BOOTH N°D09
INVISIBLE SECURITY FEATURES
UV
The devil is in the detail
Verify IDs for Africa
UV checks – an essential security function of passport readers by today’s standards – are used in multiple parts of the
current South African passport. Firstly, a UV check examines the special security paper for UV dullness. Secondly, a UV
check examines printing invisible to the naked eye. For example, the inscription REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA appears in
UV light only.
Thirdly, UV checks reveal the fluorescent fibers and pigments – dots – which are also used in the South African travel
document as a security feature.
Any up-to-date passport authentication solution should be able to check these security features automatically – by
comparing scanned data with the latest database. Technically, this is called pattern matching and pattern verification:
the authentication software cross-checks security features of the document with the so-called “regions of interest” of the
genuine document.
INTRODUCTION
The world is colorful – and so are our IDs. A good ID is a sophisticated tool that protects our identity and lets us travel safely
in the world.
INVISIBLE PERSONAL INFORMATION (IPI)
But what’s beneath a document? How does it offer security? And how could those security features be verified quickly and
automatically?
In this article we are focusing on the South African passport1, going through its security features one by one, with special
reference Machine-Assisted Verification: how documents can be processed automatically by an identity document reader.
IPI, developed by JURA, is an exceptional security feature that can be checked both manually and with an appropriate
scanner. Noise encoded in a face photo can be checked with a magnifying lens – or by running the right software algorithm
on the image taken by appropriate passport scanner. When decoded, the noise contains personal information on the
passport bearer. This ingenious feature stores personalized information in a format that is invisible to non-experts.
VISIBLE SECURITY FEATURES
SUMMARY
Machine verifiable security features of e-passports are of key importance in meeting the demands for today’s fast and
efficient border control management. The more such features – the safer the document.
MICROPRINT
Passport readers developed and manufactured by ARH are trained and prepared to check all the security features described
above. Top-of-the-line passport readers2 by ARH – matched with a continuously refreshed database and purpose-built
software – are capable of managing identity document scanning and verification in a matter of seconds. This is also true for a
passport with a range of so advanced security features as the current South African travel document.
As security features appearing in multiple parts of the travel document, microprints are hard-to-reproduce miniature symbols
which make it hard to make an illegal copy of the passport. Human inspection can easily check microprint authenticity with
an appropriately high-resolution document reader.
As countries tackle emerging concerns like maintaining home security, controlling border disputes and channeling mass
migration, they need to apply ID verification solutions that are reliable, secure and efficient at the same time. In short: tools by
a passport reader manufacturer where software and hardware development is in one hand.
LETTERSCREEN
LetterScreen, developed by Jura, is a special secondary portrait: a face image emerging from a wavy pattern of printed
words. Character thickness in the lines, similarly to a photomosaic, outline the features of the face. LetterScreen as a security
feature can be perfectly checked by automated passport reader methods as the curvatures of the wavy lines are calculated
from the MRZ personalization: a matching algorithm can cross-check the two sets of data. A prime example of robust and
spectacular authentication.
LetterScreen
RELIEF EMBOSSING
Microprint
This 3-dimensional feature can be checked by touching the document’s surface – or by a passport reader authentication
software, if the passport reader has appropriate side light illumination.
Optically Variable Ink (OVI)
Invisible Personal
Information (IPI)
HOLOGRAM
Multiple Laser Image (MLI)
They make passport forgery difficult by partially covering the face photo in the passport. Unfortunately, OVDs
(Optically Variable Device) make passport reading equally difficult, as they interfere with face photo scanning. Reflection Removal (RR) or anti-glare functions of passport readers can cope with OVDs by removing the hologram from the photograph
and displaying it as a separate image.
UV
OVI – OPTICALLY VARIABLE INK
Microprint
Virtually a must-have security feature of all identity documents, OVIs are texts or images printed in special ink that changes its
color – depending on the angle of the light beam. ARH has automated solutions specifically developed for certain identity
document types: color analysis reveals if the image or text in question was indeed printed in optically variable ink.
Hologram
Microprint
Relief
embossing
MRZ SECURITY CHARACTERS
The MRZ of the South African passport contains 2 lines of block capitals at the bottom of the identity page displaying the
name and other data of the bearer. Besides the separation marks <, these lines also contain so-called check digits,
calculated from alphanumeric data with a certain formula. This security feature can easily be checked by a passport reader –
much faster and more accurately than by humans.
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Machine Readable Zone
1
2
Image courtesy of Keesing Technologies.
For a range of available up-to-date passport readers, browse https://www.arh.hu/index.php/en/products.html#passportid
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