Re: Canon copiers

The thing that makes me skeptical about this copier story is this:  the
money could have any orientation and position on the page.  It would take
a large amount of computing power to look at an image and deteri\\ determine
whether there is a certain bitmap anywhere on it.  Look at how poorly
optical-character-reader technology does now, and that is when it knows
how the letters are oriented.  Adding random orientations would make the
problem far worse.  And, will it look at the whole dollar bill, or just
pieces of it?  It has to respond to all the different denominations, too.
Plus, if it makes a mistake and permanently locks up the customer's machine,
the manufacturer is going to have a big problem.

In short, I'm pretty sure that there is a lot of disinformation going around
designed to scare people away from trying it.

However, there is another possibility, which is to look at hte color of
the bills.  This does not take so much processing power, although bills
may vary somewhat in color.  Years ago, I'd read that these machines would
not accurately reproduce the color of money.  Perhaps today they will turn
that color to black.

Hal

I really doubt that they would make it lock up the machine.  If that
were true, I could just walk up to the copier, slap down a $1 bill, hit
the button and walk away.  Poof -
I've just created weeks of downtime and a hefty repair bill.  Gee sounds
like fun.  Now, how many businesses do you know of that would be willing
to take that kind of risk in buying a copier?

Hal Finney writes:
>The thing that makes me skeptical about this copier story is this:  the
>money could have any orientation and position on the page.  [...]

Yes.  But the thing that makes _me_ skeptical is that there are many kinds
of currency in the world besides the US dollar.  A counterfeiter could simply
copy a stack of bills that aren't in the copier's database (eg. one of the
new currencies issued by countries that were part of the former Soviet
Union), then head on down to the nearest foreign exchange office.

>However, there is another possibility, which is to look at hte color of
>the bills.

This wouldn't do the job either.  Our Canadian bills, for instance, come
in a different color for each denomination.  Bills from New Zealand and
Thailand, among others, come in a range of colors _and_ sizes.  So your
copier would have to have quite the database...

And what about changes?  The Canadian mint has been altering a number of
bills to add better security features.  Any color copier owners out there
receive mysterious, unsolicited "preventative maintenance" visits lately?

>In short, I'm pretty sure that there is a lot of disinformation going around
>designed to scare people away from trying it.

Agreed.  I think we can put an end to _this_ thread, at least!

-- 
Martin Janzen           janzen@idacom.hp.com