A method for checking, in particular the authenticity and/or the nominal value of a value document having luminescent feature substances, comprises: a1) the step of carrying out a location-specific measurement of first luminescence intensities at a first emission wavelength at different locations of the value document that have the location coordinates, to thereby obtain measurement value pairs; b1) the step of statistically analyzing the first luminescence intensities measured in dependence on the individual location coordinates, by determining at least one statistical parameter using a statistical method; and c1) the step of comparing the statistical parameter determined in the step b1) with one or more threshold values.

According to one aspect, the invention relates to an optical safety component having a plasmonic effect intended to be observed by transmission, including two layers (101, 103) made of a transparent dielectric material, a metal layer (102) that is arranged between said layers made of dielectric material to form two dielectric-metal interfaces (105, 106), and is structured to form on at least a portion thereof corrugations (104) that are capable of coupling surface plasmon modes supported by said dielectric-metal interfaces with an incident light wave. The corrugations are arranged in a first coupling area in a first main direction and in at least one second coupling area separate from said first coupling area, in a second main direction that is substantially perpendicular to said first main direction, said metal layer being continuous on each one of said coupling areas.

Exemplary embodiments are disclosed herein for processing one or more sheets of sheet material in a deposit include various systems and processes. The systems and processes include receiving a sheet in a sheet-accepting device. Further, the systems and processes include detecting, by a sensor, characteristic information about the sheet. The characteristic information indicates whether the sheet is anomalous. The systems and processes also include encoding, by an encoding device, the sheet based on the characteristic information detected by the sensor. The encoding includes encoding the sheet with anomaly information when the characteristic information indicates that the sheet is anomalous. The anomaly information identifies a reason for indicating that the sheet is anomalous. Moreover, the systems and processes include disposing the encoded sheet in a container for further processing when the characteristic information indicates that the sheet is anomalous.

A paper currency number recognition apparatus and method. The apparatus comprises: a contact-type sensor (10) for acquiring paper currency image data; a white-light LED transmission light source board (20); an image acquisition processing board (40) which is integrated with an FPGA and a DSP, the FPGA being used for controlling ON/OFF of the white-light LED transmission light source board (20) and driving the contact-type sensor (10) to acquire an image, and the DSP being used for processing and recognizing the paper currency image data; and two pairs of position sensors (30) for detecting whether there is a paper currency entering the paper currency number recognition apparatus, wherein the white-light LED transmission light source board (20) has two light source modes which are strong and weak, and the two light source modes alternately provide a transmission light source for the contact-type sensor (10) to acquire the paper currency image data. The apparatus can acquire two white-light transmission images with different brightness of one and the same paper currency each time; therefore, the numbers of both new and old paper currencies can be effectively recognized, and the accuracy rate of paper currency number recognition is improved.

The invention relates to a method for securing a document including a visual element, carried out by a processing unit comprising processing means, the method comprising generation, from the visual element, of a reference security datum, and storage of the reference security datum,

wherein the reference security datum is generated by means of an algorithm configured so as to generate: for any image acquired from the visual element, a security datum whereof the differences relative to the reference security datum are less than a determined threshold, and for any image acquired on a different visual element, a security datum whereof the differences relative to the reference security datum are greater than said threshold.

A media handler for detecting counterfeit media is described. The media handler comprises: a plurality of discrete sensors distributed along a transport path operable to transport a media item, and a controller operable to receive signals from the plurality of discrete sensors. The controller is also operable to make a decision on validity of the transported media item based on the received signals.

A banknote deposit and withdrawal apparatus causes a control section to function as an inserted medium counting unit, a normal medium counting unit and an abnormal mediums number calculation unit. The normal medium counting unit again feeds out and conveys banknotes from the banknote deposit and withdrawal section to the verification section in a quantity corresponding to the number of inserted banknotes, conveys abnormal banknotes that are verified as abnormal by the verification section to the banknote deposit and withdrawal section together with following banknotes but conveys normal banknotes that are verified as normal by the verification section to the temporary holding section and retains the normal banknotes therein, and counts a number of normal banknotes. The abnormal mediums number calculation unit subtracts the number of normal banknotes from the number of inserted banknotes to calculate an abnormal banknotes number.

The invention relates to the field of the protection of security documents such as for example banknotes and identity documents against counterfeit and illegal reproduction. In particular, the invention relates to optical effect layers (OEL) showing a viewing-angle dependent optical effect, devices and processes for producing said OEL and items carrying said OEL, as well as uses of said optical effect layers as an anti-counterfeit means on documents. The OEL comprises a plurality of non-spherical magnetic or magnetizable particles, which are dispersed in a coating composition comprising a binder material, wherein in at least a loop-shaped area of the OEL at least a part of the plurality of non-spherical magnetic or magnetizable particles are oriented such that their longest axis is substantially parallel to the plane of the OEL, and wherein, in a cross-section perpendicular to the OEL and extending from the center of the central area, the longest axis of the oriented particles present in the loop-shaped area forming the impression of the loop-shaped body follow a tangent of either a negatively curved or a positively curved part of a hypothetical ellipse or circle.

Embodiments of systems and methods for directly reading and verifying characters on a personalized document, are provided. A surface of the personalized document is illuminated independently or simultaneously by first and second light sources. The first light source has a ring shape, surrounds the personalized document in 360 degree, and transmits a grazing incident light to illuminate the surface of the personalized document. An incident light from the second light source is reflected by a beam splitter and illuminates the surface of the personalized document in a direction generally perpendicular to the surface. Light reflected from the surface of the personalized document in a direction generally perpendicular to the surface thereof is collected by a camera.

A method involves transferring a transmittal data block from a transmitting device via an Ethernet connection to a receiving device which has a storage for storing a transferred transmittal data block, and a processor for at least partially processing the transferred transmittal data block stored in the storage. The transmitting device forms from the data of the transmittal data block a sequence of Ethernet packets, comprising respectively management data and a transmittal data sub-block. The receiving device receives the Ethernet packets of the respective sequence and, while employing at least a part of the management data, writes the transmittal data sub-blocks of the received Ethernet packets of the sequence of Ethernet packets for the transmittal data block to the storage, wherein not upon or after the writing each of the transmittal data sub-blocks an interrupt is sent to the processor.