EURion constellation: Difference between revisions
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== Description == |
== Description == |
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The name "EURion constellation" was coined by security researcher [[Markus Kuhn (computer scientist)|Markus Kuhn]], who uncovered the pattern |
The name "EURion constellation" was coined by security researcher [[Markus Kuhn (computer scientist)|Markus Kuhn]], who uncovered the pattern on the [[:File:EUR 10 obverse (2002 issue).jpg|10 Euro (€10) banknote]] in early 2002 while experimenting with a [[Xerox]] colour photocopier that refused to reproduce banknotes.<ref name="kuhn">[[Markus Kuhn (computer scientist)|Markus Kuhn]]: [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/eurion.pdf The EURion constellation]. Security Group presentation, [[University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory|Computer Laboratory]], [[University of Cambridge]], 8 February 2002.</ref> The word is a combination of EUR, the [[euro]]'s [[ISO 4217]] designation, and [[Orion (constellation)|Orion]], a [[constellation]] of similar shape. |
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The EURion constellation first described by Kuhn consists of a pattern of five small yellow, green or orange circles, which is repeated across areas of the banknote at different orientations. The mere presence of five of these circles on a page is sufficient for some colour photocopiers to refuse processing. |
The EURion constellation first described by Kuhn consists of a pattern of five small yellow, green or orange circles, which is repeated across areas of the banknote at different orientations. The mere presence of five of these circles on a page is sufficient for some colour photocopiers to refuse processing. |
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Revision as of 01:01, 6 August 2017
The EURion constellation (also known as Omron rings[1] or doughnuts[2]) is a pattern [3]of symbols incorporated into a number of banknote designs worldwide since about 1996. It is added to help imaging software detect the presence of a banknote in a digital image. Such software can then block the user from reproducing banknotes to prevent counterfeiting using colour photocopiers. According to research from 2004, the EURion constellation is used for colour photocopiers but probably not used in computer software.[4] It has been reported that Adobe Photoshop will not allow editing of an image of a banknote, but this is believed to be due to a different, unknown digital watermark rather than the EURion constellation.[5][4]
Description
The name "EURion constellation" was coined by security researcher Markus Kuhn, who uncovered the pattern on the 10 Euro (€10) banknote in early 2002 while experimenting with a Xerox colour photocopier that refused to reproduce banknotes.[6] The word is a combination of EUR, the euro's ISO 4217 designation, and Orion, a constellation of similar shape.
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The EURion constellation first described by Kuhn consists of a pattern of five small yellow, green or orange circles, which is repeated across areas of the banknote at different orientations. The mere presence of five of these circles on a page is sufficient for some colour photocopiers to refuse processing.
Some banks integrate the constellation tightly with the remaining design of the note. On 50 DM German banknotes, the EURion circles formed the innermost circles in a background pattern of fine concentric circles. On the front of former Bank of England Elgar £20 notes, they appear as green heads of musical notes, however on the Smith £20 notes of 2007 the circles merely cluster around the "£20" text. On some U.S. bills, they appear as the digit zero in small, yellow numbers matching the value of the note. On Japanese Yen, these circles sometimes appear as flowers.
Technical details regarding the EURion constellation are kept secret by its inventors and users.[2] A 1995 patent application[7] suggests that the pattern and detection algorithm were designed at Omron Corporation, a Japanese electronics company. It is also not clear whether the feature has any official name. The term "Omron anti-photocopying feature" appeared in an August 2005 press release by the Reserve Bank of India.[8] In 2007 the term "Omron rings" was used in an award announcement by a banknote collectors society.[9]
Usage
 | This section possibly contains original research. Comment: surely most of this material is self-documenting rather than OR? The reference for the 500 Austrrian schilling note having this pattern is a 500-schilling note, and so on (July 2010) |
The following table lists the banknotes on which the EURion constellation has been found so far. Countries where all recent banknotes use the constellation are in bold.
