Image Forming Apparatus Embeds Blockchain Proof for Tamper Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing techniques fail to ensure the authenticity and integrity of paper documents printed from electronic documents, as they cannot reliably verify if the content of the paper document has been tampered with, despite using blockchain for electronic document authentication.
Innovation Solution
An image forming apparatus that embeds existence proof and tampering detection information into printed documents, using a blockchain service to verify the authenticity and integrity of the paper document by decoding embedded images and comparing them with registered information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If blockchain is used to register electronic document information, then authenticity of electronic document is ensured, but ability to verify tampering in paper document is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The verification information is segmented into two distinct types: existence proof information (to verify the document was registered) and tampering detection information (to verify the document content hasn't been altered). This segmentation allows each type of verification to be independently implemented and stored, resolving the contradiction between ensuring authenticity and maintaining tampering detection capability
Solution Approach 2:
Embedded images serve as an intermediary carrier that contains both existence proof information and tampering detection information. These embedded images are incorporated into the paper document and can be decoded to retrieve the verification information, acting as a bridge between the electronic document registration system and the physical paper document verification process
2Ease of operation
If only existence proof information is embedded, then document registration is verified, but tampering detection is not possible
Solution Approach 1:
Both existence proof information and tampering detection information are merged into a single embedded image structure that can be decoded together. This combining approach allows the verification process to simultaneously check both document registration status and content integrity, achieving both ease of operation and reliability without requiring separate verification processes
3Measurement precision
If detailed verification information is embedded in the document, then tampering detection accuracy is improved, but document complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The verification information is embedded in a thin, unobtrusive layer within the document structure (as embedded images), allowing detailed tampering detection information to be incorporated without significantly increasing the physical complexity or visual burden of the document. The embedded images act as a flexible container that holds verification data without altering the fundamental document structure
Data Source
AI summary
An image forming apparatus that cooperates with a management service and a blockchain service generates, in printing a document stored in the management service, one or more embedded images based on existence proof information and tampering detection information, registers the existence proof information and the tampering detection information with the blockchain service, performs printing of the document with the one or more embedded images embedded therein, and, when verifying a printed product obtained by the printing, performs two verifications indicating that information about the printed product exists in the blockchain service and that there is no tampering in the printed product, by decoding the one or more embedded images included in the printed product to acquire the existence proof information and the tampering detection information and making an inquiry about the existence proof information and the tampering detection information registered in blocks of the blockchain service.