Ensuring Effective Detection of Currency

Counterfeits across different touchpoints

Organisation Name : NCR

Problem Statement : Currently, currency notes that are in legal tender are used widely in
the economy for different transactions and are accepted at various banking touchpoints like
branches, ATMs, banking correspondents etc. as well as commerce touchpoints like retail
stores, petrol bunks and for various utility/government services. Some touchpoints are more
mature at detecting and eliminating counterfeit notes like note counters in branches and note
accepting ATMs, but in a wide array of touchpoints cash handling is manual. If simple software
that can be downloaded on a phone can detect counterfeit notes that have been detected at
other touchpoints then counterfeit detection can be vastly improved thus reducing the fraud.

Team Name : we_are_BST

Team Leader Name : Sarthak Jain College Code : U-0273

Idea Description :-

Basic Workflow ( See Fig. 1. ) :

1. Image Acquisition : Capturing the image to be detected using the camera which would be configured to detect Indian
Currency Notes using Haar Cascade (used to detect specific objects) in OpenCV (Image Processing Library).
2. Banknote Recognition System :
• Region of Interest (ROI) Extraction : This extracts the features required to be matched with the original test data
(clear images/ ideal calculations) which the app would be preloaded with. The noise In extracted image is reduced
with gamma correction and histogram equalization, which is then binarized to Black and White (This also helps in
clear detection of watermarks without any special surrounding requirement.)
• Classification and Feature Matching : Every feature is worked upon separately with the ROI divided into separate
parts, thereby optimizing the validation process. The first phase involves constructing the base classifiers using the
five distance measures of the KNN method (stores all available cases and classifies new cases based on distance
measures) to obtain a very good generalization of the banknote predictions. The proposed distance measure
method computes the absolute variance between the extracted features of the template image and the test
image. The differences are multiplied together, and the various products are compared. The best three distances
(out of five) are then combined using Ensemble Methods. The best out of them is then verified and is checked
upon with the test data. At the end, the final results are displayed in terms of probability of authenticity.
Key features of the App :
• Detects all the key features including Latent Image, Guarantee Clause, Sloping Numerals, etc.
• Text & Audio output – To facilitate the use of app by Visually Impaired People too.
• App also facilitates step by step manual checking process as per user’s discretion.
• Reduced Processing Time.

Technology Bucket :
• Android App Development (Java)
• Image processing using OpenCV Android and some other open source modules for image processing.
• Machine learning Algorithms.
 Start
Use Cases :
Request
• New Notes : ₹2000, ₹500, ₹200, ₹100 Image
• Old Notes : ₹100, ₹50
• Lower Denominations : ₹20, ₹10, ₹5 Image Acquisition
• Note Colour and Colour Shift Detection of Security Thread
Image Unclear
• Watermark Detection Input Image
• Torn and Dilapidated Notes.
• Scribbled Notes
Banknote Request
• Low Resolution Camera for Detection
Recognition New
• Micro Letter pattern detection System Image
• Numeral Validation
• Wrinkled Notes
Denomination
Recognition

Dependencies :
• Android Studio and SDKs Audio & Text
• Atom IDE Output of
• Android Phone to test the app Denomination &
• Ubuntu OS Authenticity

Show Stoppers : Done

• The app doesn’t feature 100% accuracy.
• Material detection serves as a limitation to the app. Exit
• Raised Prints cannot be detected.
Fig. 1. Flow Diagram of proposed Banknote Reader