| Currency | Notes with EURion constellation | Notes without EURion constellation |
|---|---|---|
| Armenian dram | 1000 dram (2001 and 2011), 5000 dram (2003 and 2012), 10,000 dram (2003 and 2012), 20,000 (2007, 2009 and 2012), 100,000 dram (2009) | 20,000 and commemorative 50,000 dram |
| Aruban florin | All (2003) | |
| Austrian schilling | 500 and 1000 schilling (1997) | 20, 50, 100, and 5000 schilling |
| Australian dollar | Centenary of Federation $5 (2001), "Next-Generation" $5 (2016), $10 (2017)[10] | All other notes |
| Belgian franc | 500 francs (1998), 1000 francs (1997), 10,000 francs (1997) | 100, 200, and 2000 francs |
| British pound (sterling) | Bank of England £5 (2002) £5 (2016), £10 (2000) as yellow dots on the watermark, £20 (1999 & 2007), £50 (2011) | £50 (old issue) |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark | 200 convertible marka (2002), All (2012) | 50 feninga, 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 convertible marka |
| Bulgarian lev | All (1999) | |
| Canadian dollar | Banknotes in the Canadian Journey Series (2001–2006) and Frontier Series (2011–2015) | |
| CFA franc | All (both West African and Central African, 2003) | |
| Chilean peso | 1000 (2011) 2000 (2010) 5000 (2009), 10,000 (2010), 20,000 (2010) | 1000 and 2000 pesos (old version) |
| Chinese yuan | ¥1 (2004), 2005 revision of ¥5 and above, ¥100 (2015) | |
| Comorian franc | All (2005–2006) | 2500 francs |
| Croatian kuna | 5, 10, 20 kuna (2001), 50, 100, and 200 kuna (2002) | 500 and 1000 kuna |
| Czech koruna | 2000 (2007), 1000 (2008), 500 (2009), 5000 (2009) | 100, 500, 1000, 5000 |
| Danish krone | All (1997, 2002 and 2009 series) | |
| Djiboutian franc | 1000 francs (2005), 2000 francs (2008), 10,000 francs (2009) | 2000, 5000, and 10,000 francs (National Bank of Djibouti issue) |
| Dutch guilder | 10 gulden (1997) | 25, 50, 100, 250, 1000 gulden |
| Egyptian pound | LE 5 (2002), LE 10 (2003), LE 20 (2001), LE 50 (2001), LE 100 (2000), LE 200 (2007) | 25 piastres, 50 piastres, LE 1 |
| Euro | All (2002), 5 Euro (2013), 10 Euro (2014), 20 Euro (2015), 50 Euro (2017) | |
| Faroese króna | All (2001 and 2011) | |
| French franc | 100 francs (1997) | 50, 200, and 500 francs |
| German mark | 50, 100, 200 mark (1996–2002) | 5, 10, 20, 500, 1000 mark |
| Hungarian forint | All (2010), 10,000 forint (2014), 20,000 forint (2015), 2,000 forint (2016), 5,000 forint (2016) | |
| Indian rupee | 50 (2006), 100 (2005) and 500 (2000) rupees (both 2nd edition), 500 rupees (2016), 1000 rupees (2000), 2000 rupees (2016) | 5, 10, 20, 50 rupees (Before 2006), 1st edition of 100 (1996) and 500 (1997) rupees |
| Indonesian rupiah | All (2016 "National Heroes" series) | |
| Japanese yen | ¥2000 (series D, 2000), series E (2004) | |
| Kyrgyzstani som | All (2009–2010) | |
| Kuwaiti dinar | All (2014) | |
| Macanese pataca | Banco Da China: All (8.12.2003) | |
| Malagasy ariary | 100, 200, 500, 1000 (2004), 2000, 5000, 10,000 ariary (2008), All (2017) | 2000, 5000, 10,000 ariary |
| Mexican peso | All (2006–2010) | $20 (2002–2007), $50 (1996–2006), $100 (1996–2010), $200 (1996–2008), $500 (1996–2010) |
| Moroccan dirham | All (2002 and 2013) | |
| Namibian dollar | All (2012) | |
| Netherlands Antillean gulden | 10, 25, 50, 100 gulden (1998) | 250 gulden (1985) |
| Norwegian krone | All (1999 and 2017) | |
| Polish złoty | 10, 20, 50, 100 złotych (2014), 200 złotych (2015), 500 złotych (2017) | All (1994) |
| Romanian leu | All (1996–2001 paper issue), Commemorative 2000 lei (1999), All (2000–2004 polymer issue), All (2005 revaluation issue) | |
| Saudi riyal | All (2007 and 2016) | |
| Singapore dollar | All (1999), S$10 and S$50 (2015 50th Anniversary of Independence commemorative issues) | |
| South African rand | All (2005 and 2013) | All (2012) |
| South Korean won | All (2006, 2007 and 2009) | |
| Slovak koruna | SKK 200, SKK 500, SKK 1000, SKK 5000 | SKK 100, SKK 50, SKK 20 |
| Surinamese dollar | 50 and 100 (2010) | 5, 10, 20 |
| Swazi lilangeni | All (2010) | |
