Applying and using unique unclonable physical identifiers

A method comprising:

• providing a sticker comprising a substrate and an adhesive, at least one of the substrate or the adhesive comprising a distribution of elements, wherein the sticker comprises a first portion and a second portion;
• extracting initial orientation information from the first and second portions of the sticker, the initial orientation information indicating relative spatial orientations of the respective elements of the first and second portions of the sticker;
• generating an initial unique code based on the initial orientation information, the initial unique code associated with the sticker;
• separating the first portion of the sticker from the second portion of the sticker;
• applying the first portion of the sticker on the object;
• extracting orientation information from the first portion of the sticker on the object, the orientation information from the first portion of the sticker on the object indicating relative spatial orientations of the respective elements of the first portion of the sticker on the object;
• and
• generating a unique code for the object based on the orientation information from the first portion of the sticker on the object.