Secure identification documents via pattern recognition and public-key cryptography

We present an approach to authenticating photo-ID documents that relies on pattern recognition and public-key cryptography and has security advantages over physical mechanisms that currently safeguard cards, such as optical laminates and holograms. The pattern-recognition component of this approach is based on a photo signature that is a concise representation of the photo image on the document. This photo signature is stored in a database for remote authentication or in encrypted form on the card for stand-alone authentication. Verification of the ID document entails scanning both the photo image and a machine-readable form of the text information, determining the photo signature, and comparing this information against the reference. In this paper, we describe the method and present results of testing a large database of images for photo-signature match in the presence of noise.