A Method of Image Quality Assessment for Text Recognition on Camera-Captured and Projectively Distorted Documents

In this paper, we consider the problem of identity document recognition in images captured with a mobile device camera. A high level of projective distortion leads to poor quality of the restored text images and, hence, to unreliable recognition results. We propose a novel, theoretically based method for estimating the projective distortion level at a restored image point. On this basis, we suggest a new method of binary quality estimation of projectively restored field images. The method analyzes the projective homography only and does not depend on the image size. The text font and height of an evaluated field are assumed to be predefined in the document template. This information is used to estimate the maximum level of distortion acceptable for recognition. The method was tested on a dataset of synthetically distorted field images. Synthetic images were created based on document template images from the publicly available dataset MIDV-2019. In the experiments, the method shows stable predictive values for different strings of one font and height. When used as a pre-recognition rejection method, it demonstrates a positive predictive value of 86.7% and a negative predictive value of 64.1% on the synthetic dataset. A comparison with other geometric quality assessment methods shows the superiority of our approach.

Age reporting in the Brazilian COVID-19 vaccination database: What can we learn from it?

Age is a key variable for sciences and public planning. The demographic consequences of not measuring age correctly are manifold, including errors in mortality rates and population estimates, particularly at older ages. It also affects public programs because target populations depend on reliable population age distributions. In Brazil, the start of the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 marked the collection of new administrative data. Every citizen must be registered and need to show an identity document to get vaccinated. The requirement of proof-of-age documentation provides a unique opportunity for measuring the elderly population using a different database. This article examines the reliability of age distributions of men and women 80 years and older. We calculate various demographic indicators using data from the vaccination registration system and compare them to those from the target population estimates of the National Vaccination Plan, censuses, and population projections for Brazil and countries with high-quality population data. We show that requiring proof-of-age, such as in the vaccination records, increases data quality, mainly through the reduction of age heaping and age exaggeration. However, I.D. cards cannot fully solve wrong birth dates that result from weak historical registration systems. Thus, one should be careful when using estimates of the old age population living in some of the Brazilian regions, particularly the North, Northeast, and Center-West. Also, our analysis reveals a mismatch between the projected population by age, sex, and region, which guided the vaccination plan, and the number of vaccinated at ages 80 and older. The methodology developed to adjust the mortality rates used in the demographic projections is probably the main factor behind the disparities found.

Improving Detection of Manipulated Passport Photos - Training Course for Border Control Inspectors to Detect Morphed Facial Passport Photos - Part I: Introduction, State-of-the-Art and Preparatory Tests and Experiments

In recent years, ID controllers have observed an increase in the use of fraudulently obtained ID documents [1]. This often involves deception during the application process to get a genuine document with a manipulated passport photo. One of the methods used by fraudsters is the presentation of a morphed facial image. Face morphing is used to assign multiple identities to a biometric passport photo. It is possible to modify the photo so that two or more persons, usually the known applicant and one or more unknown companions, can use the passport to pass through a border control [2]. In this way, persons prohibited from crossing a border can cross it unnoticed using a face morphing attack and thus acquire a different identity. The face morphing attack aims to weaken the application for an identity card and issue a genuine identity document with a morphed facial image. A survey among experts at the Security Printers Conference revealed that a relevant number of at least 1,000 passports with morphed facial images had been detected in the last five years in Germany alone [1]. Furthermore, there are indications of a high number of unreported cases. This high presumed number of unreported cases can also be explained by the lack of morphed photographs’ detection capabilities. Such identity cards would be recognized if the controllers could recognize the morphed facial images. Various studies have shown that the human eye has a minimal ability to recognize morphed faces as such [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]. This work consists of two parts. Both parts are based on the complete development of a training course for passport control officers to detect morphed facial images. Part one contains the conception and the first test trials of how the training course has to be structured to achieve the desired goals and thus improve the detection of morphed facial images for passport inspectors. The second part of this thesis will include the complete training course and the evaluation of its effectiveness.

