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Description  |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a security system for selectively enabling
or inhibiting operation of a document processing apparatus such as a
copier or facsimile transmission apparatus.
In general, security systems for controlling copying of documents are
known. For example, various systems have been proposed wherein
confidential documents are printed on paper having particular physical
characteristics and/or with ink having particular characteristics that
prevents the copier apparatus from perceiving the printed matter. Examples
of such systems are described in U.S. Pats. No. 4,118,122 issued to Rees
et al on Oct. 3, 1978; 4,025,673 issued to Reinnagel on May 24, 1977;
3,852,088 issued to Godlewski et al issued on Dec. 3, 1974; 3,831,007
issued to Braun on Aug. 20, 1974; and 3,807,852 issued to Hoydic issued on
Apr. 30, 1974. Other such systems are described in Hildenbrandt "Document
Security for Copiers" IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Volume 19 No. 9,
February 1977; Bruce, "Document Copy Prevention" IBM Technical Bulletin
Volume 18 No. 1, June 1975; and Weinberg "Document Copying Inhibitor
Method" IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Volume 17, No. 12, May 1975.
Other systems detect particular characteristics of the paper or ink or
preprinted indicia on paper to identify confidential documents and inhibit
copier operation. Examples of such systems are described in Boggs et al,
"Copier Incorporating Document Detection System," IBM Technical Disclosure
Bulletin Volume 15, No. 7 December 1972; Harr et al, "`No-Copy` Attachment
for Copier" IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Volume 17 No. 11 April 1975;
Simpson, "Copier Document Security" IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin
Volume 17 No. 11, April 1975; Galli et al, "Copier Security System," IBM
Technical Disclosure Bulletin Volume 18 No. 3, August 1975; Queener,
"Document Copy Prevention" IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Volume 18
No. 6 November 1975; Bruce, "Unauthorized Copy Prevention", IBM Technical
Disclosure Bulletin Volume 18 No. 1, June 1975; Guido, "Preventing Copying
of Classified Information" IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Volume 19 No.
4, September 1976; U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,082 issued to James et al on Aug.
3, 1971; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,977,785 issued to Harris on Aug. 31, 1976.
For example, Guido describes a system wherein preprinted bar-codes are
detected by a scanner and compared by a microprocessor to classification
ratings and passwords maintained in a read only memory. The person
operating the copier is then required to enter a password before copying
of a confidential document can be effected.
The Harris patent describes a system where preprinted coded information on
a document is optically correlated with a reference pattern, to inhibit
operation of the copying machine in the absence of proper correlation.
Other systems utilize a metallic or conductive tag or a conductive paper to
prevent copying of secured information. Examples of such systems are
described in Boggs et al, "Unauthorized Copy Prevention" IBM Technical
Disclosure Bulletin Volume 15 No. 12, May 1973; Boggs et al "Gradiometer
Document Detector for Copy Security" IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin
Volume 16 No. 6, November 1983; Bacon, "Secure Document Feature for Copy
Machines" IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Volume 17 No. 11, 1975; and
Bacon et al "Secure Document Feature for Copy Machines" IBM Technical
Disclosure Bulletin Volume 18 No. 4, September 1975.
Other systems, such as described in Marinace, "Copier System for
Confidential Papers" IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Volume 15 No. 7,
December 1972 requires that indicia of user identification be provided the
copying machine before the machine will operate.
Security systems for facsimile transmission apparatus are also, in general,
known. An example of such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,261,911
issued to Bailey et al Jul. 19, 1966. Security systems for use in a
computer system having remote terminals are also known. See, e.g. U.S.
Pat. No. 3,984,637 issued on Oct. 5, 1976 to Caudill et al.
The prior art systems tend to be disadvantageous in that they require that
secured documents be printed on specially treated paper stock having
predetermined characteristics, or with particular ink, or on paper bearing
preprinted visual indicia, e.g. particular patterns or bar-codes, that
tend to be subject to masking by an unauthorized user.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a copy security system which does not
require the use of specifically treated or prepared paper stock, and is
not susceptible to masking of indicia by unauthorized users.
In accordance with the present invention, at least a portion of the text of
the document is read and correlated against a predetermined code to
determine whether the text contains a predetermined sequence of
alphanumerics, symbols, or the like. The copier or facsimile machine is
inhibited or enabled in accordance with the results of the correlation.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
A preferred exemplary embodiment will hereinafter be described with
reference to the appended drawing, wherein like numerals denote like
elements and
FIG. 1 is a block schematic of a copy security system in accordance with
the present invention; and
FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart of an exemplary correlation program for use
in the system of FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT
Referring now to FIG. 1, a security system 10 in accordance with the
present invention, is adapted for cooperating with a photocopier or
facsimile transmission device or the like, generally indicated as 50.
Copier/facsimile apparatus 50 suitably includes an exposure surface 5 for
receiving and aligning a -document 54 to be copied, transmitted or
otherwise scanned in predetermined disposition to respective exposure
lamps 56 and copying and/or scanning mechanisms (not shown). Apparatus 50
also includes conventional operation control circuitry 58 for effecting
operation of the lamps, copying and/or scanning mechanisms.
