Photoshop uses a mysterious algorithm so that banknote images cannot be opened

If for any reason at any time we have tried to open the image of a banknote with the Photoshop graphic design application, we will have met with a little pleasant surprise. The reason for this may be because the program sends a warning that does not allow working with images that have to do with money.

This is because in Photoshop, an algorithm was introduced in its CS version which is capable of detecting images that have reference to the coin. In this article we explain in more detail the reason why Photoshop uses a mysterious algorithm so that banknote images cannot be opened.

If at some point we have run into this error, we will have noticed that the program shows us a URL that redirects us to know more information regarding this (www.rulesforusa.org). This website belongs to Central Bank Deterrence Group or also known by its acronym CBCDG, this is a body that includes 27 central banks and is focused on the fight against the digital counterfeiting of money.

In addition, they are responsible for programs such as the Photoshop, Corel Draw or Paint Shop Pro, have this detection system without the program creators themselves having any knowledge of how the exact algorithm that they are provided works is like. In the year 200 was the moment in which Photoshop first adopted this detection system, a product manager of the Adobe company has referred to this as a black box method, where the content it has is not known.

When the aforementioned director was asked about the reason for implementing this algorithm, he answered “As a market leader and good citizens, we seem to just do the right thing”. And of course, according to the law it says that the developers are not in their obligation to be able to implement a control like this, but they made the decision to accept this request from CBCDG and incorporate it.

In the same way it happens with the others programs for graphic design.

At first it was thought that the algorithm was designed to detect a specific pattern and with an arrangement quite similar to the constellation of Orion, which is why this pattern became known as the constellation of EUrion, since generally all the banknotes have this pattern of five points.

El investigador markus kuhn, was the one who discovered the pattern by chance in 2002, when conducting an experiment using a new Xerox printer, which refused to be able to print the ticket. The conditions that these five points must have to be detected are still a mystery, researcher Kuhn explained in an interview recently, that if the image is in black and white, the algorithm is not detected, but if some type of color is found, it can be detected.

In this way, the distance that may exist between each of the points is also unknown and this is another detail that is taken into account.

For many, omron rings they are what make Photoshop know when it comes to the image of a bill, but the answer to this is a No or at least it is not the only system that does. University College London researcher Steven J. Murdoch conducted tests with Photoshop and Paint Shop shortly after these programs its address algorithm. To Steve's surprise, once the constellation rings were covered, the programs were still detecting the bill and the image could not be edited.

In this experiment, it was discovered that the Photoshop and PSP algorithms had the same results.

Besides, the time to return the error depended on the image that was analyzed and is that when carrying out all these tests and an own investigation, Murdoch assured that the Diginarc company had created an advanced system that allows banknote detection.

In conclusion, Photoshop uses a mysterious algorithm so that banknote images cannot be opened, because for security reasons it has been implemented so that banknotes cannot be forged digitally.