| Swedish krona | 50 Kr (2006), 100 Kr (2001), 500 Kr (2001), 1000 Kr (2006), All (2015-2016) | 20 Kr |
| Swiss franc | CHF 50 (2016), CHF 20 (2017) | |
| Thai baht | ฿20 (2013), ฿50 (2012), ฿70 (2016), ฿100 (2005, 2010, 2012 and 2015), ฿500 (2014 and 2016), ฿1000 (2005 and 2015) | ฿20 (2003), ฿50 (1997 and 2004), ฿100 (2004), ฿500 (2001), ฿1000 (1999) |
| Tunisian dinar | 10 dinars (2005), 5 dinars (2008), 50 dinars (2008), 10 dinars (2013), 5 dinars (2014) | 5, 20, and commemorative 30 dinars |
| Turkish lira | 20,000,000 TL (2001), 2005 and 2009 series | |
| Ugandan shilling | All (2010) | |
| United Arab Emirates dirham | 500 dirhams (2011), 50 dirhams (2012) | 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 1000 dirhams |
| United States dollar | $5 (Series 2006), $10 (Series 2004A), $20 (Series 2004), $50 (Series 2004), $100 (Series 2009, 2009A, Now circulated) | $1, $2, $100 (Series 2006A) |
| Zimbabwean bond note | $2 (2016), $5 (2017) |
Other banknote detection mechanisms
Counterfeit Deterrence System
Since 2003, image editors such as Adobe Photoshop CS or Paint Shop Pro 8 refuse to print banknotes. According to Wired.com, the banknote detection code in these applications, called the Counterfeit Deterrence System (CDS), was designed by the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group and supplied to companies such as Adobe as a binary module.[11] However, experiments by Steven J. Murdoch and others showed that this banknote detection code does not rely on the EURion pattern.[4] It instead detects a digital watermark embedded in the images, developed by Digimarc.[12]
See also
- Printer steganography, used by colour laser printers to add hidden encoded information to printouts
- Coded Anti-Piracy, an anti-copyright infringement technology which marks each film print of a motion picture with a distinguishing patterns of dots, used as a forensic identifier to identify the source of illegal copies
References
- ^ "Glossary of banknotes". www.regulaforensics.com. 2009-01-01. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
- ^ a b Baraniuk, Chris (25 June 2015). "The secret codes of British banknotes". BBC future. Retrieved 2015-06-30.
- ^
{{cite book}}: Empty citation (help) - ^ a b c Steven J. Murdoch (13 June 2004). "Software Detection of Currency". Cl.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2014-05-20.
- ^ "Here's What Happens When You Try to Edit Photos of Money in Photoshop". PetaPixel. Retrieved 2015-10-30.
- ^ Markus Kuhn: The EURion constellation. Security Group presentation, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 8 February 2002.
- ^ Mitsutaka Katoh, et al.: Image processing device and method for identifying an input image, and copier scanner and printer including same. Omron Corporation, U.S. patent 5,845,008.
- ^ Issue of Rs.50 denomination banknotes in Mahatma Gandhi Series with additional/new security features without inset letter in numbering panel bearing the signature of Dr. Y. V. Reddy, Governor, Press Release: 2005–2006/245, G. Raghuraj, Deputy General Manager, Reserve Bank of India, 24 August 2005
- ^ 2007 Bank Note of the Year award: 1,000-franc note from Comoros. International Bank Note Society, 15 October 2007.
- ^ "RBA Banknotes: Next Generation Banknote Program". banknotes.rba.gov.au. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
- ^ Ulbrich, Chris (14 January 2004). "Currency Detector Easy to Defeat". WIRED.
- ^ Digimarc: SEC Filing, Form S-1/A, Exhibit 10.9, Counterfeit Deterrence System Development and License Agreement, 24 November 1999.
Further reading
- "Photoshop and CDS" (Press release). Adobe Systems Incorporated.
External links
- The rules for currency image use- website of the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group (CBCDG)
- Nieves, J.; Ruiz-Agundez, I. & Bringas, P. (2010), 'Recognizing Banknote Patterns for Protecting Economic TransactionsDatabase and Expert Systems Applications (DEXA), 2010 Workshop on', IEEE, 247--249.
- Data Genetics, Anti Counterfeit Measures