Database for detecting counterfeit items using digital fingerprint records

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

acquiring digital fingerprints of a plurality of known counterfeit physical objects of a given class;

storing each digital fingerprint of a corresponding counterfeit physical object in a digital fingerprint record of a datastore to form a machine-readable counterfeit object database for the given class, wherein each stored digital fingerprint record includes

first data identifying a plurality of locations of interest in the corresponding counterfeit physical object and

for each location of interest, second data forming at least one fingerprint feature vector that describes a fingerprint feature extracted from the location of interest, wherein the at least one fingerprint feature vector describes inherent physical characteristics of the corresponding location of interest without regard to semantic content of the location of interest;

acquiring a digital fingerprint of a target physical object;

querying the machine-readable counterfeit object database based on the digital fingerprint of the target physical object; and

based on a response to the querying, generating a report indicating whether or not the target physical object is likely to be a counterfeit.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the given class of known counterfeit objects is government-issued documents.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the given class of known counterfeit objects is passports.

4. The method of claim 1 and further comprising:

searching stored digital fingerprints of the machine-readable counterfeit object database to identify one or more patterns;

based on the identified one or more patterns, building a database of counterfeiting patterns for objects of a same class.

5. An apparatus to generate a digital fingerprint comprising:

an image capture device arranged to generate image data responsive to a surface region of a physical object;

a processor having electronic access to the image data;

the processor arranged to execute stored instructions for processing the image data, the stored instructions arranged to cause the processor to:

access a predetermined object feature template associated with a class of objects of which the physical object is a member, wherein the predetermined object feature template specifies (a) an authentication region, (b) at least one object feature within the authentication region, (c) a method for extracting a digital fingerprint feature from the at least one object feature, and (d) a method for comparing the extracted digital fingerprint feature to a reference feature;

based on the predetermined object feature template, identify a subset of the image data corresponding to the authentication region;

based on the predetermined object feature template, extract a feature from the subset of the image data; and

store extracted feature data defining the extracted feature in an object digital fingerprint database record.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the image capture device comprises at least one of a scanner, a camera, a specially-adapted sensor array from any of a CCD array, an imaging microscope, a smart phone camera, a video camera, an x-ray machine, or any other imaging capture device responsive to electromagnetic radiation.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the stored instructions further control the processor to compare the extracted feature data to reference feature data, without regard to the image data generated by the image capture device, to assess whether or not the physical object matches the reference feature data.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the assessment includes quantifying the comparison, to produce a quantified comparison result, and then comparing the quantified comparison result to a predetermined comparison tolerance.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the extracted feature data defines a geometric shape and a location of the geometric shape in the authentication region.

10. An apparatus to generate a digital fingerprint comprising:

an image capture device arranged to generate image data responsive to a surface region of a physical object;

a processor having electronic access to the image data;

the processor arranged to execute stored instructions for processing the image data, the stored instructions arranged to cause the processor to:

access a predetermined object feature template associated with a class of objects of which the physical object is a member;

based on the predetermined object feature template, identify a subset of the image data corresponding to an authentication region on the surface region of the physical object;

based on the predetermined object feature template, extract a feature from the subset of the image data; and

store extracted feature data defining the extracted feature in an object digital fingerprint database record associated with the physical object, wherein the extracted feature data defines a geometric shape and a location of the geometric shape in the authentication region.