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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."
Is my own writing that similar? What happens if I let my guard down and something slightly different, will I be arrested for fraud by forging my own name?
When I was at IBM yorktown Heights, the guy in the next lab over built a pen that had piezo acclerometers and pressure trnasducers built in. You got the time and pressure curves of the 2-d signature as it was signed. IBM never marketed it.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
This sounds like it would be totally useless for me, because I have extremely messy handwriting and I can hardly ever produce the same signature twice.
Hi there
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.
I will bet my life savings that it cannot detect a fake signature with my signature. I sign my checks differently almost everytime and I dont have one set signature because I suck at writing script. Id like to see how it would fair then. I sometimes scribble my name, while other times ill write the letters out.
So what if I use something else like a gel pen? I do use those to sign check, you know.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
People never sign their name the same way twice, there are always variations..
.. but no one is 100%
Some people have fewer then others
---- Booth was a patriot ----
So obviously we all press down to the same intensity and the curves of our writing remain the same all the time! Screw signatures off soon it will all be done with biometrics. thumb print obtained & verified you are who you say you are.
3D Holograms Detect Fake Signatures
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%.
Nature describes the problem and its solution.
Let's turn to BBC News for more details.
Here is a an example of "profilometric acquisition by means of conoscopic holography. These strokes were made by a BIC pen on common paper. The investigation area is about 5 mm × 5 mm. (a) 3D view of the strokes' profile. It is possible to note the regularity in the (S) line. (b) 3D view of the strokes' profile. The presence of bumps is evident. (c) 3D view with a mirror along the z-axis."
The research work has been published by the Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics in its Septemebr issue under the name "Superposed strokes analysis by conoscopic holography as an aid for a handwriting expert." Here are two links to the abstract and the full paper (free registration needed, valid for 30 days, PDF format, 6 pages, 320 KB). The above images come from this paper.
How is this technique working? Surprisingly well, according to Nature.
If you want to see the
This is amazing, although I'm surprised by the fact that it isn't already in use *today*! Detectives already have known that when you write on paper, it creates a depression in paper. If you're writing on a note pad, for instance, and after you write your address on the sheet above of a bank holdup note, just lightly rubbing a pencil against the hold up note will reveal the address, the one written on the sheet above the bank holdup note, all because pressure created an indentation in the paper. Plus I do believe people sometimes check when they get rewards, certificates, etc.. to see if the signature is really hand-made, or printed, just by feeling the back for an indentation suggesting that someone was writing on the paper.
Ah, you found me!
What about the electronic signature pads in use at many stores, well, everywhere? I used to work at a 7-11, and I can tell you firsthand that the resolution *SUCKS* on these things. Nevermind that they don't take pressure readings. When we first got them my manager signed it with her real name, then "Micky Mouse". I couldn't tell the difference. It'd still be useful for things traditionally signed on paper (insurance policies, etc..), but as far as debit and credit transactions the majority (and a growing number of) of transactions will be unverifiable by this method.
E pluribus unum
A 100% detection (at least in tests) of false signatures? Great!
How hard did they try to create a false signature?
And how often were legit signatures rejected? (I can create an algorithm that filters out 100% of the false signatures, guaranteed - it simply rejects all signatures it gets)
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
... groklaw? I mean, how many other sites use that CSS / graphic? I know I'm dumb to admit this, but after I clicked the link I thought "PJ must be having a slow day ..."
How do I use the DMCA against these bastards. My signature is my property, I don't want any reproductions of it stored in their computers - 3D or not.
Just how much closer are tablet PCs to true handwriting recognition? Authentity aside, handwriting appears to be a simple enough problem, but so much emphasis is placed on context. People can write according to lines on a page. A semicolon shouldn't be confused for an i.
Now if we can detect forgeries with science, surely the science can be programmed to decide whether I wrote the number 1 or the letter l or even know the letter t is not the letter f and the > is not 7.
Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
Why does /. keep posting articles submitted by this guy? He has a shabby blog on radio.weblogs.com and does a poor job stealing other writers work; the site is a blatant commercial effort. Yet /. keeps putting Roland's stuff up and linking to it.
