Abstract:
A system is provided for authenticating the identity of a container at an inspection station and for assuring the contents of the container have not been changed during transit, comprising: a copy-protected secure seal tag affixed to the container in such a way that the contents of the container cannot be accessed without altering the seal tag in a detectable way, the seal tag further comprising information hidden information containing a unique code pertaining to the container and a specific shipment of the container; and a device enabled to detect the presence of the hidden information in the seal tag and extract and verify the unique code.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to the secure shipping of authorized cargo. More specifically it relates to a method and a system for detecting if a shipment passing through an inspection station has been tampered with during shipment.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    The United States, Canada and Mexico have recently signed agreements that put in place a “trusted shipper” program in order to allow vehicles that are operated by so-called trusted shippers, and are therefore expected to contain cargoes without contraband or threats to public safety, to cross borders without inspection. If customs inspectors were to have to inspect every truck, this would bring cross-border traffic to a halt. Thus an important problem in implementing the trusted shipper program is how to provide assurance that a vehicle bearing trusted shipper tags is in fact the same vehicle with the same contents that were certified by a trusted shipper when the load was sealed.  
           [0003]    Even more broadly stated, the shipping of cargo in containers not only by truck, but also by container ship, or rail, or air transport, is pervasive throughout the world economy. There is a need for an efficient means of certifying that the contents of cargo containers have not been tampered with in transit or in storage, and contain the same cargo with which the container was originally loaded prior to shipping.  
           [0004]    The use of tags to seal cargo containers and certify they have not been opened, as signified by a broken tag, is well known in the art. European Patent EP 1182154A1, for example, teaches the use of a numbered metal tag to seal a cargo container. It is also known in the art to identify vehicles by the use of radio-frequency ID (RFID) tags, one example being the EZPass™ system used on the New York State Thruway.  
           [0005]    However, while an unbroken cargo seal may establish that a particular seal has not been opened, it provides no identification of that container&#39;s contents, save for an ID number. And a metal cargo seal can relatively easily be forged allowing the container to be opened and re-sealed with a forged seal with the same number after items are added to or subtracted from the load.  
           [0006]    Similarly an RFID tag on a vehicle or container only identifies that tag. It does not establish that a load has not been tampered by adding or subtracting contents, and the RFID tag also may be moved to a different container. Both these illustrated devices of the prior art may require costly to build and maintain external databases to hold shipping manifest information and verifiable characteristics of the container.  
           [0007]    It is also known in the art to attach cargo manifests held in sleeves mounted on shipping containers and also to send the manifest information electronically via e-mail which is in turn linked to or contained within an RFID tag on a vehicle or cargo container. There is, however, no independent proof of the authenticity of this information contained in the paper manifest or the electronically transmitted manifest. Thus there remains a need to provide a seal which cannot be easily counterfeited, along with a supporting system, for a cargo container arriving at an inspection station which both seals the load against tampering and also carries independently verifiable information about the load in human and machine readable form.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0008]    These and other needs of the prior art are met by the present invention, which in one aspect provides a system for authenticating the identity of a container at an inspection station and for assuring the contents of the container have not been changed during transit, comprising: a copy-protected secure seal tag affixed to the container in such a way that the contents of the container cannot be accessed without altering the seal tag in a detectable way, the seal tag further comprising hidden information containing a unique code pertaining to the container and a specific shipment of the container; and a device enabled to detect the presence of the hidden information in the seal tag and extract and verify the unique access code.  