Security system 10 suitably comprises an optical code reader 12 coupled,
through a suitable buffer/interface 14, to a conventional microprocessor
16. Microprocessor 16 in turn communicates with a conventional
programmable read only memory (PROM) 18 and random access memory (RAM) 20.
In addition, microprocessor 16 also communicates with suitable
driver/interface circuitry 22, cooperating with operation control
circuitry 58 of copier/facsimile apparatus 50.
Microprocessor 16 suitably also communicates with an alarm device 26,
preferably located remotely from the copier or facsimile apparatus, and a
misalignment indicator 32, located on or proximate to cooperating
apparatus 50, as well as, if desired, a suitable non-volatile random
access memory 40 and coin meter 42.
If microprocessor 16 determines that a predetermined character word, or
sequence of characters and spaces or the like is present (or that a
predetermined character, word or sequence of characters is not present),
microprocessor 16 will generate a control signal through suitable
driver/interface circuitry 22 to the control circuitry of the cooperating
copier/facsimile machine.
PROM 18 contains the operating program of system 10, as well as a bank of
acceptable character codes and indicia of one or more correlation
criteria, i.e. correlation programs, as will be explained.
Document 54 is disposed on exposure surface 52 of copier/facsimile machine
50. As will be explained, through operations upon the stored banks of
acceptable character codes, various misalignments of document 54 on
surface 52 can be accommodated. Suitably, document 54 can be disposed on
the exposure surface with 2 degrees of freedom: document 54 can be
disposed top up or top down, but not obliquely on exposure surface 52.
Document 54 is suitably illuminated by one or more lamps 56 in cooperating
apparatus 50 (or by lamps associated with scanner 12).
Optical code reader 12 is disposed to scan document 54 when aligned on
exposure surface 52, and suitably comprises a photodiode array 28
cooperating with a suitable scanning mechanism and/or multiplexer 30.
Optical code reader 12 scans at least a predetermined portion of document
54 and generates a sequence of digital character code signals
representative of the characters of text within the scanned portion of
document 54. Photodiode array 28 can be physically scanned to sense
characters in the predetermined portion of document 54, such as, for
example, raster-scanned, or photodiode array 28 can be sufficiently large
to cover the entirety of the predetermined portion, and electronically
scanned, or a combination of electronic and physical scanning can be
utilized, as is well known in the art.
The respective digital character code signals generated by optical code
reader 12 are applied, through suitable buffer/interface circuitry 14 and
are routed by microprocessor 16 to RAM 20 for temporary storage. The
respective locations in RAM 20 are suitably correlated to the individual
(scan) lines of document 54 (e.g., each line of document 54 as scanned has
a group of locations in RAM 20 associated therewith), in which the
character codes associated with that line are stored.
The nature and alignment of document 54 is then tested for compatability
with system 10. The respective scanned character codes stored in RAM 20
are compared to the acceptable character codes stored in PROM 18. If the
character codes generated by optical code reader 12 are not among the
acceptable character codes, it is indicative of possible reversal or
misalignment of document 54 on exposure surface 52.
The respective bits of the scanned character codes are therefore suitably
reordered, in accordance with a predetermined algorithm, to "effectively"
transform the codes to represent characters "translated" or "reoriented"
with respect to the scanner, when the original scanned character codes do
not correlate with the acceptable code bank. More specifically, in
generating the character code in respect of a particular character space
(pixel), photodiode array 28 of optical code reader 12 generates a
plurality of signals indicative of the presence or absence of marking in
respective associated portions of the pixel. The respective signals are
provided in a predetermined order indicative of the portions of the
character space (pixel) which they represent. Thus, if, for example,
document 54 is disposed top down on surface 52, the characters will appear
top down within the respective pixel. The code word generated by scanner
12 would reflect such misalignment, and the order of the bits thereof
would be, e.g. reversed from the proper code for the character.
Accordingly, by reordering the bits of the scanned character code words,
and correlating the reordered codes with acceptable code banks, various
misalignments of document 54 can be detected and accommodated.
Alternatively, reordered character codes can be included in PROM 18, and
the scanned character codes compared to each bank of acceptable codes.
Appropriate cognizance of detected misalignment is taken in the
correlation programs. For example, the order of the lines, and characters
within the lines, are reversed when document 54 is disposed top down on
surface 52.
Misalignment accommodation programs can be provided for various types of
misalignments of document 54 on exposure surface 52. Suitably, system 10
will accommodate at least documents disposed top down on surface 52.
If the stored character codes do not match the acceptable codes stored in
PROM 18 initially, or after reversal or other compensatory procedures,
misalignment indicator 32 can be activated and copying inhibited. An
override can be provided, if desired, to permit copying of nonstandard
format documents.
After it is determined that document 54 is compatible with system 10, the
scanned text is correlated with predetermined criteria stored in PROM 18
to determine whether or not the document is confidential or otherwise
secured. A correlation program stored in PROM 18 is executed by
microprocessor 16 to determine whether or not one or more predetermined
character, symbol or sequence of characters, symbols and/or spaces, or the
like are contained in the text, or within a particular portion of the
text. In accordance with the results of the correlation, microprocessor 16
then inhibits or enables apparatus 50 (by selectively generating an
appropriate control signal through driver/interface 22 to control circuit
58 of apparatus 50), actuates remote alarm 26 and/or effects other
appropriate actions, as will be explained.
