and the content of data found in the machine reading symbol in the secure document can then be displayed in order to allow the verification of step 66 by comparing them or verified automatically without human intervention. If the comparison results in a correspondence between the data content of the machine-readable symbol and the information content of the human-readable information then the secure document will have successfully completed the secure document verification phase. An unsuccessful correspondence indicates an error in the generation phase of the secure document or a subsequent fraudulent alteration of the secure document. In addition, the comparison can also consider information obtained through out-of-band resources or the information obtained through the inspection of the visual document could be rather in queries to local or remote databases. For example, information that would typically not appear on the surface of the document could be digitized images of fingerprints, dates of birth or maiden names of the mother, etc. Comparison step 66 specifically includes a two-step process. The first step subjects the UV cut to a predetermined wavelength of light. The actual spectral emission characteristics of the ultraviolet trimming are then captured, analyzed and verified against a set of expected emission characteristics, and if the two are within a predetermined tolerance or range, then the ultraviolet trimming will be considered authentic. The set of expected spectral emission characteristics can be predetermined and can be set in comparison step 66 in advance, transmitted by means of out-of-band resources such as local or remote databases specifically for the verification phase or content within of the machine-readable symbol as suggested in the previous section (I) (B). In this way a physical measurement is taken (ie the expected spectral emission characteristics), the results are deduced for a data element (ie, a digital value representing the expected wavelength of the light emitted from the ultraviolet trimming ) and the data element is represented and the modulation of the physical variable (i.e., the expected wavelength of emitted light is modified and optionally summarized and compressed into a machine-readable symbol that is applied to the secure document of the present invention ). The second step of the comparison includes the verification of the data content of the machine-readable symbol (which is decoded and optionally decrypted and decompressed from the machine readable symbol) against the human-readable information content in the secure document as well as the additional information that is made available to the verification process through local and remote resources and databases. For example, by digitizing the sender's signature (by means of elements disclosed in United States Patent No. 5, 138, 140) and coding in the machine-readable symbol the typical card confirms that it is kept in the file for each of The clients of a financial institution could join the negotiable instrument through it, providing additional elements with which to ensure the authenticity of the negotiable instrument. A further embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in Figure 12 wherein a secure document 146 comprises the same areas covered with fluorescent coating ("Ultraviolet Cutouts") to those illustrated in Figure 1. However, in the check 146 one or more of the ultraviolet cutouts have been printed with machine readable symbols 148 in addition to the handwritten or printed indications. The machine-readable symbols 148 are not restricted to their printing within the ultraviolet trimmings, although, locating them there will provide the additional benefit against alterations such as erasures. Figures 13A-C illustrate a flow chart of a method for creating, issuing and verifying said security documents such as check 146 illustrated in Figure 12. The first step of the flow chart of Figures 13A is to manufacture a secure document blank in step 150 which may comprise an instrument, negotiable such as a check 146, bank draft, gift coupon or any document that would benefit from increased security against tampering and verification of authenticity. An user . or emitter then ends the secure document by hand or machine in step 152 and calls a hardware / software issuance packet that could run on a personal computer in order to encode the information in the machine-readable symbols of step 154. The finished secure document is then inserted into the hardware / software or scanner issuance packet of step 156 which scans the handwritten or printed indications within the ultraviolet trimmings and prepares a bitmap comprising pixel coordinates which digitally describes the relative place of the pixels. handwritten or printed indications regarding the ultraviolet trimming of step 158. In the explorer it is guided by the ultraviolet trimming, which defines the area of interest and the indications that must be explored. Limiting the area of interest to ultraviolet trimming reduces the likelihood of misinterpretation due to dirt, dust and other environmental agents and factors that appear on the surface of the secure document, as well as imperfections in the blank secure document or product that are not important for the verification process. An additional advantage of limiting the field of interest to ultraviolet trimmings is the overall speed of the scanning process that is increased by reducing the area to be scanned. The process to create the 'bitmap image of the ultraviolet trimmings and other techniques included in capture and transmission of digital images such as compression and reconstruction are discussed in R. Dorf, Electrical Engineering Handbook 329-345 (1993), which is hereby included for reference. The imaging process essentially involves sampling the ultraviolet trimming by superimposing a grid over the ultraviolet trimming and examining the energy output of each box or pixel of the grid with a censor. The output of each box is then converted to an electrical signal. A quantization process assigns a number to each of the electrical signals. The result of the quantization process is a bitmap or an array of numbers that digitally represent the scanned image. It must be decided whether the encoded information is machine-readable symbols should be the bitmap itself or some indirect representation of this such as a cyclic redundancy review (CRC) sequence a checksum. A hash function in decision 160. If the bitmap is to be used as the basis of the machine-readable symbol then the bitmap is optionally encoded, compressed and summarized into machine-readable symbols (such as the two-dimensional bar code illustrated as machine-readable symbol 148 of Figure 12) in steps 162, 164 and 166, respectively. However, if the bitmap is not used then the hash function, checksum or an