What's the deal? Is there some kind of commercial payola a la 1970's radio? Maybe the editor has a thing going with Roland, in a Clinton-McGreevy-esque way.
*Cringe* I didn't need any of those mental images.
From Joeseph Heller's divorce proceedings:
My wife's attorney presented a check and said, "Is this not your check?" "Yes it is." "Is this not a check to [Mrs. Heller] from you?" "Yes it is." "The is this not your signature?" "No it is not," I replied. "How can you say that, when the signature clearly reads 'Joseph Heller'," he asked loudly. "While I was bedridden, my friend Speed Vogel, an artist, learned to forge my signature since I was unable to lift a pen. Since this check was written during that time, I can only assume it was he, and not I, who wrote that alimony check."
I cannot write in cursive to save my soul (well, maybe, if I had too, for THAT), since I have by typing since 4th grade.
I suspect lots of folks have handwriting sufficiently random to make this worthless.
I even told my own kids; "Hey, 4th grade is the last time anyone will care what your handwriting looks like -- work on what you are tyring to say, and be clear, most people aren't as smart as you are."
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Make a book or a movie out of it. (Remember the "lets get ready to rumble song"?) Then when they "STEAL"it, you can sue for damages.
and i can barely read my own signature!
seriously, i sign hundreds of documents every day. what happens when i can't replicate my own writing?
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
I sign my wife's name all the time, and she sometimes signs mine. All perfectly legal, as long as neither one disputes it.
Simply claim you have power of attorney from your spouse. If, when asked, your spouse says "yes, I gave my permission", you're clear.
Of course, you better be DAMN SURE your spouse is going to back you up.
"yes, he did. Same way he gave me permission to sign his name on the check buying the mink coat..."
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
They use 3 physical dimensions to determine the order of the strokes, ie, the 4th dimension. But do they keep that 3rd physical dimension around? Would that make it 4d? Or if they discard it, that sort of brings it back to 3d, but since 2 of the d are combined into one, maybe it's 3.5d?
My head is spinning, and I can't even tell if that is 2d or 3d, because time is certainly involved to have a spin.
Infuriate left and right
Ballpoint pens are probably the best choice for signing checks and other documents. The ink is hard to bleach and the ball crushes fibers in the paper, providing a record of pressure applied to the pen. Unfortunately, nobody bothers to look at signatures on most documents, like checks.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
My signature is a scribble. Nobody could possibly determine what my name was from it, and it doesn't really look much alike from one signing to the next; there aren't even the same number of loops and squiggles except by random chance. However, the style of scribble is such that people can tell it's me.
I think it was the word "gasbag" that made it sound like a flame.
My other car is first.
While I realize that comparing Roland to Katz might be a *bit* of a stretch...
Its true, ain't it?
My signature is like chicken scratching, hardly ever the same twice.. lol
All your base are belong to Google.
I'm not sure there's any point trying to prove a signature is authentic -> How many of us actually have formal signatures that we can replicate perfectly? I know sure as hell that my signature is different every time and, sequence of pen stroke or no, I'd fail a test for my own signature every time. I'd instead be working on a way to place an electronic signature - some kind of stamp or something, that acts like a GUID for a person how needs to sign something.
Would be 4d recognition. The 3 dimensions already listed in the article combined with time. Essentially, a device could record the 3 dimensions as you sign.
Liberty.
For the life of me, I cannot---absolutely cannot--- write in a consistent manner. You see, I'm pretty shaky. If I hold my hand out, it's pretty easy to see that my fingers are going crazy, and everything leading up to them isn't much better. The result is that anything I write looks an aweful lot like someone was murdering a chicken which happened to have a pen in it's mouth. And as hard as I try I can't make a signature even remotely similar as the next.
:D)
The doctors say that it's some neurological thing but that I probably don't have to worry about parkinsons or whatever else. It gets terribly worse with caffiene, but alcohol slows it down quite a bit. Unfortunately, I like my liver.
