Patent ID: 7676058

Claim:
A method for detection of miniature security mark configurations within documents and images, wherein the miniature security marks may include data marks or a combination of data marks and anchor marks, the method comprising: sub-sampling a received image, wherein said received image comprises a digital representation of at least one possible recipient of the miniature security marks, wherein said sub-sampling generates a reduced-resolution image of said received image; performing maximum/minimum points detection; grouping said maximum/minimum points into at least one cluster according to location distances between said maximum/minimum points; checking group configuration to match said clusters with a pre-defined template configuration, wherein checking group configuration further comprises: determining if the number of points in said at least one cluster is equal to the number of points in said pre-defined template; if said number of points in said at least one cluster does not equal the number of points in said template, discarding said cluster; if said number of points in said at least one cluster equals the number of points in said template, determining whether anchor points have been defined within said cluster, wherein said anchor points comprise marks having at least one attribute different from the other marks within the MSM configuration; if said anchor points have not been defined, matching the distances between points in said at least one cluster with the distances between points in said pre-defined template; if said anchor points have been defined, matching said anchor points within said cluster with anchor points in said pre-defined template; calculating the distances between said anchor points and the remaining marks in said at least one cluster and placing said distances in a combined distance matrix, wherein said combined distance matrix includes the anchor and non-anchor distances for said at least one cluster; comparing said combined distance matrix with a combined template matrix, wherein said combined template matrix records the anchor and non-anchor distances between points in said pre-defined template; minimizing an error measure; determining whether said error measure is smaller than a pre-determined threshold; if said pre-determined threshold is exceeded, discarding said at least one cluster; and if said pre-determined threshold is not exceeded, performing further testing operations to verify a match between said at least one cluster and said predefined template; and performing shape verification to verify mark location and configuration between said reduced-resolution image and said received image.