System 10 can be programmed to operate with a wide variety of enabling or
inhibiting criteria, which may vary greatly in complexity and
sophistication. For example, microcomputer 16 and PROM 18 can be
programmed to inhibit operation of the control circuitry 58 of the
cooperating copier/facsimile machine if the word "confidential" is
detected within a predetermined area of document 54, e.g. the top ten scan
lines. Microprocessor 16 can also be programmed to effect operation of
alarm 26, suitably disposed at a remote location such as a security office
to alert appropriate authorities that an attempt is being made to copy
confidential or secret materials. Steganographic encoding can also be
detected and operated upon by system 10 to prevent copying or transmission
of a document or activate an alarm. Such steganographic encoding permits
discrimination of the documents by system 10, without overtly alerting the
person making the unauthorized copy/transmission. Even if the unauthorized
copier was generally aware of the system and masked any non-encrypted
criteria indicia (e.g. the word "confidential") on the documents, the
steganographic code criteria would be detected and appropriate action
effected by system 10. For example, remote alarm 26 may be actuated and
apparatus 50 inhibited (or not inhibited as desired).
System 10 can also be used to tabulate the number of copies made of
particular documents or classes of documents. For example, respective
copyright notices can be utilized as criteria code indicia. A particular
location in non-volatile memory 40 can be assigned to each copyright
notice code. Each time a particular copyright notice is detected by system
10, a count contained in the associated location in non-volatile memory 40
is incremented. In this manner, a royalty account can be maintained for
each of the copyright holders.
If desired, a suitable coin meter 42 (apparatus for adapting the
copier/facsimile machine for coin operation) can be integrated into the
system. Upon detection of one of the copyright notice codes, coin meter 42
would be actuated and deposit of a prerequisite amount of money would be
required before the copier/facsimile machine operation control circuitry
24 would be actuated.
Referring now to FIG. 2, an exemplary correlation scheme will be described.
In the particular example, a specific document format is defined: all
non-relevant lines preceding relevant text can contain no more than 30
characters per line; the first three lines of relevant text contain at
least 30 characters per line, and occur within the first 20 scan lines of
the document. In the particular example, operation of the copier/facsimile
apparatus is enabled only if the letter "P" occurs seven times in the
first three lines of text.
As previously noted, the stored character codes are stored in groups of
locations in RAM 20 corresponding to the scan lines by optical code reader
12. A scan line count (SL), a relevant text line count (TL) and a
character count are initialized to zero. The stored scanned character data
is then analyzed on a line-by-line basis to determine if the particular
scan line is "relevant" text. The characters in the first scan line (SL=0)
stored in RAM 20 are counted to determine whether the character count is
greater than 30. If the character count is not greater than 30, the scan
line count (SL) is incremented and the next scan line of characters stored
in RAM 20 is addressed and analyzed. This process is repeated until a
relevant text line (containing 30 characters) is detected or more than 20
scan lines are addressed without detecting a relevant text line. When a
relevant text line having a character count greater than 30 is detected,
the relevant text line count (TL) is incremented, and the number of
occurrences of the letter P in the line is counted. If the P count is not
equal to seven, concurrently with the relevant text line count being equal
to three, the scan line count (SL) is again incremented and the next scan
line of data in RAM 20 addressed. This procedure continues until a P count
equal to seven is detected in the first three lines of text, in which
case, copier/facsimile machine operation control circuitry 58 is enabled
and actuated, or until three lines of text are scanned, and the letter P
does not occur seven times, or 20 lines of data are scanned without
detecting three lines of text, in which cases apparatus 50 is inhibited.
It will be understood that while various of the conductors/connections
shown in the drawing are depicted as single lines, they are not so shown
in a limiting sense, and may comprise plural conductors/connections as is
understood in the art. Further, the above description is of a preferred
exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and the invention is not
limited to the specific forms shown and described. For example, a
plurality of different correlation routines may be maintained in PROM 18,
and utilized selectively, or sequentially in respect of a given document.
Moreover, essentially any correlation code may be utilized, and such codes
can be as simple or as complex as the application requires. Also, when
used in conjunction with a facsimile machine already including an optical
code reader or other mechanism for generating character codes, the
existing mechanism can be utilized in system 10, and a separate optical
code reader 12 would not be necessary. Also, if desired, in order to
economize on memory, only the relevant text of a document can be stored in
RAM 20, and the header, letterhead, etc., not relevant to the criteria,
can be omitted. This would be accomplished by performing, for example,
character count steps upon the data before storing the data in RAM 20.
Similarly, if desired, the comparison of the detected character patterns
to acceptable patterns can be incorporated into the correlation routine.
Similarly, memory conservation routines can be utilized. These and other
modifications may be made in the design and arrangement of the elements
without departing from the spirit of the invention as expressed in the
appended claims.
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