           [0009]    According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a method for authenticating the identity of a container at an inspection station and for assuring the contents of the container have not been changed, comprising the steps of: requesting a unique code from an authorizing agency; incorporating the unique code as hidden information in a secure seal tag; printing the seal tag; affixing the secure seal tag to the container in such a way that the contents of the container cannot be accessed without altering the seal tag in a detectable way; and reading the seal tag at the inspection station with a device enabled to detect the hidden information and extract and verify the access code. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0010]    In the detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention presented below, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which:  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 1 is a system diagram illustrating the operation of an aspect of the present invention;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 2 illustrates a seal tag made in accord with the present invention;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 3 is a system diagram illustrating the operation of an aspect of the present invention;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 4 depicts a side view of a vehicle inspection station made in accord with the present invention;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 5 depicts a rear view of the the vehicle inspection station of FIG. 4;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating the operation of one aspect of the present invention;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the steps in the overall operation of the present invention; and  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 8 is a continuation of the flowchart of FIG. 7. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0019]    A brief overview of the inception stage of the operation of the present invention will first be described by reference to an example illustrated in FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 1, a trusted shipper or that shipper&#39;s authorized agent  10  first requests a unique code from a secure website  15  operated by an authorizing agency such as the U.S. Customs Department for an anticipated shipment. The request is made by entering the manifest information  20  relative to the anticipated shipment into a computer  25  and then sending this information to the secure web  15  site over a communications network, for example such as the Internet. The issuing agency then returns a unique code (not shown) relating to the specific anticipated shipment to the printer  40 . The unique code is then steganographically embedded as hidden information into a trusted shipper seal tag digital image file using techniques well known in the art. The trusted shipper seal tag image file also includes required manifest information and other information such as, for example, weight of the load, time of expected departure and arrival at an inspection station, photo of a truck driver, and the like. The seal tag  35  is then printed using a local printer  40  on a security paper with a pressure sensitive adhesive back. The seal tag  35  is affixed to a truck  45  after the truck has been loaded, for example by sealing across the rear doors in a way that indicates if the doors have been opened during transit. Such secure seal tags, which are tamper-evident, are well known in the art. For example, a secure seal tag such as that supplied by CGM Security Solutions, 223 Churchill Avenue, Somerset, N.J. is particularly useful for the practice of this invention. Attempts to remove or alter these tags, results in the appearance of an obvious visible pattern. A duplicate seal tag may also be placed on the side of the truck.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 2 depicts an enlargement of the seal tag  35  of FIG. 1. Note that the seal tag  35  contains human readable information  47  such as the name of the shipper, truck identification information, driver&#39;s name and ID, destination of the shipment, etc., a photograph of a driver  50  which is available to be compared to the actual driver of the truck, again at an inspection station by an inspector, and machine readable information  55  that can be read with an appropriate scanner, for example, such as a barcode scanner reading barcodes, at an inspection station. Also dispersed throughout the image is hidden information  60  which holds the correct unique code issued by the authenticating agency for this particular shipment, driver and load. The presence of hidden information  60  authenticates that this is both a legitimate tag and that it is attached to the correct truck with the correct load and driver. Methods of creating such hidden information  60  in a digital image, sometimes also known as a “digital watermark”, are well known in the art. The method described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,044,156, to Honsinger and Rabbani, employs steganographic techniques for creating hidden information in a digital image and is particularly useful for the practice of the present invention. The &#39;156 patent is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Hidden information  60  inserted by the method of the U.S. Pat. No. 6,044,156 is very robust and can be easily read even if the image is partially obscured. Thus, for example, if the seal tag  35  had been splashed with mud or perhaps had been partially damaged in some other way during shipment, it would still be possible to extract the hidden information  60 .  
         [0021]    A drawback of such a seal tag  35  with hidden information  60  is that it is possible to make a counterfeit seal tag by first electronically scanning the original and then printing a copy. Hidden information inserted steganographically by the method of the &#39;156 patent are actually part of the image itself since the hidden information is actually a sub-visible pattern imposed on the noise in the image and, as such, may be copied along with the image by electronic scanning. Thus a container might be diverted in transit, the original seal tag scanned and then destroyed to allow the container to be opened, the contents to be substituted and, finally, to be resealed with a counterfeit tag which still contains the proper steganographically embedded hidden information unique code information. To prevent counterfeiting of a seal tag and make it copy-protected, the embedded hidden information  60  may be further linked to the particular piece of print media upon which it is printed. Commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/930,634, filed Aug. 15, 2001, by Patton, et al., incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method of linking steganographically embedded hidden information in an image to a unique characteristic of a sheet of print media. If a seal tag is made with the hidden information  60  containing the unique code so linked to the medium on which it is printed, then it will not be possible to simply copy the seal tag by scanning and printing because the medium on which the copy is printed is linked to the hidden information  60  containing the unique code in a such manner that the unique code is only extractable if it is written on a particular piece of security media as described by Patton, et. al.  
         [0022]    Yet another feature which may be introduced to further enhance the security of the seal tag  35  is to further encrypt the information contained in it. A number of encryption methods can be used for this purpose, including the well-known public key/private key encryption scheme. Using the public key/private key encryption method, a user encrypts information using the public key, which is available to anyone. The information, however, may be decrypted only by those in possession of the private key. A complete description of the public key/private key encryption methodology may be found in Public Key Cryptography Standards Document #1 v2.1, published by RSA Security, Inc, 174 Middlesex Turnpike, Bedford, Mass. For the purposes of the present invention, the trusted shipper or his agent  10  would supply the public key ( 30 , FIG. 1) along with the manifest information  20  to the authorizing agency&#39;s website  15  and this public key would be used along with the agency&#39;s private key to encrypt the unique code and/or the other manifest information. The encrypted information is thus protected from interception when it is transmitted back to the authorized agent  10 . Furthermore if the encrypted version of the unique code is embedded as the hidden information  60  in the seal tag  35 , then if an unauthorized person were able to extract the hidden information  60 , he still would be unable to read it.  
