Method and apparatus for inspecting whether a surface of an article is provided with a valuable document

An inspection apparatus for automatically inspecting if a region of a surface of an article is provided with a valuable document, wherein the valuable document being a genuine valuable document has a predefined security feature, the inspection apparatus comprising:

• an image recording device for generating a computer-available image of the region of the surface of the article;
• a valuable document data memory for storing computer-available images of valuable documents;
• an image evaluation unit configured to inspect if the computer-available image from said image recording device contains an object image corresponding to an image stored in said valuable document data memory, said image evaluation unit further searching for the valuable document in the computer-available image of the region of the surface, and generating a further computer-available image of the valuable document using the computer-available image from said image recording device;
• a security feature data memory for storing a respective identification of at least one predefined security feature;
• a security feature detector configured to inspect, using said security feature data memory, if a predefined inspection region of the region of the surface of the article has the predefined security feature;
• the inspection apparatus programmed to implement the following steps, for each said article:
• generate, via said image recording device, the computer-available image of the region of the surface of the article;
• inspect, via said image evaluation unit, if the computer-available image contains an object image corresponding to an image in said valuable document data memory;
• if the image contains the object image corresponding to the image in said valuable document data memory, determine that the article is a valuable document and the region of the surface is provided with the valuable document;
• if the computer-available image does not contain the object image corresponding to the image in said valuable document data memory, implement the following steps:
• inspecting, via said security feature detector, if the region of the surface of the article in the predefined inspection region has one of the predefined security features;
• if said security feature detector has determined such a security feature, said image evaluation unit searches for the valuable document in the predefined inspection region using the computer-available image of the region of the surface;
• and
• if said image evaluation unit has found the valuable document, said image evaluation unit generates the further computer-available image of the valuable document using the computer-available image of the region of the surface, and when a predefined criterion is satisfied, the apparatus stores said further computer-available image in said valuable document data memory and decides that the surface in the predefined inspection region is provided with the valuable document.