equivalent algorithm known in the art is applied to the bitmap in order to derive a distinctive output which optionally is summarized, compressed and encoded in machine-readable symbol in passes 168, 170 and 172, respectively. After the machine-readable symbols have been printed on the secure document in step 174 this is issued in step 176. Thus the function of the machine-readable symbols as a "watermark" verifying the authenticity of the manuscript as well as of the machine-printed indications of the secure document according to the relative position of said indications with respect to a predetermined ultraviolet trimming. The receiver of the secure document or one wishing to verify intrinsically or extrinsically its authenticity explores the ultraviolet clippings in the secure document by inserting it into the software / hardware verification package in step 178 which will decode the machine-readable symbols in step 180. If the information encoded in machine-readable symbols is a bitmap then this is optionally deciphered, decodes and compares with the bitmap of the indications appearing on the surface of the secure document within the ultraviolet trimmings in steps 184, 186 and 188, respectively. However, if the information that has been encoded in the machine-readable symbol is not a bitmap then the information is optionally decompressed, decrypted, decoded and compared with the CRC sequence, checksum, hash function or information substantially similar derivative of the bitmap of the indications appearing on the surface of the secure document in steps 190, 192 and 194, respectively. Based on the results of the comparison in steps 188 or 194, if the values are equivalent then the authenticity of the secure document is indicated and it is found without altering the material for the handwritten or printed indications in step 198 and thereby the intrinsic verification was successful. However, if the values compared in steps 188, 194 are not equivalent then the secure document is indicated as non-authentic and / or which comprises material alterations in step 200. Alternatively, or in addition to the intrinsic verification the verifier can compare the explored information with a relevant local or remote database in order to extrinsically verify the secure document. Figure 14 illustrates an embodiment of an emitter hardware pack 202 and a verification hardware pack 204 for implementing the method illustrated in Figures 13A-C. A blank secure document or product 206 is finished by hand or by machine producing a finished document 208. The finished document 208 is inserted into an issuing browser 210 in order to capture an image of the printed indications to machines and / or handwritten that appear in the same. This image is used by a broadcast computer 212 to develop a bitmap and / or derivative thereof by techniques well known in the art and described above. To optionally perform the encryption, compression and encoding of the bitmap and / or derivative thereof into machine-readable symbols, the issuing computer 212 provides an issuing printer 214 with appropriate information that allows the issuing printer 214 to print the machine readable symbols representative of the bitmap and / or derivative thereof in the finished document 208, which has been inserted into the issuing printer 214. Then a watermarked document 216 comprising machine-readable symbols is ready for emission, circulation , storage or secure verification. In order to verify the document with filigree 216 it is inserted in a verification browser 218 that scans the ultraviolet cutouts, thereby obtaining an image of the indications that appear in the document with filigree 216. A bitmap and / or derivative thereof, they reveal the image and compare it with the machine-readable symbols that were optionally decompressed, decrypted and decoded in a verification computer 220. If the components of this comparison are substantially equivalent then the filigree document 216 was successfully verified. A further embodiment of the two-phase image and watermark process is illustrated in Figure 12 in the alphanumeric quantity area 20 as an additional machine readable symbol 149. As illustrated in Figure 15, after applying the first machine-readable symbol 148 by the method described above and in the flow diagram of Figures 13A-C the additional machine-readable symbol 149 can be applied to any and all areas of the secure document in substantially the same form, except that the symbol readable by additional machine 149 will now reflect the presence of the first machine-readable symbol 148 as well as any previous machine-readable symbols. Any number of machine-readable symbols 149 may be recursively placed in the secure document (representing the indications within a zone and any or all of the above machine-readable symbols already printed in the area) in order to describe any one or more of the areas Coated or ultraviolet cutouts as shown in steps 224 and 226, thereby producing a multi-level watermarked document 228 (comprising, in the case of the illustration, three levels of security against alteration). This method allows a variable number of security levels to be applied as required by any particular application. The verification phase will be required to start with the last machine-readable symbol applied and continue in the opposite order of application, thereby ignoring or erasing some of the symbols or all machine-readable symbols from the current image in accordance with a predetermined sequence that were already verified in previous steps (or that were intentionally ignored in a particular level) since these symbols may not have been part of the image during the revelation of the current machine-readable symbol. Therefore, if a fraudulent alteration of the secure document is carried out, it must be reflected in some or all of the subsequent levels of the machine-readable symbols that were generated with an image comprising the altered area. Variations in this concept may comprise even a predetermined subset of the machine-readable symbols applied previously in the image applied in the image represented by the current machine-readable symbol being applied. An additional advantage that is obtained when using the filigree process is that because an image of the security portions of the document was coded as a machine readable symbol, any alteration, including not only deletions, but also additions to the indications, will be detected during the intrinsic and extrinsic verification processes. Whereas the embodiments described above concentrated on methods for verifying the authenticity of the secure document by comparing the information found on the surface of the secure document with machine-readable symbols also found on the surface of the secure document (intrinsic verification), the Following embodiments in the operations tracking