         [0023]    Turning now to the operation of the invention at an inspection station, as shown in FIG. 3, an operator  65  first visually ascertains that the seal tag  35  has not been broken and then captures an image of the seal tag/label  35  using a digital camera, or cameras (not shown, see FIGS.  4 - 6  later). Next, the hidden information is extracted from the image of the seal tag and the unique code then derived from it, decrypting it first if necessary. Methods of detecting and extracting a hidden information, which has been embedded in a digital image are disclosed in the previously cited, and incorporated&#39;156 patent and also in the commonly assigned and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/505,327, filed Feb. 16, 2000, by Honsinger, which is hereby also incorporated in its entirety by reference. The unique code is entered into a computer  70  where it is first decrypted if necessary, using the private key  75  of the authorizing agency, and then compared to the legitimate unique code, which is stored by the authorizing agency, for example on a secure website  15 , or other secure computer storage is facility. A matching comparison provides verification of the seal tag&#39;s authenticity. Manifest information such as the truck&#39;s weight can also be read from the seal tag  35  at a scanning station  80 . If the information matches and is unaltered the truck is allowed to pass. This validation all takes place in a short time and is able to be carried out even while the truck is still moving slowly.  
         [0024]    The operation of the invention with respect to detecting and extracting the hidden information from a secure seal tag on a container in motion is now described in detail by reference to FIGS.  4 - 6 . Referring first to FIGS. 4 and 5, there are shown side and rear views respectively of inspection station  85  with a truck  90  moving through the station  85  slowly. As the rear  92  of the truck  90  passes sensor  95 , pole-mounted digital cameras  100   a ,  100   b  and  100   c  are activated to begin to capture digital images of the rear doors  105  of truck  90 . The lights  110  are used to provide sufficient light for photographing after dark. Since only a limited area can be covered by a single camera for sufficient resolution of the embedded hidden information, multiple cameras  100   a ,  100   b  and  100   c  are aimed and aligned to cover all areas of the truck rear doors  105  where seal tag  35  is likely to be placed, taking into account variations in truck size and that the seal tag  35  may not always be positioned at the same point on doors  105 . As the truck  90  moves away from the cameras  100   a - c , the field of view of the cameras changes. The position of the initial exposures  101  are of directed to an area on the rear doors  105  above the location of the seal tag  35 ; as the truck  90  moves away from cameras  100   a - c , the area captured moves progressively down the back of the rear doors  105  until, when the rear  92  of truck  90  has reached the second sensor  115 , the cameras  100   a - c  are shut off. The alignment and placement of components within the inspection station  85  is such that position of the final exposures  102  will be directed to an area below seal tag  35 . The pole mounted sensors  95  and  115  are spaced and the cameras parameters set so there is sufficient resolution in the images to detect any hidden information present, as specified in the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/505,327 and to decipher the data present, as disclosed in the &#39;156 patent. Referring to FIG. 6, the fields of view  120  represent the fields of view  120  of one of the cameras,  100   a - c  while the trapezoids  125 ,  130 ,  135 ,  140  and  145  represent examples of the appearance of the seal tag  35  from the point of view of the various cameras at various truck-to-camera distances. For example, trapezoid  125  represents the appearance of seal tag  35  with respect to the field of view  120  of camera  100   b  (the center camera) and illustrates a case when the field of view of the camera  100   b  and the seal tag  35  are substantially congruent. Trapezoid  130  illustrates the appearance of seal tag  35  with respect to field of view  120  of camera  100   b  where the degree of alignment does not fully encompass the seal tag  35 . Continuing with the illustrative examples, trapezoid  135  represents the appearance of seal tag  35  with respect to left hand camera  100   a  where there is only partial overlap and trapezoid  140  represents the appearance of seal tag  35  with respect to right hand camera  100   c , again with partial overlap. Finally trapezoid  140  represents the appearance of seal tag  35  by camera  100   c  where the overlap is only slight overlap. It will be understood however, that any of these examples of overlap may be adequate for the extraction of the embedded hidden information, since as disclosed by Honsinger in the previously cited &#39;156 patent, the hidden information is redundant, as it is written many times on a single tag, for example in a tiled manner. The distortion in the image introduced by photographing the seal tag  35  at an angle may be corrected by any of a number of methods, well known in the art, of correcting geometric distortion in a digital image. Images may be analyzed as they are being made, or together as a batch after the sequence of images have all been captured. The code is extracted from the hidden information detected in the images by the method of Honsinger in the &#39;156 patent. The cameras continue to photograph until the truck either reaches end sensor  115  or an image is detected where the hidden information is successfully detected and interpreted.  