But, hey... At least I could write good ransom notes (which I guess counts on the FBI to decipher my writing, something that I wouldn't personally bank on
Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
1. No one signs the same exact way twice. That's how some forgers get caught -- copying TOO exactly.
2. We have all developed habits. Although your signatures may look different from each other, the pressure patterns are usually identical. Forgery detectors use magnifying glasses to detect dicontinuities in the letters or words, indicating a lifting of the pen for a glance at the original being copied. Most people do not lift and replace the pen on the paper while signing their own name.
3. Some forgers use the trick of holding the signature being copied UPSIDE-DOWN so they can "draw it" instead of writing it. That way they avoid the traps of their own habits showing to an investigator. They are usually the good ones who escape being caught. This technique woiuld easily show that the signature was drawn upside down and last letter first, and they will be caught.
4. The harder the signature is to read, the EASIER it is to forge. My own signature is perfect Victorian calligraphy done with a chisel-point felt-tip or fountain pen. Let them copy THAT!
5. Most organizations never check signatures until there is a anamoly. By then, the pro forger is long gone.
6. Pro forgers will defeat these machines by practicing their marks' signatures until they are perfected.
As they always have.
No, 'cause at least Katz's work was mostly his own.
Advanced users are users too!
If we have the technology to read signatures, why not just make a device to write signatures? Surely it can't be that hard?
These are not the signatures you are looking for
I'm disgraphic. Mi hands shake a bit, this won't likely work for me.
Not a sentence!
I wish I had mod points now!
We may not have the tech to exploit it in front of someone at the moment, but I can't imagine a laboratory-style exploit is far off.
This kind of revelation about how to protect against forgery ends up defining the victory conditions a lot better, giving attackers a clearer target.
Anyone want to take bets on how soon we'll see an article on an industrious group of technologists who modified a plotter to make automated signatures that cannot be detected as forgeries?
-- Fratz, human
The system is ancient but wide open to abuse. Several years ago a woman returned from holidays to discover that she had been married to her workmate. He had simply obtained all the paperwork, stamped it with his own seal and then having taken hers from her drawer, stamped it with her seal as well. The marriage was anulled, but the point is the personal seal is a little dangerous in my opinion.
Anyway, as a result, very few people I know in Japan has what I would call a signature, that is something that you write almost the same way each time. My own signature varies each time I write it an in fact has shrunk over the years, but always contains elements that appear to be hard wired into my hand and brain now. Even if I use a different grip, or even the wrong hand, the pattern is similar (thought obviously different). When my students try to sign something, they usually very neatly write their name in English.
Most modern handwriting recognition techniques, such as on my Tablet PC, rely on knowing the order and direction of writing strokes to improve their accuracy. It looks like the techniques described by TFA's sources would provide similar information and might enable machines to finally transcribe handwritten papers reliably.
My new
I suffer from several severe forms of anxiety, performance anxiety being one of them. This includes the simple task of signing your name infront of someone in a bank or elsewhere. It is really aweful when you can't even feel comfortable signing your own name when in the presence of someone else.
My signature changes regularly as I seem to mess up or I can't seem to do it the same every time, it really is fustrating.
"Software is like sex... it's better when it's free"
My signature has always been inconsistent. Hell, letters start turning into odd scribbles when I'm in a hurry. I've seen my 'z' turn into an atrocious, indiscernible jumble of curves. It's close enough for someone at the bank to glance at and say it's fine, but if someone was actually going to look at it in detail they'll probably think it's forged.
As a "computer dork" (age 26) I grew up with computers.
:)
I have DEFINATELY layed out 30x more words on the k/b than the pen and I can tell you, my signature varies from day to day.
Signatures are (Seriously) over-rated - very bad method of authenticating someone, why don't we look at semen samples when I purchase milk and bread at 7-11 or something?
You can get much more detailed information about how a pen is held, about the timing and order of strokes, and how much pressure is excerted with a modern computer tablet. Even if you have all that information, you don't get anywhere near "100% accuracy" for signature verification. Since the data they work with contains less information, we can pretty much conclude that it must be their experiments that are poorly done, not that they have hit on some amazing new technique.
