A method of determining a currency type and denomination of a bill inserted into a bill acceptor includes receiving the bill inserted into the bill acceptor, the bill acceptor being a single bill acceptor accepting bills of a plurality of currency types, scanning the inserted bill after receiving the inserted bill and determining physical attributes of the inserted bill, and comparing the physical attributes of the inserted bill with attribute characteristics of entries stored in a database. The method also includes determining whether the inserted bill has a matching entry in the database, determining the currency type and denomination of the inserted bill upon determining that the inserted bill has the matching entry in the database, and indicating the determined currency type and denomination and that the inserted bill was successfully accepted in response to determining that the inserted bill has the matching entry in the database.

A retroreflective element, for example a retroreflector or a retroreflective film, includes a regular arrangement of multiple reflective triples, each having three side surfaces that form an angle between 88° and 92°, preferably between 89° 50′ and 90° 10′ relative to one another, and particularly preferably stand perpendicularly on one another. At least one selected triple in the arrangement has a security element having at least one diffractive structure on at least one first side surface. A modulation depth of the security element is selected in such a manner that the security element cannot be perceived when the retroreflective element is illuminated at an illumination angle <10°.

The present invention provides methods, reagents, and apparatus for authenticating and identifying products. Methods of the invention are easy to implement but difficult to replicate, simulate, alter, transpose, or tamper with. In some embodiments, the present invention relates to a product authentication code defined by a frequency array of a population of entities, and an item identifier defined by the specific manifestation of the product authentication code.

There is provided systems and methods for generating a multi-layered watermark. The watermark incorporating one or more symbols for placement on a document. The method including: positioning a base layer of the watermark at one or more locations on the document; positioning the one or more symbols overtop of at least a portion of the base layer; and positioning a braid layer of the watermark overtop of the ID, the braid layer and the base layer are substantially aligned, the braid layer including a copy of the base layer incorporating a pattern. The pattern can include one or more of discolorations, holes, and sections of increased opacity.

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 system and method for automatic identification of photocopied documents is disclosed wherein the method is performed by capturing an image of a marked printed document; decoding a digital watermark embedded in the image, obtaining a mark identifier; recovering, by searching a database, at least one calibration parameter associated with the mark identifier; applying a discrete Fourier transform to the image, obtaining a frequency matrix; obtaining at least one maximum frequency value in the frequency matrix; comparing the at least one maximum frequency value with at least one calibration parameter; determining, on the basis of the comparison, if the marked printed document is an original document or a photocopied document.

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 document is received by a first computer system from a second computer system. The document is received through a network. A document level security code is received by the first computer system through a second network. A content level security code is received by the first computer system and through the second network. A first validation operation is performed by the first computer system. The performance is based on the document level security code. The first computer system determines the document is an altered document. The determination is based on the performance of the first validation operation. A second validation operation is executed on the altered document. The second validation operation is executed by the first computer system and in response to the determination. An alteration status of the document is detected by the first computer and based on the second validation operation.

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for the production and labeling of objects in a manner suitable for the prevention and detection of counterfeiting. Thus, the system incorporates a variety of features that make unauthorized reproduction difficult. In addition, the present invention provides a system and method for providing a dynamically reconfigurable watermark, and the use of the watermark to encode a stochastically variable property of the carrier medium for self-authentication purposes.

A fraud confirmation assisting apparatus includes a light source, a reading sensor, and processing circuitry. The light source irradiates an object to be read with light in at least an invisible wavelength range. The reading sensor has sensitivity at least in the invisible wavelength range. The processing circuitry performs a reading operation on the object to be read by a combination of the light source and the reading sensor, and outputs a plurality of pieces of fraud confirmation information based on read information output from the reading sensor by the reading operation.