A passport or other document is steganographically encoded with two steganographic
digital watermarks. Data conveyed by these watermarks can be cross-checked for
expected correspondence to help authenticate the document. The document may also
include other machine-readable features, such as a bar code, a magnetic stripe,
or OCR-B text. These other machine-readable features can likewise convey data that
can be cross-checked for expected correspondence with watermark-conveyed data.
In one arrangement, four machine-readable features are provided (two watermarks
and two others), three of which convey data relating to a passport identifier,
and a different three of which convey data relating to a document batch number.
Such logical linking between several machine-readable features allows tampering
with any feature to be readily detected. A variety of related methods and apparatuses,
some involving a third watermark and biometric data, are also detailed.