section use the verification method in addition to the verification of the secure document by comparing the relevant databases either remotely or locally to the verification point (extrinsic verification) and the process of Two stages of image or filigree described above. Figure 8 illustrates an application of the machine-readable cut-off of electromagnetic wave emitting machine 10 of the present invention that essentially provides a paying bank 80 with an additional amount of time during which to decide whether or not to pay a check. The carrier 82 presents a secure document or check (which was prepared using the methods described above) to a deposit bank 84 and a provisional credit (a credit that can be revoked before the final payment of the instrument by finding insufficient funds for such payment, alteration of the material of the instrument or other deficiencies in the instrument) will be provided to the carrier 82. The check is then placed with others for delivery to an intermediary bank or clearing house 86, classified by the paying bank 80 and totaled. The checks are then delivered to an intermediary bank 86 and delivered to an agent of the payer 80 and the provisional credit will be deposited. The checks are delivered to the paying bank 80 which determines their authenticity by verifying the checks against themselves (intrinsic verification as described in the previous section (I)) as well as against a positive payment file (extrinsic verification). If the payer bank 80 successfully checks the check, both intrinsically and extrinsically, then the check is paid and all provisional credits become final (or in the terms of the banking industry, "firm"). However, if the check is not successfully verified then it is returned, since it has no funds with the appropriate annotations and the provisional credits are revoked in the clearing house 86 and in the deposit bank 84. According to the uniform commercial code section 4-123 (1) (d), 4-301 and 4-302, which regulate the process ******* e checks, if the paying bank 80 already made a provisional credit for the presented check (as is the case with the checks presented by the bank of compensation 86) the payment on that check becomes final if the provisional credit is not revoked before midnight of the banking day following the banking day of reception. At the time of final payment, the paying bank 80 is responsible for the amount of the check and generally has no recourse to avoid payment. Therefore, the paying bank 80 has only a limited time within which it must determine whether or not it pays a check. Because much of this time is used in the physical transportation of the check to the payer bank 80, there is very little time left for the decision-making process. If the check comprises the readable cut by electromagnetic wave emitting machine 10 of the present invention, then either the deposit bank 84 and / or the intermediary bank 86 could intrinsically verify the authenticity of the check using the methods described in the previous section ( I). Alternatively, or in addition to the intrinsic verification, the deposit bank 84 and the intermediary bank 86 could extrinsically verify the authenticity of the check by means of a request to the paying bank 80, which would provide the intermediary bank with the pertinent information comprising the name of the sender, account number, check number, amount to be paid, etc. In order to verify extrinsically the same information that appears on the check surface. The results of the verification phase are then sent to the payer bank 80 and / or to the intermediary bank 86 in advance of the physical presentation of the check in the form of an advance payment file 88. The advance payment file 88, comprises all the content of human-readable information and the content of machine-readable data obtained through direct inspection and physical examination by the depositary bank 84 and / or the intermediary bank 86 two to three days in advance to an opportunity of the payer bank 80 to do it that way. Thus, the need to provide the banks with a greater number of ways to adjust the provisional credits is essentially eliminated due to the receipt and physical inspection of the check by the paying bank 80 that is no longer required in order to verify the authenticity of the check Figure 9 illustrates a method for circulating a safe money equivalent to bank drafts, gift coupons, etc., comprising the machine readable cutoff of electromagnetic wave emitter 10 of the present invention. An issuer 100 sells a secure bank draft 104 comprising the machine readable cutout of electromagnetic waves 10 to a consumer 102 in exchange for cash or cash equivalent to the consumer 106. Additional functional responsibilities of the sender 100 comprise the following: market and sell safe bank drafts 104; 2. reconciliation of information regarding the sale of safe bank drafts 104 for sales products; 3. deposit of the sales products with a financial institution of the issuer 128; 4. provide the service to the consumer 102; 5. supervise the maintenance of hardware and software used in the sale of safe bank drafts 104; 6. Maintain the quality of the service by the staff and the team issuing the safe bank drafts 104; and 7. ordering the consumables (for example, ordering forms and means of display). The consumer 102 issues the bank and insurance giro 104 in exchange for goods, services or a provision of the carrier 108 of a carrier 110 of the consumer's choice. subscribes to the system of bank draft equivalent in circulation of the present invention. The holder 110 presents the secure bank draft 104 to a deposit financial institution 112 in exchange for cash, a provisional credit to the account of the bearer or some other form * of cash equivalent of the deposit financial institution 114. The financial institution of deposit 112 then presents the safe bank draft 104 to a financial clearing house 116 in exchange for a provisional credit or some other form of cash equivalent of the financial clearing 118. At the time of the initial sale of the safe bank draft 104 by part of the issuer 100, the sender 100 transmits the sales information 120 to a centralized services office 122 by means of out-of-band resources (mail, Internet, secure modem, etc.) comprising said information describing the transaction such as the date, time, quantity, consumer identification, serial number and other identifying characteristics of the transaction of the safe bank draft and the services office 122 acknowledges receipt of the sales information. Next, the service office 122 transmits a positive payment file 124 comprising information obtained from the information of the transmitted sales and a list of rejected items that should not be paid to the clearing financial institution 116 and perhaps additional pertinent information attached. by the service office 