User:Pedro Sá Couto/MIC

Machine Identification Code

What is the Machine Identification Code

The Machine Identification Code is appended to every printed page. When printing, a pattern of dots is added. These are almost imperceptible yellow dots carrying information as the date of print, time and the serial number of the machine. This made me rethink what did it mean to publish in print, how safe is it, and how it might affect the ones who depend on printed forms of publishing.

AN ANONYMISATION APPROACH

Tracking dots on a sheet reveal information about the printer and are therefore a lack of privacy. Tracking dots information have no controlled access and can theoretically be read and decoded by anyone. It is possible to conclude the printer of a sheet which is often owned by the author. This would be a disaster e.g. in case the sheet is a critical leaflet about the government in a dictatorship. For this reason, we introduce methods for removing tracking data from scanned prints and for masking tracking data on prints. Each anonymisation method was successfully tested using our dedatoolkit.

Richter, T., Escher, S., Schönfeld, D., et al. (2018) Forensic Analysis and Anonymisation of Printed Documents. In 14 June 2018. pp. 127–138. doi:10.1145/3206004.3206019.

Understanding if they are real

I was not able to identify them personally even though they appear to be a reality. There are numerous people apparently spotting them and online there is a lot of discussion about them. I tested methods to identify with UV light, with different printers, from HP to Canon, from Inkjet to Lasers printers. I scanned the pages with 1200 dpi, inverted and follow almost every tutorial I found available online.
This is not to say they don't exist but is a disclaimer that I was not able to come across them.

First Working Prototype