Method And Apparatus For The Detection Of Digital Watermarks For Instant Credential Authentication

Abstract

A portable hand-held device for use in authenticating documents includes a camera for capturing images from the document to be authenticated as well as on-board computer-implemented instructions to capture and analyze Digitally Watermarked images and output an indication as to whether the document is authentic or not authentic.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A handheld apparatus for assessing the authenticity of selected documents comprising:
 an image capture device to capture an image of the selected document;   a processor and a computer readable medium to detect in one or more captured images a presence of one or more digitally water marked (DWM) images;
 the processor processing the DWM to extract a DWM payload and determine whether the document is authentic or non-authentic; and 
 an indicator which indicates to a user whether the document is authentic or not authentic.