122. Based on the information contained in the transmission of the positive payment file 124, the financial clearing institution 116 determines whether or not it pays the deposit financial institution 112. The clearing financial institution 116 then transmits a file of items paid 125 to the service office 122 which comprises a list of those 104 safe bank drafts paid, as well as the relevant additional information describing the conditions under which the payment was made. The additional functional responsibilities of the service office 122 include the following: 1. issuance of debit instructions to the issuer's financial institution 128; 2. Issuance of credit instructions to the financial institution of compensation 116; 3. provision of customer support for the sender 100, carrier 110 and deposit bank 112; 4. maintenance of quality control for the issuance of safe bank drafts; 5. supply of all consumables; 6. installation and maintenance of all hardware and software on site; 7. reconciliation balance of each step of the circulation process; 8. generation of online and printed reports for consumers 102; and 9. identification and return of all safe bank drafts rejected 104 within a predetermined period of time. On a regular (daily) basis the issuer 100 will adjust the cash equivalent of the consumer 106 received from the consumer 102 with the safe bank drafts 104 sold and deposit the proceeds from the sales of an issuer 126 representing the gross sales profits for sale Bank Wire Transfer 104 in the issuer's financial institution 128. When indicated by the service agency 122, the financial institution of issuer 128 will pay the financial clearing institution 116. The clearing financial institution 116 provides the cash equivalent of the financial institution of compensation 118 to the financial institution of deposit 112 in exchange for the safe bank transfer 104. The process of circulation is terminated when the financial institution of compensation 116 transmits the safe bank drafts 104 that were paid or rejected to the service office 122 for identification and storage. The depository financial institution 112 has the option of appealing against the consumer 102 or "canceling the safe bank drafts 104 that were incorrectly paid as a loss." The additional functional responsibilities of the financial clearing house 116 include the following: 1. Receipt of cashier's checks accompanying safe bank drafts 104 of deposit financial institution 112; 2. verification of the information obtained from the magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) code; and 3. processing of safe bank drafts returned 104. As an additional element of verification for safe bank transfer 104, the bearer 110 and / or the depository financial institution 112 and / or the financial clearing house 116 may request extrinsic verification as it is shown by means of the reference number 130 of the authenticity of the secure bank draft 104 of the service office 122 by comparison of information in a positive payment file 124 of the service office 122 with information obtained from the inspection and exploration physical of the safe bank draft 104. Alternatively, or in addition to this authentication technique, the bearer 110, the financial depository institution 112 and / or the financial clearing institution 116 can perform the intrinsic verification in the safe bank giro 104 using the methods described in the previous section (I) verifying the authenticity of ultraviolet cutting ta (product verification) and comparing the contents of the machine-readable symbol data with the information content of the human-readable data in the safe bank draft 104) as shown in reference number 132. Figure 10 it illustrates the services provided by the services office 122 to the other entities that participate in the circulation of the safe bank transfer 104.

Specifically, the support services that will be provided by the services office 122 to the issuer 100 in order to service the consumer 102 of the inquiries related to the payments and the requests for copies of the safe bank drafts that were paid as well as the interruption of payments. The sender 100 transmits the sales information to the service office 122 through a batch flow. The services office 122 also responds to requests from the carrier 110 and / or the deposit financial institution 112 for confirmation of the authenticity of the secure bank transfer 104 (cash authorization service inquiry 130) in real time. In the process for circulating the secure bank drafts 104 described above, the seller of the secure bank draft has the opportunity to become the issuer 100 of his own secure bank draft 104 through the action of the issuer's board of directors 100. Once the Board of Directors determines that a 100 issuer will issue insurance bank drafts 104 an application is made to the state government to obtain a local license and a bond. By posting the bond and obtaining the license, the issuer 100 has the ability to promote and issue its own safe bank drafts 104 without worrying about controls and inventory audits, requirements for protection of facilities or theft of blank financial paper. The services office 122 may decide to offer incentives to help secure the marketing costs of the new 100 issuers in return for a large percentage of floating long-term funds and of property reversion to the state of the safe bank drafts that have not been liquidated The sale of safe bank drafts 104 can be carried out in any suitable place such as a cash register, a settlement line, or a customer service area. In such a situation, a representative in customer service enters a unique personal identification and password on a keyboard or other terminal input device associated with a computer. In response, an issuance system obtains access to a screen for capturing bank drafts with prior authorization and with the clear guarantee where the amount that is going to be assigned to the safe bank draft is entered. At the time of issuance, the issuance system generates the safe bank draft 104 and a receipt or equivalent of an application form, which was terminated by the consumer 102. Figures 17 and 18 provide more detail in relation to the two embodiments for the transaction between the consumer 102 and the issuer 100 for issuing the safe bank drafts and the insurance certificates and gift vouchers, respectively. These embodiments, 4 specifically, they are used for retail establishments where the following characteristics are presented: 1. a desk or customer service area is not available to conduct the issuance of secure documents; 2. the cashiers that are provided have a minimum level of training and salaries while the staffing is relatively high; and 3. the hardware and software and the secure document issuance procedures can be integrated with the existing point of sale, configurations and