That isn't to say that the technique is completely useless. But it won't solve the problem of document forgeries.
One question one needs to ask, however, is whether the authors have any connection to the maker of conoscopic holography equipment...
why not have your signature on the check, make it easier for the bank to compare and to forge :)
I just RTFA (sorry) and had a thought - this technique could be adapted to a device that could read the information from an LP or an old wax cylinder without touching it.
This could make a recordings museum caretaker very happy. He could hear the recordings that are too fragile to play.
If there was a contact-free record player, I wouldn't feel like I should sell all my LPs.
I remember a story in Analog a few years ago about a man with the only recording of his father's voice on an old lacquer disk which had unfortunately broken. He ends up being able to listen to it due to a tech not unlike this.
A good story. Damn, I miss having the time to read those every month.
An affordable application of this for repairing a damaged record (not just applying filters) would certainly end up on my dock.
Where's Robin Hood? We could kinda really use him now.
So why would this system improve things ?!?
Non-Linux Penguins ?
are retailers going to accept a system that gives a significant false negative rate? no. so will you ever get hauled to jail by accident? no.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/
It's free (as in beer and speech*) programming; there's not much excuse for failing to avail yourself of it.
_____
* Yes, I'm oversimplifying.
SIERRA TANGO FOXTROT UNIFORM
The first time I went to the US, I was astounded to find store clerks swipe my card and then hand it right back to me before I sign the chitty!
My wife (American, now living in the UK) gets peeved that she can't go shopping with my credit card, because here, shop assistants are trained to CHECK the signature before letting you buy something......
What a novel idea.
Just finished a part time job at a bank where I learned a frightening amount about check fraud. Such technology will do NOTHING to stop professional check cons... Most fraud goes in the check-by-mail or ATM system with enough co-deposits to ensure that the check is never looked at once by a human being, at least not for authenticity or the like. The nice little numbers on the bottom of the check do the trick and the magnetic reader takes it from there. When a person does "proof" or look at the check they will focus soley on the amount of the check and the account number... They have WAY too many items to look at such silly stuff like.... name, pay to the order of or... signature. The looming Check 21 Act aims to stamp out some fraud, but won't do much most likely. How much money would it cost banks as a whole to employ enough people to inspect each of the millions and millions of checks each day? Tellers see only a portion of a bank's total check activity. With check fraud at some $500 million a year I guess the banking industry decided it's cheaper to live with than to fully combat. Doubt some new 3D sig will do anything at all to help...
It is the logo for the blog software being used.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
280283/560566
Never confuse volume with power.
Being currently unemployed, one of the things I've been trying out in my copious free time is calligraphy. I always thought it'd be fun to learn the old-style Spencerian Script. I abandoned cursive about a year after I learned it (2nd grade), so my signature is god-awful. (On the other hand, my printing looks practically like old Germanic script
Other than wedding/birthday cards, there isn't any place to use handwriting. So for the last 6 months or so, all of the checks I write for bills, etc, have been rather...fancy.
A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with.
When I was a victim of check theft- the attempts were very crude and successful. For example, completely alein signatures, misspellings, riduculous check sequence numbers. The police and bank didnt care, but just ate the loss.
Most of the places I sign my signature are starting to use electronic signature collection...so there are no 'dips', 'furrows' etc... embedded in the 'paper' (actually it is kept in a digital format). Essentially, this software would be creating a 3D image of a 2D surface...which would give you - you guessed it! - a 2D surface. Since we can probably bet that these systems and others (like RFIDs - like the one embedded in my keyfob for the gas station - I never sign for anything at my favorite gas station anymore) will be ubiquitous, this software seems like too little too late.
As for the wife issue: both of us have signed documents, checks, and what not for the other person to facilitate meeting deadlines when the other person can't be present (usually when I am out of town on business). I suppose they could say that is not my signature using this new technology - but I would simply certify both mine and my wife's version as correct - and that would (hopefully) be that.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
you don't need silicone, just Gummi Bears
Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?