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3D Holograms Detect Fake Signatures
Roland Piquepaille writes "Several sources reported last week that a new technique that produces 3D holograms of handwriting could be used to detect fake signatures on checks, credit card receipts or other important handwritten documents. Here are pointers to Nature, Scientific American or BBC News Online. Instead of using 2D techniques to look at the sequence of pen strokes in a signature, this new method is based on 3D micro-profilometry which permits to translate the writing into an image showing dips and furrows of the sample so that anomalies can be detected. If you plan to imitate your spouse's signature, beware! Forensics have a new and very efficient tool. As an example, for the use of ballpoint pens on normal paper, the success rate was 100%. You'll find more details, references and pictures in this overview."
Abstract
For legal purposes there is a requirement for the validation of signatures and handwritten documents. A helpful method in this respect is the so-called superposed strokes analysis, based on the observation of some characteristics in the writing, such as some letters and their dynamics.
This paper introduces a promising new technique for superposed strokes analysis based on conoscopic holography. Through a non-contact 3D measure a 3D profile is created of the superposed strokes that allows the writing dynamics to be determined, such as, for example, if a stroke was drawn clockwise or counterclockwise.
We propose a 3D analysis by an opto-electronic system, in order to improve the graphology analysis for off-line signature verification.