procedures. Figure 17 illustrates the issuance of a secure bank draft that is first selected by the consumer in the display area and taken to the cashier as any other product purchased at a retail store would be packaged in a "clam shell" type wrapper "(" clamshell wrapping ") hung on a peg in an exhibit rack. In addition, a closed package with access through the visible envelope or cutting portion can be used. The cashier would then scan the secure bank draft automatically by calling the software that prompts the cashier or the consumer to enter an amount, a dollar value or denomination for the safe bank draft by means of the keyboard and screen or other equivalent entry element. and recognition well known in the art. Information issued 4 obtained by scanning the safe bank draft together with the amount provided (which can be fixed in the document or printed during the transaction by the cashier) is then transmitted to a central commercial database for registration and further processing. The issuance information together with the optional additional information such as the time, date and place of issuance is then transmitted to the service office for registration, processing and verification against previous records related to the printing of the safe bank draft (extrinsic verification). ). If the results of the verification are satisfactory, the authentication information is transmitted back to the central commercial base for registration, processing and transmission to the teller. At the time of receipt of the authentication information, the cashier will activate the safe bank transfer by printing the desired denomination together with the authentication information obtained from the service office in machine-readable code using the methods described above by means of the cash register from the cashier. The cashier then transfers the bank draft activated with a receipt for the transaction to the consumer, thereby concluding the sale or issuance of the safe bank draft. An alternative embodiment for the issuance of the safe bank draft, which is also illustrated in Figure 17, includes the transfer of the value by means of electronic means instead of the physical transfer of the document. The issuance process for the secure bank draft initiating an electronic funds transfer could be substantially the same as described just before, except that the consumer would receive a receipt for the transaction without the safe bank draft activated because the transfer it is not necessary for the transfer of the physical document in the negotiation process. Figure 18 illustrates the issuance of a secure gift coupon, which is substantially the same embodiment of the safe bank draft as illustrated in Figure 17, except that gift vouchers may optionally be available to the consumer in predetermined denominations by making the entry of denominations unnecessary. Although possible, gift vouchers would typically not include the transfer of funds through electronic items. The hardware requirements of the broadcast system are modest and typically comprise the following: 1. a personal computer; 2. 64 megabytes of RAM; 3. a CD ROM drive; 4. a Hayes compatible modem (56 Kbps) for transmission of sales information 120) to the service office; . a laser printer (the specific manufacturer and the model number that may be required to be certified by the service office 122 in order to maintain the quality of the printing standards; 6. the product of the safe blank bank draft that goes to supplied by the service office 122, and 7. cartridge toner (which may be provided by the service office 122 to ensure print quality as well as the use of special inks to further ensure authenticity). Emission system software comprises an on-site module of the customer to include logical broadcast sales, printing routines and telecommunication capabilities, In addition, the software and hardware may include the following features: 1. passwordß and service representative IDs the customer to control security levels and protect access levels and introduction to the issuance system throughout 2. the ability to store a series of consecutive ascending numbers in a series of single safe bank drafts for sender 100 and the place of the issuance system; 3. a display to control the issuance of the safe bank draft 104 that displays the value and amount of each safe bank draft 104 to be issued; 4. printing routines that represent the surface of custom instruments with the logo of an issuer (subject to federal restrictions and guidelines for financial instruments), the magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) code, and the readable symbol machine (according to the specifications provided by the service office 122). 5. Telecommunication capabilities that include an ability to generate a file of sales information that must be transmitted to the service office (mainly via the Internet). As a backup method, other Internet access providers could use the service office 122 as access auxiliary channels by means of telephone lines from the sender 100 to the service office 122. In order to start the issuing system the sender 100 receives the software designated to obtain access to an Internet access provider (for example, MCI, MSN, or AT &T Worldnet) thus having local access. The software allows the sender 100 to set up an account with the Internet access provider (IAP). Once the account is configured and the software has activated the Internet broadcasting system, the software directs itself to the corresponding website to the services office 122, which does not. it will require additional introduction of the issuer 100. The software transfers the sales information file from the issuance system to the services office 122 once the software accesses the service office website using security codes provided by the service office 122. When the transfer is complete, the services office 122 verifies that the sales information file has been received and transmits a formal recognition endorsement to the issuance system that is read by the sender 100. Simultaneously, a server of Internet mail, in the services office 122 optionally transmits the condition of the documentation of the financial reports of the safe bank drafts business (for example, gross sales, net sales products, sales volume, etc.) to the sender 100. For adapting future expansion, the circulation method of safe bank drafts of the present invention operates a mode of e "Many to One". In a similar way, the current technology that controls the Internet allows a multitude of parties to communicate with a host computer simultaneously without substantial degradation in performance. Therefore, by using the Internet, the services office 122 can dramatically increase the number of issuers accessing the services 122 office, while limiting the need for additional telephone lines and support personnel.

