US 12,216,755 B2 · System and method to optically authenticate physical objects

Abstract

A system and method to verify the authenticity of a physical object, based on the efficient acquisition and digital post-processing of a large amount of optical data. An optical system, comprised of an array of microscope-type “micro-cameras” and a patterned illumination source, acquires spatial, spectral and angular information about the physical object in the form of micro-camera images. The set of all acquired images comprise one object dataset, which a post-processing system then digitally transforms into a multi-gigabyte set of semi-random keys. Authentication takes place at a later date following a challenge-and-response protocol. The high resolution (<15 μm) of the acquired data presents a significant challenge to attempted duplication of the physical object, and the large size (>1 Gigabyte) of the key set similarly prevents both physical and digital forgery attempts.

Claims22

Dependent claims

An optical system, comprising:

multiple micro-camera imaging devices mechanically coupled to each other, each micro-camera imaging device configured to acquire one or more optical images of a distinct region of an object;
an illumination source comprising one or more optical sources, each optical source configured to provide an optical illumination to the object;
and
a processor,
wherein the processor is configured to convert optical images acquired by the more than one micro-camera and under the optical illumination sent by the one or more optical sources into an object dataset,
wherein the processor is configured to convert the object dataset into one or more cryptographic keys.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method to optically authenticate physical objects

Life of this patent

System and method to optically authenticate physical objects

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims22