PEKEMON: A Mobile Application for Detecting Fake Money

Abstract

Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released and redesigned/new Philippine peso bills last December 2010 in accordance to stop the proliferation of counterfeit money, but circulation of fake money continues. The project developed a mobile application that will help detect fake new Philippine bills by using an algorithm in a mobile application. The researchers devised a tool in detecting fake money by distinguishing between genuine and counterfeit Philippine peso bills using built-in phone camera. The method used in detecting fake money was image segmentation using Sobel Edge Detection Algorithm. It converted the image to grayscale and detected two kinds of edges in an image: Vertical Direction Edges and Horizontal Direction Edges. After the image was converted, it counts the number of white pixels which had been the basis to determine if it is fake or not. The mobile application is available for android operating system only. The programming language that the researchers used is Java. The application resulted to 50% - 70% accuracy in detecting fake bills because it uses a phone camera for detection instead of Ultra Violet Light. It is recommended that the design be enhanced by adding more functionality such as sending a message to the office of Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) if the money is detected as fake.