Patent Document ID: 8833663
Application ID: 12906614
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A system to reduce at least one of image washout and blurring caused by the fluorescence of a covert image that is to be transferred to an identification document for printing, the system comprising: a computer system that runs executable software, wherein the executable software, when executed by a processor of the computer system, runs one or more edge detection algorithms; at least one digital image to be processed by the computer system that runs the executable software, the digital image being stored in association with the computer system and comprising image pixels of varying degrees of dark and light; the computer system accessing and retrieving the digital image that is to be used as a model to generate a covert image that is to be printed using the computer system on the identification document using a fluorescing medium; the executable software, when executed by the processor of the computer system: increasing contrast in the digital image, wherein the contrast includes making dark pixels relatively darker and light pixels relatively lighter; identifying one or more contours of the image pixels of the digital image in which luminosity of the increased-contrast digital image changes more sharply than at adjoining regions in the image using the computer system; generating a horizontal edge image comprising horizontal edge components, generating a vertical edge image comprising vertical edge components, and summing the vertical and horizontal edge images to form a composite image; and emphasizing the one or more contours by iteratively adding copies of the composite image onto itself to yield a final composite image, wherein each added copy is offset with respect to the previous copy; the computer system forming a master image based on the final composite image; and the computer system using the master image to print the covert image.