APPLICATION OF WEB BASED TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF AUTOMATED SMART CITY SERVICES

The paper considers, proposes and describes possibilities and methods to solve problems in providing services in smart cities, where citizens have to appear in person in the city or municipality premises or at the teller/counter of the institution. In this way, by using information and telecommunication technologies, Web based solutions and Internet, citizens obtain services online, from their homes or working places, using all types of their PC equipment or smart mobile telephone, and do not waste their time in the city or municipality premises. Their contacts are also reduced, which is very important in the context of actual Corona virus pandemic. The services are provided and charged automatically and online. No cash is used, which is also a potential carrier of the Corona virus. The proposed method and proposed solution are based on application of the specially developed algorithm for service automation, developed and implemented adequate software application and designed hardware solution that fully supports the software solution and the process of service delivery automation. The proposed system decreases costs and increases availability, quality and speed of services realization in smart cities and municipalities. Also, the proposed solution uses reliable methods for identification and authentication of a person using a service. For identification are used pictures, taken by a Web camera or a smart mobile telephone, of an identity document and of the face of the user and appropriate software for text and face recognition.

Bayesian Feature Fusion Using Factor Graph in Reduced Normal Form

In this work, we investigate an Information Fusion architecture based on a Factor Graph in Reduced Normal Form. This paradigm permits to describe the fusion in a completely probabilistic framework and the information related to the different features are represented as messages that flow in a probabilistic network. In this way we build a sort of context for observed features conferring to the solution a great flexibility for managing different type of features with wrong and missing values as required by many real applications. Moreover, modifying opportunely the messages that flow into the network, we obtain an effective way to condition the inference based on the different reliability of each information source or in presence of single unreliable signal. The proposed architecture has been used to fuse different detectors for an identity document classification task but its flexibility, extendibility and robustness make it suitable to many real scenarios where the signal can be wrongly received or completely missing.

Algorithm for choosing the best frame in a video stream in the task of identity document recognition

During the process of document recognition in a video stream using a mobile device camera, the image quality of the document varies greatly from frame to frame. Sometimes recognition system is required not only to recognize all the specified attributes of the document, but also to select final document image of the best quality. This is necessary, for example, for archiving or providing various services; in some countries it can be required by law. In this case, recognition system needs to assess the quality of frames in the video stream and choose the “best” frame. In this paper we considered the solution to such a problem where the “best” frame means the presence of all specified attributes in a readable form in the document image. The method was set up on a private dataset, and then tested on documents from the open MIDV-2019 dataset. A practically applicable result was obtained for use in recognition systems.

A cascade of exclusion: administrative burdens and access to citizenship in the case of Argentina’s National Identity Document

Administrative burdens can hinder people’s social, political and economic participation. However, most empirical studies usually tackle the issue of how they affect access to citizenship merely indirectly. This article examines administrative exclusion from Argentina’s National Identity Document and its effects on a key social policy: the Universal Child Allowance. Findings indicate that: (1) administrative exclusion from official identity documents ‘feeds back’ into the construction of a vulnerable target group that is systematically excluded from social benefits and public services; and (2) limitations in the administrative capacity for identity registration and documentation ‘trickle down’ to complications in the implementation of social policies as target groups remain ‘off the radar’. Findings also demonstrate the importance of understanding administrative burdens as a systemic issue. Burdens manifest themselves at the level of citizen–state interactions but their causes and consequences are tied up with intractable institutional characteristics, administrative capacities and social inequalities. Points for practitioners Efforts by developing countries to develop effective social protection systems are often thwarted by limitations in the state’s capacity to identify and reach marginalized citizens. This suggests the need for a systemic perspective of the state’s entire capacity instead of merely focusing on the design of social protection programmes. Specifically, we demonstrate that complete, accessible and up-to-date civil registries, identity documents and other forms of registration are a precondition for transforming formal rights into a tangible reality for citizens.