...CONCEALED MICROCODE REVEALED
SIMPLY AND EFFECTIVELY...
READ ON...
This year marks 14 years of involvement in the Somerton Man case. The first 2 years plus were spent on the original Adelaide University Facebook page. It was during that time that the whole microcode issue came to the surface and I spent much time attempting to convince Professor Abbot and others of its existence, which was a pointless exercise based on the level of ignorance and inability to see past their preconceived ideas on the nature of the case. In other words, what I had found would upset the applecart and their agenda would be undermined. Welcome to the real world.
Don't get me wrong here this post is not about calling the detractors and nay-sayers stupid or ignorant, I really don't have time for that. The purpose today is to show everyone just how simple it now is to uncover concealed microcode from beneath printer ink. In fact, all that is needed is to be found at the foot of this post...
In the image at the head of this page, there are 5 listed instances where the microcode may be hidden, if it's there it will be beneath one or more of the blue lines that you can see. the question is, is it there?
Yes, it is there and here it is for you to view at your leisure:
1. This image below shows the microcode as 'INK OVER PENCIL'. The code was handwritten in pencil and then covered with a layer of ink. you can see the code in a grey colour within the marked area. It is confusing at first but once you see it as grey it is easy to see, you can't unsee it. The numbers are 123419 :
2. The trap! There is a question mark alongside this marked-over area because there is no code beneath it. This was done to demonstrate that whilst you might see darker patches, you need clear definable shapes as in letters and/or numbers to confirm the presence of code and those characters need to follow the shape of the mark over:
3. In this image the example is of an inked-over area with the code written in pencil on top of the ink, hence 'PENCIL ON INK'. Once again the characters that you're looking for are those in a light grey against the white background being X 12365:
4. In marked area 4, you can see that we have created typical INK H concealment, a sandwich if you like. First, a layer of ink is applied then the code is added in pencil and then, to minimise the risk of detection from a bright light for example. another layer of ink is added to complete the concealment hence the label INK/PENCIL/INK. Interestingly, the additional layer of ink gives the code letters and numbers a 3D appearance, 123 XCA:
5. In this final example the format is INK ON INK. A little more difficult to find but it can be detected with more effort, in this case, we at least can see some discernible shapes that tell us that there is something there but just what it is, is the issue. I know what it is simply because I put it there but you will have to try and guess it at least for now. In practice, another recovery method is used. A clue for you, the previous examples are of pencil on ink whereas in this example we have INK ON INK...
That's cool, will give that a go
ReplyDeleteIt works! The Fotor site isn't bad either. Uploaded it, inverted the colours and bingo, there it was done in seconds.Very clever but simple, how come you never though of it before?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback, appreciated. A fair question, in the end its about the improvements in technology and having the right kinds of printer and by the way, the weather here has been atrocious for a while so getting a decent sunny day when I was available at the right time was a big problem. Anyway, it all came together about two weeks ago and I took the opportunity. I had tried it before but with only one printer. the test I wanted to do involved demonstrating that there wasn't any way that the printer was creating artifacts. Having three quite different printers and being able to reproduce the same result on each makes all the difference. This is part of the work I am doing alongside the cryptanalysts who are examining the Nihilist cipher text found in the torn slip.Just need to be patient now, (again!)
ReplyDeleteThat's outstanding my friend, simple but very effective, always the way. Do you have any more results to share yet?
ReplyDeleteI updated this post, extra images that show the concealed text more clearly using a yellow background.
ReplyDeleteI haven’t found any other site or person for that matter, that’s actually done this exercise and demonstrated the recovery of concealed typed or written characters or images perhaps.
I don’t know whether it’s a first but it looks like it. There are many uses for it and I hope it will be of benefit to others. It works in the examples shown and the benefit is that there’s no physical intervention and you don’t damage or destroy an original document.
It delivers a result similar to an x-ray, whether it works in every instance is yet to be proven.I do know that you may need to make some colour and other adjustments to fine tune a result depending on the task.
Gerroff, I am working on a few examples that were originally done using an older technique, will post on at least one of them shortly.
ReplyDeleteA question. In one of your posts you had blue coloured pic of a signature and it showed some lettering so my question is what difference does blue colouring make and how do you do it?
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteGot a similar question on that, but it’s about the printers. Do different printers use different inks and would you get different shades of blue say or black?
Inks are at the heart of the process used here to recover any concealed codes/characters.
ReplyDeleteI have some experience with printers but I don't profess to be an 'expert' so I will share with everyone what I know to be true.
Essentially there are 2 kinds of inks, Pigment based and Dye based. Pigment based is favoured by artists and others who turn out what is loosely termed 'Fine Art' Prints also known as 'Giclee' prints. They prefer pigment inks because of the depth of colour it offers and the fact that it is fade and to a degree, water resistant.
Dye based inks are arguably more vibrant in their colours but are water soluble. They also offer crisp text printing and a graduated finish.
Pigment ink is made from finely ground particles and thus not readily soluble.
I have three printers, two of which are pigment based and one which has a pigment black ink but three soluble dye based inks.
As many would know printer manufacturers make their money not so much from their machines but from the consumables including ink and sometimes paper.
On the issue of colour, the blue photo referred to was a dye based print, thus it was and is soluble hence the way it reacts to weak citric acid which removes the thin layers of ink necessary to reveal concealed codes. the colour chosen was a matter of finding a colour that would give a reasonable amount of contrast which that particular shade of blue does. You may find that for other uses, a different colour would produce better results.