The circulation method illustrated in Figure 9 of the present invention will also allow operation in a "One to Many" mode that will allow the service office 122 to provide communication support to the sender 100 in order to adapt service requests to customer, general inquiries, payment interruption, reports, etc. Modifications to the software of the issuance system may be available to the sender 100 by means of electronic mail, and therefore, worldwide customer service and efficient and economic support can be conducted without sacrificing quality. It is anticipated that the issuers 100 will reconcile the sales gains with the consumer's cash equivalent 106 received at least once a day in accordance with the internal procedures generated by the service office 122. When the reconciliation is done manually, the issuer 100 must total all forms of customer request and generate from this total a form of daily adjustment (DSF) that totals total sales, cancellations and commissions (equivalent to consumer cash collected). The total of the DSF must be equal to the total cash of the proceeds of the issuer's sales that must be deposited with the vendor's financial institution 128 for that particular day. When the reconciliation is performed automatically (by the issuance system), the sender 100 is only required to reconcile a summary output of the daily sales information for the issuance system against the products of the issuer 126 sales that must be deposited with the issuer. the seller's financial institution 128. The issuing system must record the detailed sales information in relation to the bank drafts 104 issued, canceled, (voided) and the consumer's cash equivalents 106 received in addition to maintaining the general information corresponding to the balances in march. This information is available both through visual display and hard copy. The daily totals are archived in a suitable database for historical and statistical follow-up. The software is designed to allow future refinement capacity for conversion between international currencies. A further embodiment of the present invention includes an application for food stamps. Food stamps are generally issued by an entity run by a government agency that typically has reserve funds in a service account and provides funds for food stamps. These reserves are used to cover anticipated fraudulent bailouts of food stamps and are extremely expensive to maintain. However, if the method for providing secure documents were to be used with the food stamps, then that costly reservation could be substantially reduced or eliminated altogether. Additional savings could be made from the substantial reduction in fraudulent bailouts. A typical distribution method for circulating insurance food coupons 134 is illustrated in Figure 11 that uses intrinsic and extrinsic verification methods that are substantially similar to those discussed above with respect to safe bank drafts. An authorized government issuer 136 transfers the safe food coupons 124 to the customer 102 based on a predetermined set of eligibility requirements and transmits distribution information 142 to the service office 122. The consumer 102 then presents the safe food coupons 134 to carrier 110 in exchange for carrier money equivalent 108 which typically takes the form of staples as food. Prior to the exchange, the carrier 110 can intrinsically verify the authenticity of the secure food coupon by itself 132 and / or request confirmation of its authenticity 130 (extrinsic verification) of the absence of services 122. The carrier 110 then transfers the safe food coupon 134 either to a rescue institution 138 which may be the government, an authorized private entity or the government issuer 136 in exchange for the cash equivalent of the bailout institution 140 which typically takes the form of cash or credit to an existing account. The rescue institution 138 has the same options for verification of the safe food voucher, which has the carrier 110. At the time of the rescue of the secure food voucher 134 the rescue institution 138 transmits the payment information 142 to the service office 122. The rescue institution 138 transfers the safe food coupons 134 that have been redeemed back to the government issuer 136 or to another entity that provides the storage function. The issuer of government 136 can also perform the intrinsic verification on the safe food coupon 134 as a prerequisite to its acceptance. Another embodiment of the machine readable trimming of electromagnetic wave emissions of the present invention is found in the creation of a "suspended electronic funds transfer (EFT)" included in a negotiable instrument. The term EFT is a generic term that describes the transfer of funds, other than a transaction originated by check, bill of exchange or similar paper document, initiated through an electronic terminal, telephone or computer for the purpose of ordering, instructing or authorize a financial institution to make a charge or credit to an account. The term includes, but is not limited to point-of-sale transfers, automatic answering machine (ATM) transfers, debits and pre-authorized credits conducted through automated clearing houses (ACH), pre-authorized payment through telephone transfers , verification and guarantee of checks and truncation of checks and telegraph cables. The term does not include payments made by check, bill of exchange or similar paper instruments in an electronic terminal. ACH transfers are typically used for a number of popular money management software packages (eg, Checkfree® and Quicken®). These transfers are relatively cheap and are authorized in one or two days. Currently, security against fraud is completely carried out through the previous system (ACH) that confirms the transfer through the Federal Banking system. In November 1978, Congress enacted the Electronic Funds Transfer Law with Title IX for the Consumer Credit Protection Act (15 USC §1693). In 1979, Regulation E, issued by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, was intended to implement and carry out the purpose of the law (12 CFR Part 205). The purpose and reasoning of the law resulted from a discovery by Congress that the use of electronic systems for transfer funds provided substantial benefits to consumers. It is the purpose of the law to provide a basic framework that establishes the rights, responsibilities and duties of the participant in electronic funds transfer systems. The main purpose of the law, however, was to provide rights for the individual consumer, and Regulation E was primarily intended to realize that purpose. The above goal is reduced to the flow of paper instruments and transactions in order to eliminate or significantly reduce the time and cost included in the collection process. According to the law, the recipient of an electronic funds transfer is not allowed to complete the transfer until the existence and sufficiency of the funds to be transferred is confirmed. By applying the machine-readable cut-off of electromagnetic wave emission of the present invention to be set in an EFT or EFT authentication code suspended within a check with ordinary appearance, the suspended EFT check and the availability of funds that are already set aside to accommodate the transfer