MOF Seeking Patents on Two Anti-forgery Technologies. Graduation Certificates May Carry A Chip Storing Academic Performance Record And Credential.

The Printing Plant, Ministry of Finance is seeking patent on an REID forgery-proof certification system and on an online authenticity verification system.  According to the briefing the Printing Plant presented to the Ministry of Education (MOE), with these two technologies applied, the ordinary graduation certificate will turn into a datasheet on the academic performance record and portrait photo of the certificate holder and the data carried will be forgery-proof when transmitted online.

According to Lin Tsong-Ming, Political Deputy Minister of the MOE, the graduation certificate being produced as an academic record datasheet is the trend but there are still problems to remove before putting it into application, such as the forgery problem.  Lin said there is no timetable set for the development of the chip graduation certificate project.

The REID forgery-proof certificate system will make the graduation certificate produced a chip certificate carrying the academic performance record and portrait photo of the certificate holder.  This technology is similar to that applied to ATM chip cards according to ChaoYang University of Technology, who has worked with the MOF in developing the system.

The online authenticity verification system is a digital anti-forgery technology which can verify the authenticity of a chip certificate by examining the picture of the chip certificate taken with a mobile phone.  This technology may also be applied to verify special licenses, negotiate instruments and other documents of which authenticity verification of is needed.

The MOE plans to promote the chip graduation certificate project once the Printing Plant obtains the patents sought for.  Once put into effect, the application of the two technologies will bring revolutionary changes to schools of all levels.  Being the owner of the patents, the Printing Plant could be the one and only printing plant producing chip graduation certificates in the country.

According to the MOF, the Printing Plant is under proactive transformation and has eyed the verification of Chinese graduation certificates as a major opportunity for commercial exploitation of these two anti-forgery technologies and hopefully fake diplomas will no longer be a problem. (2009.11)
/EMA