System and process for registering and later confirming a written or printed document is genuine and unaltered, while mitigating the risk of its loss

Abstract

A method for authenticating a document including: radio frequency scanning at least a portion of the document; optically scanning the document; generating a document data dependently upon the radio frequency scanning and optical scanning; comparing the generated data to stored data, the stored data being previously generated dependently upon a prior radio frequency scanning of the portion of the document and prior optical scanning of the document; and providing an output indicative of the document being authentic if the generated data is sufficiently identical to the stored data as determined by the comparing.

1 . A method for authenticating a document comprising:
 radio frequency scanning at least a portion of the document;   optically scanning the document;   generating document data dependently upon the radio frequency scanning and optical scanning;   comparing the generated document data to stored data, the stored data being previously generated dependently upon a prior radio frequency scanning of the portion of the document and prior optical scanning of the document; and   providing an output indicative of the document being authentic if the generated document data is sufficiently identical to the stored data as determined by the comparing.   
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising storing the stored data in a computer readable medium. 
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least portion of the document radio frequency scanned is a longitudinal portion of the document. 
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the longitudinal portion extends along substantially the entire document. 
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the at least portion of the document radio frequency scanned comprises a plurality of longitudinal portions of the document. 
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein each longitudinal portion extends along substantially the entire document. 
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein each longitudinal portion is mutually exclusive of each other longitudinal portion. 
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the radio frequency scanning comprises impinging a plurality of radio frequency responsive elements being substantially randomly disposed within the at least portion of the document with radio frequency energy, and detecting the response of the impinged radio frequency responsive elements. 
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the generating document data comprises encrypting. 
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the encrypting comprises encrypting data indicative of the optical scanning using data indicative of the radio frequency scanning. 
   
   
       11 . A system for authenticating a document comprising:
 a radio frequency document scanner;   an optical document scanner;   a memory storing document verification data associated with the document;   a computing system operatively connected to the radio frequency scanner, the optical scanner and the memory; and   computing system executable code accessible by the computing system and operative by the computing system to:
 receive data indicative of a radio frequency scan of at least a portion of the document from the radio frequency document scanner; 
 receive data indicative of an optical scan of the document from the optical document scanner; 
 generate document data dependently upon the received radio frequency and optical scan data; 
 access the memory to recover the document verification data; 
 compare the generated document data to the recovered document verification data, the document verification data being previously generated dependently upon a prior radio frequency scanning of the portion of the document and prior optical scanning of the document; and 
 provide an output indicative of the document being authentic if the generated document data is sufficiently identical to the recovered document verification data as determined by the comparing. 
   
   
   
       12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the memory is remote from the computing system. 
   
   
       13 . The system of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 a second radio frequency document scanner;   a second optical document scanner; and,   a second computing system operatively connected to the radio frequency scanner, the optical scanner and the memory;   wherein the second computing system is operative to execute the executable code to:
 receive data indicative of a radio frequency scan of at least a portion of the document from the second radio frequency document scanner; 
 receive data indicative of an optical scan of the document from the second optical document scanner; 
 generate second document data dependently upon the received second radio frequency and second optical scan data; 
 access the memory to recover the document verification data; 
 compare the generated second document data to the recovered document verification data; and 
 provide a second output indicative of the document being authentic if the generated second document data is sufficiently identical to the recovered document verification data. 
   
   
   
       14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the radio frequency document scanner, optical document scanner and computing system are locally connected to one-another. 
   
   
       15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the second radio frequency document scanner, second optical document scanner and second computing system are locally connected to one-another. 
   
   
       16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the first computing system and second computing system are remotely positioned from the memory and each other, respectively. 
   
   
       17 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the radio frequency scanning comprises impinging a plurality of radio frequency responsive elements being substantially randomly disposed within the at least portion of the document with radio frequency energy, and detecting the response of the impinged radio frequency responsive elements.