Authentication-triggered processes

A method comprising:

• receiving first digital image data of a portion of a known authentic physical object;
• forming a first digital fingerprint of the known authentic physical object, wherein forming the first digital fingerprint includes selecting an authentication region captured in the first digital image data of the portion of the known authentic physical object and extracting at least one feature vector from the selected authentication region, wherein the feature vector includes multiple color or gray scale numeric values corresponding to areas within the selected authentication region, the numeric values including at least one of a sum, average, maximum, or other function of individual numeric values included in a sub-part of the selected authentication region;
• storing the first digital fingerprint of the known authentic physical object in a database that stores a plurality of digital fingerprints;
• receiving second digital image data for a physical object;
• forming a second digital fingerprint of the physical object based on second digital image data;
• querying a database that stores digital fingerprints of a plurality of known-authentic objects to obtain a result that includes an indication whether the second digital fingerprint of the physical object matches the first digital fingerprint of the known-authentic physical object, which is stored in the database;
• and
• based on the indication whether second digital fingerprint matches the first digital fingerprint, triggering a predetermined action.