Printed document control with verified unique watermarks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9723171-B2
Application number	US-201514968455-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2015
Priority date	Dec 14, 2015
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

Systems and methods are directed towards generating a verified unique watermark. More specifically, the systems and methods are directed towards generating a watermark that is as long as possible without any repetition. Such watermarks are possible by selecting characteristics of the watermark and methods for producing the watermarks (e.g., dandy rollers). By producing longer unique watermarks, users would be capable of generating longer rolls of paper whereby more sheets can be produced that each possesses a unique watermark. With the unique watermark, users can identify what information is printed on each sheet as well as authenticate the contents of each individual sheet.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for generating a verified unique watermark, the method comprising:
selecting two or more visible marks to be embedded into paper, wherein each of the selected marks are assigned to a unique roller of a plurality of rollers, each roller having a circumference measurement having a difference from a respective circumference of each other roller, and wherein the difference in circumference is an irrational number;
aligning the unique rollers to which the selected marks have been assigned;
generating a combined mark from the selected two or more visible marks assigned to the aligned unique rollers, wherein the generated combined mark is produced by the unique rollers patterning the selected marks onto the paper and reflects the difference in circumference being the irrational number; and
storing information associated with the generated combined mark and the roll of paper onto which the generated combined mark was patterned.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the two or more visible marks include a visible image.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the two or more visible marks include computer readable images.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the computer readable images includes barcodes.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the barcodes include QR codes.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the two or more visible marks corresponds to information about the customer and production information.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the two or more visible marks corresponds to information about the rollers.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the information about the rollers includes the offset of the rollers used to generate the combined mark, roller sizes, mark sizes, and lag between rollers.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the two or more visible marks corresponds to information about the paper.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the two or more visible marks correspond to a digital signature.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the number of visible marks selected is two.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the two unique rollers associated with the two selected visible marks have different circumferential lengths.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the two circumferential lengths for the rollers of each of the selected marks have a highest common factor of 1.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
cutting the patterned roll of paper into individual sheets;
scanning each cut sheet of paper, wherein the scanned cut sheet of paper identifies a portion of the generated combined mark present on the cut sheet; and
storing information associated with each cut sheet of paper, wherein the stored information is grouped with other stored information associated with each cut sheet of paper within a batch of paper.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
loading the cut sheet of paper into a printer, wherein the printer is capable of identifying the generated combined mark present on the cut sheet of paper;
scanning each cut sheet of paper loaded into the printer, wherein the scanning identifies the generated combined mark; and
retrieving information associated with the identified generated combined mark.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
printing information onto a particular loaded sheet of paper;
associating the printed information with the identified generated combined mark associated with the particular loaded sheet of paper; and
storing information regarding the associated printed information and the identified generated combined mark corresponding to the particular loaded sheet of paper.

Assignees

• Dell Software Inc
• Sonicwall Inc

Inventors

• Liddicott Samuel James

Classifications

• B41M3/10

  Watermarks · CPC title

• G06K19/086

  with markings consisting of randomly placed or oriented elements, the randomness of the elements being useable for generating a unique identifying signature of the record carrier, e.g. randomly placed magnetic fibers or magnetic particles in the body of a credit card · CPC title

• B42D25/333

  Watermarks · CPC title

• D21F1/46

  Dandy rolls · CPC title

• H04N1/32288

  Multiple embedding, e.g. cocktail embedding, or redundant embedding, e.g. repeating the additional information at a plurality of locations in the image · CPC title