Patent ID: 7456983

Claim:
A method of preventing comprehension of a printed document, the method comprising: feeding a printed document into a device having a printing mechanism; scanning the printed document to produce at least one of an image file or an electronic text file of the printed document; identifying, based upon the image file, at least one target portion of the printed document via determining a first text pattern of symbols in the image file of the printed document, the first pattern of symbols including a line spacing, a paragraph spacing, and a margin spacing of the printed document, wherein the symbols of the first pattern include at least one of characters or numerals; printing, via the printing mechanism, at least one obfuscation pattern onto the at least one target portion of the printed document via: building the at least one obfuscation pattern as a second pattern of symbols configured to surround the first pattern of symbols to prevent comprehension of the first pattern of symbols of the printed document, wherein the second pattern of symbols is configured to occupy the line spacing between adjacent lines of the first pattern of symbols, to occupy the paragraph spacing between adjacent paragraphs of the first pattern of symbols, and to occupy the margin spacing of the first pattern of symbols; and printing the second pattern of symbols on the printed document relative to the first pattern of symbols to prevent comprehension of the printed document; shredding the printed document after printing the at least one obfuscation pattern onto the printed document; and preventing reconstruction of the shredded printed document via the at least one obfuscation pattern.