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US 12,321,950 B2Granted
Product authentication systems, methods, and devices
AssigneeStegvision Corp.
InventorsLarry Elan Dyne, Daniel Tek-Jong Ryu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method includes providing an image; analyzing the image to determine one or more encodable areas; determining a plurality of distinct serial numbers; adding the plurality of distinct serial numbers to a database; and producing a first plurality of first tags based on the image, each of the first tags including encoded information in at least one encodable area thereon, the encoded information for each particular first tag including a corresponding particular unique serial number of the distinct serial numbers, wherein at least some of the encoded information is encoded using steganography. Information in the image is used to authenticate a product.
Claims28
A computer-implemented product authentication method comprising:
- obtaining, with an image capture device associated with a mobile computing device, an image of a tag associated with a particular product, wherein said tag includes encoded information in at least one encodable area thereon, said encoded information including a unique serial number associated with the particular product, wherein at least some of said encoded information is encoded using steganography;
- the mobile computing device sending, via one or more electronic networks, the image to an authentication service;
- receiving, at the mobile computing device, and from the authentication service, via said one or more electronic networks, one or more requests for additional information, wherein the authentication service decoded the image to obtain a serial number;
- and,
- in response to said one or more requests from said authentication service, providing, via said one or more electronic networks, additional information to said authentication service, wherein the additional information comprises one or more of
- (a) at least one other image of said tag;
- and/or
- (b) at least one image of the particular product or of one or more portions of the particular product;
- and/or
- (c) a description of the particular product or of one or more portions of the particular product;
- and obtaining, via said one or more electronic networks, from said authentication service an indication of authenticity of said particular product, wherein said indication of authenticity was determined by said authentication service based on:
- (i) whether the tag is an authentic tag and the serial number encoded in said image is associated with a unique serial number for said particular product in a database maintained by said authentication service, the database comprising a plurality of distinct identifiers, each of said plurality of distinct identifiers being associated, in said database, with a corresponding plurality of products, and
- (ii) at least some of said additional information,
- wherein an authentic tag was produced by:
- (x) analyzing at least a part of the image to determine one or more encodable areas;
- (y) training a classifier to recognize the image;
- and
- (z) producing the authentic tag comprising the encoded information, including the unique serial number encoded in the one or more encodable areas.
15 more elements
A computer-implemented method for product tracking and authentication, the method implemented on a computer system using hardware and software, the computer system having one or more processors and memory, the method comprising:
- (A) an authentication service on said computer system maintaining a database comprising a plurality of distinct identifiers, said plurality of distinct identifiers being associated, in said database, with a corresponding plurality of products, wherein each of said plurality of products has a corresponding unique identifier associated therewith;
- (B) receiving, at said authentication service, via one or more electronic networks, an image, said image including encoded information in at least one encodable area thereon, wherein at least some of said encoded information was encoded using steganography, wherein the image was acquired from a given product and/or a tag associated with the given product;
- (C) said authentication service determining a first identifier from said encoded information;
- (D) said authentication service determining whether said first identifier corresponds to an identifier in said database;
- and
- (E) based on said determining in (D), when it is determined by said authentication service that said first identifier corresponds to a particular identifier of said plurality of distinct identifiers in said database, said particular identifier being associated with a particular product in said database, said authentication service:
- (E)(1) determining, from said database, product information associated with said particular product;
- and then
- (E)(2) requesting additional information;
- and then
- (E)(3) based on (i) whether the tag is an authentic tag and a number encoded in said image is equal to the identifier associated with said particular product in said database, and (ii) said additional information, providing, via said one or more electronic networks, an indication of authenticity of said product,
- wherein the additional information comprises one or more of
- (a) at least one image of the product or of one or more portions of the product;
- and/or
- (b) a description of the product or of one or more portions of the product, and
- wherein an authentic tag was produced by:
- (x) analyzing at least a part of the image to determine one or more encodable areas;
- (y) training a classifier to recognize the image;
- and
- (z) producing the authentic tag comprising the encoded information, including the unique serial number encoded in the one or more encodable areas.
17 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.