Embedded QR Hash Verification for Altered Document Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
The reliance on paper and electronic documents is compromised by the ease of altering them using readily available tools, leading to authenticity issues, and verifying authenticity often requires cumbersome interactions with issuing parties, which can be refused due to privacy or security concerns.
Innovation Solution
Documents are generated with a unique indicium, including encoded graphical elements like QR codes, to ensure authenticity by encoding document content and location, which can be verified without external validation, using hash functions and encryption to generate a unique identifier and graphical representation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional paper or electronic documents are used without additional security features, then ease of manufacture and operation is maintained, but reliability and resistance to alteration deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent embeds QR codes within the document structure, creating a nested configuration where the QR code (containing hash values and metadata) is embedded within or alongside the document content. This allows the authentication data to be contained within the document itself without requiring separate external verification systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces hash functions as an intermediary mechanism that transforms document content into a fixed-size hash value, which is then encoded in the QR code. This intermediary process enables automated authentication by providing a mathematical bridge between the document content and its verification, eliminating the need for manual verification while maintaining reliability.
2Reliability
If manual verification processes are used to confirm document authenticity, then reliability is maintained, but loss of time and operational complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual verification processes with automated electronic verification. Instead of requiring human operators to manually check document authenticity, the system uses computational algorithms to automatically scan, decode, and verify QR codes containing hash values, dramatically reducing verification time while maintaining or improving reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-generating and embedding authentication data (hash values and metadata) into QR codes that are attached to or integrated with documents before they are issued. This preliminary encoding of verification data enables immediate authentication without requiring time-consuming manual processes later.
3Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If documents include encoded authentication data such as QR codes, then reliability and detectability of alterations improve, but device complexity and manufacturing complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by enabling documents to authenticate themselves through embedded QR codes containing hash values and metadata. When scanned, the system automatically verifies the document's integrity by comparing the current state against the encoded hash, allowing the document to prove its own authenticity without requiring external verification infrastructure or complex manufacturing processes.
Data Source
AI summary
Many documents, whether hardcopy or softcopy, require authentication for a particular use. Documents are often copied but knowing whether the contents of a document, even a copy of the document, have been altered can still be critical to the particular use. In one embodiment, a document's content is encoded with a symbolic representation, such as one or more Quick Response (QR) codes, derived from the document's content. Subsequent scanning of the document retrieves the document's content and the symbolic representation. The retrieved document's contents are then used to generate a symbolic representation of the content and compared to the content encoded in the symbolic representation. If the two match, the document has not been altered.