System and method for quantifying reflection e.g. when analyzing laminated documents

1. A method for computerized authentication of a laminated object, the method comprising:

generating shininess data quantifying shininess of a digital image of at least a portion of the laminated object stored in a computer-implemented memory; and

differentially performing at least one laminated object authentication operation based on the shininess data including using an electronic output device for generating output/s characterizing the image of the at least portion of the laminated object;

wherein the authentication operation comprises

authenticating a flow of laminated objects image based on information derived from fields of interest of known location within digital images representing the objects, according to at least one pre-defined parameter governing handling of each of the fields, and

wherein the differentially performing includes adjusting the pre-defined parameter for each individual instance within the flow to reflect:

a lower level of confidence in information derived from an individual field to the extent that the individual field is found by the generating to be shiny, and

a higher level of confidence in information derived from that individual field, to the extent that the individual field is found by the generating not to be shiny

wherein the authentication operation includes at least one forgery test and wherein the parameter is used by a processor to determine whether or not to perform the forgery test based on the individual field, as opposed to performing at least one forgery test based on at least one field other than the individual field.

2. A system for computerized authentication of a laminated object, the system comprising:

a shininess analyzer operative, using a processor, to generate shininess data quantifying shininess of a digital image of at least a portion of the laminated object stored in a computer-implemented memory; and

a parameterized computerized authentication processor, operative to differentially perform at least one laminated object authentication operation based on the shininess data including using an electronic output device for generating output/s characterizing the image of the at least portion of the laminated object,

wherein the authentication operation comprises

authenticating a flow of laminated objects based on information derived from fields of interest of known location within digital images representing the objects, according to at least one pre-defined parameter governing handling of each of the fields,

wherein the authentication processor is operative to differentially perform the authenticating by adjusting the pre-defined parameter for each individual instance within the flow to reflect:

a lower level of confidence in information derived from an individual field to the extent that the individual field is found by the shininess analyzer to be shiny, and

a higher level of confidence in information derived from that individual field, to the extent that the individual field is found by the shininess analyzer not to be shiny, and

wherein the authentication processor performs differentially at least one authentication operation by carrying out the authentication operation and reporting its result accompanied by a “level of confidence” indication stipulating that the results enjoy a low level of confidence, only if the shininess data indicates that shininess capable of adversely affecting the results has been detected.

3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the laminated object comprises a physical document.

4. The system according to claim 3 , wherein the physical document comprises an instance of a known type of physical ID documents and wherein the system also comprises a data-base storing computerized data characterizing a plurality of known types of physical ID documents.

5. The system according to claim 4 , wherein the data characterizing a plurality of known types of physical ID documents comprises data indicating locations of pre-defined fields of interest within each of the plurality of known types of physical ID documents.

6. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the authentication processor is operative to differentially perform at least one authentication operation by determining, based on the shininess data, whether or not to fix the image, by computationally adjusting pixel values to remove estimated shininess effects, before executing a forgery test.

7. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the authentication processor is operative to differentially perform at least one authentication operation by aggregating information about shininess of various instances of each of at least first and second document types, handling all instances of the first document type using a first forgery test whose parameters are selected given a first level of shininess that appears to characterize the first document type; and handling all instances of the second document type using a second forgery test whose parameters are selected given a second level of shininess that appears to characterize the second document type.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the authentication processor differentially performs at least one authentication operation by carrying out the authentication operation and reporting its result accompanied by a “level of confidence” indication stipulating that the results enjoy a low level of confidence, only if the shininess data indicates that shininess capable of adversely affecting the results has been detected.

9. A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory tangible computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for computerized authentication of a laminated object, the method comprising:

generating shininess data quantifying shininess of a digital image of at least a portion of the laminated object stored in a computer-implemented memory; and

differentially performing at least one laminated object authentication operation based on the shininess data including using an electronic output device for generating output/s characterizing the image of the at least portion of the laminated object,

wherein the authentication operation comprises

authenticating a flow of laminated objects based on information derived from fields of interest of known location within digital images representing the objects, according to at least one pre-defined parameter governing handling of each of the fields, and

wherein the differentially performing includes adjusting the pre-defined parameter for each individual instance within the flow to reflect:

a lower level of confidence in information derived from an individual field to the extent that the individual field is found by the generating to be shiny, and

a higher level of confidence in information derived from that individual field, to the extent that the individual field is found by the generating not to be shiny

wherein the differentially performing includes carrying out the authentication operation and reporting its result accompanied by a “level of confidence” indication stipulating that the results enjoy a low level of confidence, only if the shininess data indicates that shininess capable of adversely affecting the results has been detected.

10. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the authentication operation includes at least one forgery test and wherein the parameter is used by a processor to determine whether or not to perform the forgery test based on the individual field, as opposed to performing at least one forgery test based on at least one field other than the individual field.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the laminated object comprises a physical document.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the physical document comprises an instance of a known type of physical ID documents and wherein the system also comprises a data-base storing computerized data characterizing a plurality of known types of physical ID documents.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the data characterizing a plurality of known types of physical ID documents comprises data indicating locations of pre-defined fields of interest within each of the plurality of known types of physical ID documents.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the differentially performing comprises differentially performing at least one authentication operation by aggregating information about shininess of various instances of each of at least first and second document types, handling all instances of the first document type using a first forgery test whose parameters are selected given a first level of shininess that appears to characterize the first document type; and handling all instances of the second document type using a second forgery test whose parameters are selected given a second level of shininess that appears to characterize the second document type.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the differentially performing comprises differentially performing at least one authentication operation by carrying out the authentication operation and reporting its result accompanied by a “level of confidence” indication stipulating that the results enjoy a low level of confidence, only if the shininess data indicates that shininess capable of adversely affecting the results has been detected.

16. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the authentication operation includes at least one forgery test and wherein the parameter is used by a processor to determine whether or not to perform the forgery test based on the individual field, as opposed to performing at least one forgery test based on at least one field other than the individual field.

17. The computer program product according to claim 9 , wherein the laminated object comprises a physical document and wherein the physical document comprises an instance of a known type of physical ID documents and wherein the system also comprises a data-base storing computerized data characterizing a plurality of known types of physical ID documents.

18. The computer program product according to claim 17 , wherein the data characterizing a plurality of known types of physical ID documents comprises data indicating locations of pre-defined fields of interest within each of the plurality of known types of physical ID documents.

19. The computer program product according to claim 9 , wherein the differentially performing comprises differentially performing at least one authentication operation by aggregating information about shininess of various instances of each of at least first and second document types, handling all instances of the first document type using a first forgery test whose parameters are selected given a first level of shininess that appears to characterize the first document type; and handling all instances of the second document type using a second forgery test whose parameters are selected given a second level of shininess that appears to characterize the second document type.

20. The computer program product according to claim 9 , wherein the differentially performing comprises performing, differentially, at least one authentication operation by carrying out the authentication operation and reporting its result accompanied by a “level of confidence” indication stipulating that the results enjoy a low level of confidence, only if the shininess data indicates that shininess capable of adversely affecting the results has been detected.

21. The computer program product according to claim 9 , wherein the authentication operation includes at least one forgery test and wherein the parameter is used by a processor to determine whether or not to perform the forgery test based on the individual field, as opposed to performing at least one forgery test based on at least one field other than the individual field.