If I had used a pigment blue colour from a different printer, then whilst citric acid may remove pigment ink eventually it is far harder to do. Very often that would need a 14% sodium hypochlorite solution would be needed which brings with it other challenges but certainly doable.
Back to the printers and their differences. The manufacturers of these machines go to great lengths to 'tune' the inks to the print heads and they need to take into account what kind of paper might be used. Each model is matched to the ink range it requires.
Finally, there is an issue of which paper should be used, there are many different weights/'qualities' of printer paper ranging from inexpensive copy paper, to eco friendly papers, bleed proof papers, drawing papers, canvas finish, cotton rag papers and photographic papers etc etc. For the work I do here, I have found that bleed proof paper works well on most occasions primarily because it prevents the ink spreading and thus gives a 'sharper' finish which is important in this work. Sometimes, but not that often, I use other types of paper dependent on a number of factors.
I hope this helps, printing is not as easy or straightforward as some may think. I am still learning and my unrequested recommendation to you would be to experiment with different inks and paper combinations along with printer brands if you can access them. I know we have a fair few colleges whoc follow this blog and they would be well placed to have such access and possibly libraries.
Last point! Do not use a laser printer, they simply are not suitable for this kind of work.
I did not know this. I have used isopropyl alcohol to remove smudge marks on photographs but this is a whole new level. How do I get in touch with you?
ReplyDeleteZorba, No problem just send in a comment with the header 'DO NOT PUBLISH' plus your message, please include your email address. Thanks for the feedback.
ReplyDeleteA serious note of caution here, isopropyl alcohol and acetone have been mentioned as ways of removing ink. BOTH ARE HIGHLY FLAMMABLE & UNDER SOME CIRCUMSTANCES CAN BE EXPLOSIVE. I DO NOT RECOMMEND EITHER OF THESE ITEMS FOR INK REMOVAL UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
ReplyDeleteI think I mentioned once, that I know it doesn’t really have to do with the technique, but I read they used lime juice to reveal hidden messages back in the 1940’s, have you used this method or heard about it?
ReplyDeleteIt is another way that we discussed in earlier posts, it was citric acid and I used lemon juice to remove layers of ink. So it’s as you say, used in WW2 and probably before and probably since both to write ‘invisibly’ and to remove dye based inks. There are so many old tradecraft techniques out there, it needs a book I think. It would be handy if you recalled where you read it? By the way this post is showing up anonymous. I am not on my usual device
ReplyDelete.Gordon
I read it in a article on a code cypher site, they went into detail about different methods used to reveal secret codes during the Cold War.I have on link https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/knowledge-of-men/man-knowledge-the-history-of-invisible-ink/
DeleteThat’s a really good article. I had read an earlier version some years ago but it wasn’t as detailed as this one is. The version I had read did not mention the double steaming of paper, once prior to writing and then a second steaming to remove any indentations left by the writing. In the Somerton Man case and in a discussion with Gerry Feltus, he was quite clear on the issue of indentations beneath the larger written letters. He also mentioned that part of the process involved in examining the back of the book was to photograph it and turn the image negative. That puzzled me a little because in those days, 1948, the police were using glass plate photography which is negative in the first instance, no need to turn it negative. Then it struck me that indentations on paper show up as a lighter shade and would therefore be that in order to clearly see the detail of those indentations you would first have to develop the positive image which would show the slight colour variations not detectable in the first negative from the glass plate. I do not know what process may have been used to enhance the contrast on the positive image in those years although I suspect that with them working with the original document, they would have used various lighting and camera angles to maximise the shadows.. Now that you can see the different shades on the positive photograph, that’s the image that you would turn negative and the visible, lighter indentations would turn black.
ReplyDeleteThere are some photos on here that show the page as it would have looked prior to being marked over.
Many thanks for the link, that’s really helpful.
Gordon 332
No argument from me GC, I agree that concealed characters as in those found on the code page, the Tamam Shud slip and even the Boxall Verse 70 can all be recovered from the images. tradecraft at its finest! What about Tibor Kaldor's letter?
ReplyDeleteThere were many codes that were used by agents all part of the tradecraft toolkit. So for the Tibor letter, apart from the DANETTA code that has been found, there could be another code in his last letter.
ReplyDeleteMI9 had a special code they used, an 'innocent letter' type code where a seemingly ordinary letter could contain secret messages, no concealments beneath ink for example.
Here's a link for the MI9 code, you'll find a download there:
https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-code-was-it-variant-of-this-mi9.html
Gordon, there is yet another way of covert messaging using a book and that is to make a pinprick above the letters you need to make up the message.
ReplyDeleteI assume your talking about Fred Hermann? He wrote a two part cipher, WW1 vintage. Description follows:
ReplyDeleteThe entire message was written using lemon juice
1.Then a book cipher where certain words in the message (place and proper names) were replaced with four-digit code words.
2. drop the first digit
3. reverse the last three
4. that gives you a page number
5. On that page there are a number of letters with pin-pricks above them.
6. Hold the page up to a light to read the ciphered word
There are very many examples and each one can be a variation of this method. Always interested to hear if yours is a different version to the one outlined here.
Currently I have more than 150 examples of concealed, clandestine messaging techniques. The ingenuity of the people who created these methods is outstanding. I repeat, I am always interested to hear what others have found, that includes socks laced with Argyrol :)