KINEGRAM designed for Optical Machine Authentication

According to the 2016 annual report of the World Tourism Organization, there were almost 1.2 billion international tourist arrivals in 2015. The report also predicts that the number of international tourist arrivals will reach 1.8 billion over the next 15 years.

Over the next 10 to 15 years, the pioneers in border management processes are predicting the wide-spread deployment of so-called «walk-through» gates. These systems would be capable of capturing biometics such as a facial biometric of the traveller on the move and simultaneausly biographic data using far-field communication from a physical token or a smart phone device. The recorded data must be stored either in a pre-registration database or in a chip embedded in a physical token or smartphone carried by the traveler. This means that physical security features will be needed in the digital future.

The ICAO NTWG has recently issued a technical report on «Best Practice Guidelines for Optical Machine Authentication».
The idea is to present guidelines for the standardization of processes using commercially available document scanners used at automatic or semi-automatic border controls.
These document scanners perform both electronic inspection of the chip and optical inspection of the physical features like the KINEGRAM using three different light sources:

Within a few seconds, using software algorithms or check routines, the document model (i.e. document type, country and date of issuance) is identified using optical character recognition and compared with a reference document stored in the authentication database. Pass/Fail criteria are predefined so that a decision can be made on the authenticity of the document.

The KINEGRAM security device can now be designed for optical machine authentication, by including features such as special metallization patterns and UV print which can be inspected using standardized light sources in commercially-available reader devices.

Automatic document inspection processes as well as the machine-assisted manual inspection processes can be made more reliable and secure if the document readers are capable of inspecting complex security features in the KINEGRAM.

OVD Kinegram and the reader manufacturer Regula have successfully pioneered new solutions to fulfill these requirements.

If you need more information about Optical Machine Authentication please fill in the contact form or call on +41 41 555 20 00.