Identifying an object using capacitive sensing of predetermined spatial patterns of detectable elements

A system, comprising:

• an object;
• detectable elements retained in, or affixed to, the object, an arrangement of the detectable elements exhibiting a predetermined spatial pattern;
• and
• an object-recognition system, comprising:
• a capacitive sensor;
• a reader to capture channel-capacitance measurements representative of the predetermined spatial pattern at least partially responsive to the capacitive sensor in proximity of the detectable elements;
• a recognizer to generate an object identifier corresponding to the predetermined spatial pattern represented by the captured channel-capacitance;
• and
• a processor to generate a bit representation of the object identifier;
• wherein the object-recognition system to cryptographically sign the bit representation of the object identifier using a private cryptographic key of a public/private key pair, wherein a public cryptographic key paired with the private cryptographic key is printed on an outer surface of a material in which the detectable elements are disposed.