The EURion constellation (also known as Omron rings[1] or doughnuts[2]) is a pattern of symbols incorporated into a number of secure documents such as banknotes, cheques, and ownership title certificates designs worldwide since about 1996. It is added to help imaging software detect the presence of such a document in a digital image. Such software can then block the user from reproducing banknotes to prevent counterfeiting using colour photocopiers.

The EURion constellation is made up of five rings.

Description

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The Orion constellation

The name "EURion constellation" was coined by security researcher Markus Kuhn, who uncovered the pattern on the 10-euro banknote in early 2002 while experimenting with a Xerox colour photocopier that refused to reproduce banknotes.[3] The pattern has never been mentioned officially; Kuhn named it the EURion constellation as it resembled the astronomical Orion constellation, and EUR is the ISO 4217 designation of the euro currency.[4]

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[5] suggests that the pattern and detection algorithm were designed at Omron, 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.[6] In 2007, the term "Omron rings" was used in an award announcement by a banknote collectors society.[7]

Usage

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The following table lists some banknotes on which the EURion constellation or Omron rings have been found. Current currencies for which all recent banknotes use the constellation are in bold and whose central banks are members of the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group (which will be mentioned in the next section) are italicised.

 
Omron rings made by circular zeroes on a US $20 note (marked in blue).

Other banknote detection mechanisms

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Counterfeit Deterrence System

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Error given by Adobe Photoshop when attempting to print an image of a US$20 bill.

Since 2003, image editors such as Adobe Photoshop CS or PaintShop 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.[12] Experiments by Steven J. Murdoch and others showed that this banknote detection code does not rely on the EURion pattern.[13] It instead detects a digital watermark embedded in the images, developed by Digimarc.[14]

See also

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  • Printer steganography, used by some 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 distinguishing patterns of dots, used as a forensic identifier to identify the source of illegal copies

Notes

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  1. ^ Some currencies (marked [€]) were replaced by the euro before the complete adoption of the EURion constellation.

References

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  1. ^ "Glossary of banknotes". www.regulaforensics.com. 1 January 2009. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  2. ^ a b c Baraniuk, Chris (25 June 2015). "The secret codes of British banknotes". BBC Future. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  3. ^ Markus Kuhn: The EURion constellation. Security Group presentation, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 8 February 2002.
  4. ^ "What Happens If You Photocopy Money?". OMS Copiers. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ "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" Archived 2011-06-22 at the Wayback Machine, Press Release: 2005–2006/245, G. Raghuraj, Deputy General Manager, Reserve Bank of India, 24 August 2005
  7. ^ "2007 Bank Note of the Year award: 1,000-franc note from Comoros". International Bank Note Society, 15 October 2007.
  8. ^ "RBA Banknotes: Next Generation Banknote Program". banknotes.rba.gov.au. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  9. ^ Friedberg, Arthur L. "Central Bank of Myanmar issuing new 1,000-kyat bank note". CoinWorld. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  10. ^ Myanmar new 500-kyat note (B118.5a) reported for introduction on 19.07.2020 BanknoteNews (https://banknotenews.com). June 21, 2020. Retrieved on 2020-06-22.
  11. ^ "Geheimnisvoller Kopierschutz – Weshalb kann man Banknoten nicht kopieren?". 25 November 2019.
  12. ^ Ulbrich, Chris (14 January 2004). "Currency Detector Easy to Defeat". WIRED.
  13. ^ Steven J. Murdoch (13 June 2004). "Software Detection of Currency". murdoch.is. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
  14. ^ Digimarc: SEC Filing, Form S-1/A, Exhibit 10.9, Counterfeit Deterrence System Development and License Agreement, 24 November 1999.

Further reading

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