Geometric distortion signatures for printer identification

Abstract

We present a forensic technique for analyzing a printed image in order to trace the originating printer. Our method, which is applicable for commonly used electrophotographic (EP) printers, operates by exploiting the geometric distortion that these devices inevitably introduce in the printing process. In the proposed method, first a geometric distortion signature is estimated for an EP printer. This estimate is obtained using only the images printed on the printer and without access to the internal printer controls. Once a database of printer signatures is available, the printer utilized to print a test image is identified by computing the geometric distortion signature from test image and correlating the computes signatures against the printer signatures in the database. Experiments conducted over a corpus of EP printers demonstrate that the geometric distortion signatures of test documents exhibit high correlation with the corresponding printer signatures and a low correlation with other printer signatures. The method is therefore quite promising for forensic printer identification applications. We highlight several of the capabilities and challenges for the method.

High Capacity Color Barcodes: Per Channel Data Encoding via Orientation Modulation in Elliptical Dot Arrays

“…The proposed method inherently carries an additional security feature by enabling extraction of the geometric distortion signature from a printed barcode, which can be then utilized to uniquely identify/verify the type of the source printer [36]. This additional feature can be particularly useful in commercial and security applications to ensure that barcode is legitimately produced and to keep track of unauthorized producers from printed barcodes.…”

Authentication of currency notes through printing technique verification

“…However, it was also experienced that as a printer profile depends on its toner level, different profiles corresponding to different toner levels are to be made for the same printer. However, such dependence has been avoided in a recent study by Bulan et al [9] who also used geometric distortions to generate printer signatures. Geometric/structural information is also used by Li et al [10,11] for identifying colour printers.…”

“…On the other hand, second approach does use color/gray level features for printer identification. The studies reported in [7][8][9][10][11][12] adopted the first approach. In 2002, Oliver and Chen [7] described a machine-vision based print quality analyzer to derive a particular printer's characteristics and identify printing technology.…”

Detecting documents forged by printing and copying

“…Kong et al [7] established a projective transformation model to estimate such geometric distortions. Bulan et al [8] computed the geometric distortion signature from printed halftone images to trace the source laser printer by estimating the variations in the center positions of halftone dots.…”

“…Although document forensics works based on scanned images, the methods are significantly different. Recent research in document forensics has focused on printer identification [2][3][4][5][6][7][8], forgery detection [9][10][11][12], and scanner identification [13][14][15][16].…”