FRAUNHOFER-INSTITUT FÜR PRODUKTIONSANLAGEN UND KONSTRUKTIONSTECHNIK IPK
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1 Gadget
2 Stamp imprint
Fraunhofer Institute for Production
PROOF OF AUTHENTICITY
OF EU OFFICE STAMPS WITH
SIC STAMPULUS
Motivation
Systems and Design Technology IPK
Furthermore, in the movement of goods
the intensive testing of contracts, bills of
The certainly highest demand for detailed
delivery, custom and other accompanying
Pascalstr. 8-9
and objective testing of stamp imprints
documents is compulsory and necessary
10587 Berlin
exists for the control of personal docu-
since experiences of the recent past show
ments of individuals. Especially the massive
that especially on the Eastern border of the
increase of immigration into Central Europe
EU a remarkable high amount of forged
demands an intensive testing, which is
documents is being presented. The public
confronted with the problem that the
authorities know that the unauthorised re-
Contact
identity of an individual can often only be
Dr.-Ing. Bertram Nickolay, head of
determined by means of the presented
Security Technology department
personal documents. In these cases no
Telefon +49 30 39006-201
high-quality documents that could feature
[email protected]
additional security characteristics are avail-
not be in use for much longer, a report of
able. Often these documents contain only
the German custom authority forecasts the
Despite other claims that the application
further application of stamps for the comwww.ipk.fraunhofer.de
the decision if it is forged or an original has
ing 15 years, simultaneously an increasing
to be taken.
number of fraud offences is forecasted.
Especially technically versed forgeries,
have to be expected.
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Project
The department for security and testing technology
at the Fraunhofer IPK on behalf of Global Refund
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Germany in cooperation with the Custom Crime In-
Methodology
a testing module for the German custom stamp.
The testing of the stamp imprint takes place in a
number of phases. When the stamp imprint has
The automated stamp imprint testing of the custom
passed through all the phases, the partial results
stamp takes place on the basis of the digital copy of
can be assembled and analysed by the end of the
a stamp imprint on a paper-based document, in this
process.
case on the “Global Refund Cheque”. The testing
The end result will be available, according to the
serves the authenticity proof of the according stamp
recommendation of the ZKA, in form of one of the
characteristics. These characteristics have been
stamp imprint:
stated by the ZKA and are taken into account during the digital image analysis and especially in the
and here are no deviations.
according dimensioning and testing algorithms.
Forgery features are present.
The stamp imprint cannot be tested due to
image segments or stamp imprints, but encoded
be inspected separately).
of a stamp imprint possibly due to the application
For the experts of the ZKA we have developed an
of the stamp imprint itself on the document. A
extensive result logging. In this version all details
pictorial reconstruction or decoding of the numeric
parameters is not possible.
to identify the exact cause for the rejection of the
stamp imprint.
The testing module consists of an extensible framework application for the processing control and for
the treatment of digital stamp imprints as well as a
of the German custom stamp.
1 Stamp imprint
2 User interface of the
forensic tool for experts