can be carried out substantially faster. The EFT authentication code essentially comprises a macro-authentication code (MAC) or Data Encryption Standard Code (DES). For example, as illustrated in Figure 16, the consumer 12 issues a check carrying the suspended EFT 230 to a carrier 110 which then presents them to a deposit bank 112. The deposit bank 112 then sorts it, extracts the EFT suspended 230, verifies the authenticity of the suspended EFT (intrinsically 132 and extrinsically 130 via request to the service office 122) to the point at which the physical document can be deleted. The suspended EFT will then be submitted directly to FEDNET for transfer of funds from one account to another. A detailed discussion of the terms used above appears in the Special Disclosure: Electronic Money, IEEE Spectrum February 1997, which is hereby included as a reference. An additional advantage of the embodiments described above is that the supporting documentation (for example the prepayment file 88, the paid item file 125, the payment information 142) that tracks the circulation of secure documents while They are an automatic secondary product of the process also satisfies the requirements of record keeping for estate recovery by the state. According to state law, a percentage (for example 85%) of the funds in a payment system is allowed to return to the state or be recovered again by the issuing entity by remaining uncollected or unpaid for a predetermined period. of time (typically three to seven years depending on the state). In addition, the two-tier approach to verification of secure documents described above as intrinsic and extrinsic verification not only allows verification at the Point of Sale (POS) and every other point in the circulation of the secure document but also provides a basis for remote data (e.g., advance payment file 88, paid item file 125, payment information 142) that is substantially impossible to fraudulently alter in accordance with and in the precise manner that the secure document itself has been altered. In this way, if a discrepancy is discovered as a result of extrinsic verification processes and / or intrinsic verification, the secure document will be labeled as fraudulent. A further embodiment using the authentication methods described above in the sections for generation of secure documents and tracking of operations is a traveler's card with signature that follows such documents as a negotiable instrument, a credit card or traveler's check, as illustrated in Figure 19. It should be noted that such documents need not in fact have a human-readable representation of the user's signature in order to substantially eliminate the potential for counterfeiting. Any document that benefits from authenticating the user's signature in a remote location to the credit card storage by comparing it against a previously signed signature card that is inaccessible to unauthorized users could have advantages with this embodiment. Said document is printed with machine-readable code comprising an optionally encoded and compressed bitmap of the user's signature that has been signed on the card with signature typically at the opening of the account or under equivalent circumstances well known in the art. In order to verify the signature of the user in the document or card, the merchant scans the document or card and the associated hardware and software provide a visual image of the signature of the previously signed user from the bitmap encoded in the document or card. The merchant then visually compares the handwritten signature of the person attempting to use the document or card with the visual image derived from the bitmap and if they are substantially similar the authentication is successful. In this way, the information contained in the typical signature card travels with the document or card, allowing those without access to the physical signature card to conduct the signature analysis. This also allows the consumer to carry information typically contained only on the signed card without it being visibly apparent to a potential counterfeiter., as in the case of credit cards that carry blocks of signatures of the prior art. Although the invention has been shown and described with respect to the best way of the embodiments thereof, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing and several other changes, omissions and additions in the form and details thereof. they can be made in the present without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. A secure document that includes: a) a substrate; b) an ultraviolet trimming field coated on at least a portion of the substrate; c) machine-readable indications printed on the substrate, the indications are encoded with data representing a physical characteristic of the document.
2. The secure document of claim 1 wherein the indicia are encoded with a physical characteristic of the ultraviolet trimming field.
The secure document of claim 2 wherein the physical characteristic of the ultraviolet trimming field comprises a wavelength of light required to stimulate the coating to a predetermined emission spectrum.
4. The secure document of claim 2 wherein the physical characteristic of the ultraviolet trimming field comprises a wavelength of light emitted at exposure to a predetermined source of electromagnetic energy.
5. The secure document of claim 2 wherein the machine-readable indicia is a bar code symbol that is printed substantially on the ultraviolet trimming field.
6. The secure document of claim 2 further comprising a plurality of fields filled with information suitable for use as a gift coupon.
7. The secure document of claim 2 further comprising a plurality of fields filled with information suitable for use as a bank draft.
8. The secure document of claim 2 further comprising a plurality of fields filled with information suitable for use as a check.
9. The secure document of claim 2 further comprising a plurality of fields filled with information suitable for use as a food stamp.
10. The secure document of claim 2, further comprising a plurality of data fields, the data fields with information related to an operation to be implemented by the document, the data fields comprise readable human information substantially superimposed on a Ultraviolet trimming field.
11. The secure document of claim 10, further comprising machine-readable indictions encoded with at least a portion of human readable information in relation to an operation to be implemented by the document.
The secure document of claim 2, further comprising a data field with machine-readable secondary indications encoded with specific information to a user of the document.
13. The secure document of claim 12 wherein the information specific to a user of the document comprises biometric information of the user.
14. The secure document of claim 12 wherein the specific information for a user of the document comprises the user's infometric information. .fifteen.
A method for generating a secure document comprising the steps of: a) coating an ultraviolet trimming field on at least a portion of a substrate; b) coding a machine-readable symbol with data representing a physical characteristic of the document; and c) printing the machine-readable indications on the substrate.