         [0025]    In order to provide a better understanding of the present invention, the steps required for its detailed overall operation will now be described in an operational flow chart presented in FIGS. 7 and 8. It will be understood that the system whose overall operation is described in FIGS. 7 and 8 is the same system described earlier by the system diagrams of FIGS. 1, 3 and  4 - 6 . Beginning in FIG. 7, at step  150 , a trusted shipper first enters manifest information for the particular shipment into his computer. Manifest information may include any or all of the following items: truck or vehicle type and registration, nature of shipped items and weight, date and destination of shipment, driver&#39;s name, driver&#39;s picture, and/or other driver ID information. Next, in step  155 , the shipper transmits a request for a unique code along with the manifest information and the shipper&#39;s public encryption key to an authorizing agency&#39;s secure web site. Transmission of the data may be over any communication channel such as the Internet or a telephone line. In step  160  the authorizing agency extracts and records important data from the manifest information and also returns the unique code to the shipper which is accepted by the printer driver software and embedded as hidden information in the digital representation of the secure shipper seal tag as described previously. The shipper then prints the tag (step  165 ) including human and machine readable versions of the manifest information and the hidden information. After the container (for example a truck trailer or shipping container) has been loaded in step  170  while being observed by the trusted shipper personnel, the shipping container is sealed (step  175 ) in a designated location on the container such that attempts to open the container would result in a visual alteration of the seal. Continuing with the process in FIG. 8 at point A, the container is next transported (step  180 ) to an inspection station, such as, for example, a border crossing or port of entry. It will be understood that inspection of containers is not limited to times when they are crossing a border or entering a port, but may also be inspected at other times during transit or anywhere the appropriate equipment is available. The seal tag integrity is confirmed by the inspector who also scans (step  185 ) the seal tag with an appropriate scanner to extract machine readable information. A digital camera captures an image of the seal tag, detects the presence of any hidden information and extracts the unique code. The unique code is compared in the authorizing agency&#39;s computer (step  190 ) with the unique code which had been sent for this container and shipment. If the unique code matches (decision step  195 ) the agency may check selected manifest (step  200 ) information (such as the weight of the vehicle, driver&#39;s ID, etc) as additional proof of the integrity of the load. If there is a match (decision step  205 ) the vehicle is allowed through the checkpoint without further inspection (step  210 ). If either test is failed the inspector my open the vehicle and inspect the cargo (step  215 ).  
         [0026]    The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the scope of the invention.  
       PARTS LIST  
       [0027]    [0027] 10  authorized agent  
         [0028]    [0028] 15  secure website  
         [0029]    [0029] 20  shipping manifest information  
         [0030]    [0030] 25  computer terminal  
         [0031]    [0031] 30  public key  
         [0032]    [0032] 35  seal tag  
         [0033]    [0033] 40  printer  
         [0034]    [0034] 45  truck  
         [0035]    [0035] 47  human readable information  
         [0036]    [0036] 50  driver&#39;s photograph  
         [0037]    [0037] 55  machine readable information  
         [0038]    [0038] 60  hidden information  
         [0039]    [0039] 65  operator  
         [0040]    [0040] 70  computer  
         [0041]    [0041] 75  private key  
         [0042]    [0042] 80  scanning station  
         [0043]    [0043] 85  inspection station  
         [0044]    [0044] 90  truck  
         [0045]    [0045] 92  rear of truck  
         [0046]    [0046] 95  sensor  
         [0047]    [0047] 100   a - c  digital cameras  
         [0048]    [0048] 101  position of initial exposures  
         [0049]    [0049] 102  position of final exposures  
         [0050]    [0050] 105  rear truck doors  
         [0051]    [0051] 110  light  
         [0052]    [0052] 115  sensor  
         [0053]    [0053] 120  field of view  
         [0054]    [0054] 125  appearance of tag  
       PARTS LIST CONTINUED  
       [0055]    [0055] 130  appearance of tag  
         [0056]    [0056] 135  appearance of tag  
         [0057]    [0057] 140  appearance of tag  
         [0058]    [0058] 145  appearance of tag  
         [0059]    [0059] 150  step  
         [0060]    [0060] 155  step  
         [0061]    [0061] 160  step  
         [0062]    [0062] 165  step  
         [0063]    [0063] 170  step  
         [0064]    [0064] 175  step  
         [0065]    [0065] 180  step  
         [0066]    [0066] 185  step  
         [0067]    [0067] 190  step  
         [0068]    [0068] 195  step  
         [0069]    [0069] 200  step  
         [0070]    [0070] 205  step  
         [0071]    [0071] 210  step  
         [0072]    [0072] 215  step