16. The method of claim 15 wherein the indications are encoded with a physical characteristic of the ultraviolet trimming field.
The method of claim 16 wherein the physical characteristic of the ultraviolet trimming field comprises a wavelength of light necessary to stimulate the coating for a predetermined emission spectrum.
The method of claim 16 wherein the physical characteristic of the ultraviolet trimming field comprises a wavelength of light emitted when there is exposure to a predetermined source of electromagnetic energy.
The method of claim 16 wherein the machine-readable indications are a bar code symbol that is prints substantially on the field of ultraviolet trimming.
The method of claim 16 wherein the machine-readable symbol is coded and printed substantially at the same time as the coating step.
The method of claim 16 wherein the machine-readable symbol is coded and printed substantially apart from the coating step by a secondary process.
22. The method of claim 16 further comprising the step of printing a plurality of data fields in the document, the data fields comprise information related to an operation to be implemented by means of the document, the data fields comprise human readable information that substantially overlaps the ultraviolet clipping field.
The method of claim 22 wherein the document further comprises machine-readable indicia encoded with at least a portion of the human-readable information related to a transaction to be implemented by the document.
24. The method of claim 16 further comprising the step of. printing of a data field in the document, the data field comprises machine-readable secondary indications encoded with information specific to a user of the document.
25. The method of claim 16 wherein the specific information for a user of the document comprises biometric information of the user.
26. The method of claim 16 wherein the specific information for a user of the document comprises the user's infometric information.
27. A method for verifying a secure document, the secure document comprises a substrate, an ultraviolet trimming field coated on at least a portion of the substrate, machine-readable indications printed on the substrate, the indications are encoded with data representing a characteristic physical of the document, the method includes the steps of: a) mediate the physical characteristic of the document; b) explore the machine-readable indications; c) decode the data that represents a physical characteristic of the document; d) compare the measured physical characteristic with the decoded physical characteristic; and e) indicate the verification of the document when the comparison step provides results within a predefined tolerance.
The method of claim 27 wherein the indications are encoded with a physical characteristic of the ultraviolet trimming field, and wherein the step for measuring the physical characteristic of the document comprises the step of measuring the physical characteristic of the ultraviolet trimming field.
The method of claim 28 wherein the physical characteristic of the ultraviolet trimming field comprises a wavelength of light required to stimulate the coating for a predetermined emission spectrum.
30. The method of claim 28 wherein the physical characteristic of the ultraviolet trimming field comprises a wavelength of light emitted upon exposure of a predetermined source of electromagnetic energy.
The method of claim 28 wherein the machine-readable indications are a symbol of the bar code that is printed substantially on the ultraviolet trimming field, and wherein the step to scan the machine-readable indications comprises the step of scanning the bar code symbol with a barcode scanning device.
32. The method of claim 28 wherein the secure document further comprises a plurality of data fields printed thereon, the data fields comprise information related to an operation to be implemented by the document, the data fields comprise readable information for human substantially superimposed on an ultraviolet trimming field wherein the document further comprises machine readable indicia encoded with at least a portion of the human readable information, the method further comprising the steps of scanning the machine readable indications for decoding the information human-readable, and compare the human-readable information in the document for the human-readable information decoded from the indications.
The method of claim 28 wherein the document further comprises a data field printed in the document, the data field comprises machine-readable secondary indications encoded with information specific to a user of the document, the method comprises the additional steps of scanning the machine-readable secondary indications to decode the specific information for a user of the document, and comparing the information obtained from a user of the document with the information specific to a user of the decoded document of the indications.
34. A method for generating a secure document with filigree comprising the steps of: a) coating an ultraviolet trimming field on at least a portion of a substrate; b) executing the document by a user, the user enters information on at least a portion of the clipping field; c) optically scanning the document in the area defined by the crop field to obtain an image of the information entered by the user on at least a portion of the crop field; d) coding a representation of the scanned image in a machine-readable symbol; and e) printing the machine-readable symbol in the document.
35. The method of claim 34 wherein the information entered by the user is the signature of the user.
36. The method of claim 34 wherein the information entered by the user corresponds to an operation with which the document is used.
37. The method of claim 36 wherein the information entered by the user corresponds to an operation with which the document is used which is a payment amount.
38. The method of claim 34 wherein the representation of the scanned image is a bitmap comprising pixel coordinates that digitally represent the relative place of the scanned image.
39. The method of claim 34 wherein the representation of the scanned image is a sum check.
40. A method to verify a secure document with watermark, the secure document comprises a substrate, an ultraviolet trimming field coated on at least a portion of the substrate, the trimming field has information entered by a user on at least a portion thereof, and a machine-readable symbol printed thereon, the machine-readable symbol is encoded with a representation of an image of the information entered by the user on at least the portion of the clipping field; the method comprises the steps of: a) optically scanning the document in the area defined by the crop field to obtain an image of the information entered by the user on at least a portion of the crop field; b) explore the machine-readable symbol; c) decoding the machine-readable symbol scanned to determine an expected representation of an image of the information entered by the user; d) compare the expected representation to the optically scanned image; and e) indicate that the document has been verified when the results of the comparison step are within the predefined tolerance.