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US 2005/0239207 A1Published application
Covert authentication method and apparatus
AssigneeKodak Graphic Communications Canada Company
InventorDaniel Gelbart
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An authentication system uses the unique distribution of an invisible taggant as a “signature” to identify an item. The verification is error tolerant. The taggant is made visible to a camera by special illumination. Inert taggants, with no optical activity, can be made visible by their thermal properties.
Claims9
An authentication method comprising the steps of:
- a. tagging an item by randomly distributing a taggant in at least part of the item, the taggant being invisible to an unaided human eye under normal conditions;
- b. optically detecting said taggant by
- i. placing a detector in proximity to the item and
- ii. generating data related to the taggant distribution;
- and
- c. verifying whether the data matches previous data from previously detected items.
3 more elements
An authentication system for authenticating an item, the authentication system comprising:
- a. a taggant mixed with a material, at least a part of the item comprising the material;
- b. a detector capable of detecting location of the taggant without being required to contact the taggant;
- c. a database for storing taggant locations from one or more items;
- and
- d. a verification unit for checking whether the item matches any of the one or more items in the database.
2 more elements
An authentication method comprising the steps of:
- a. tagging an item by randomly distributing a taggant in at least part of the item;
- b. detecting the taggant by
- i. placing a detector in proximity to the item and
- ii. generating first data related to the taggant distribution;
- c. marking the item with a code related to the first data;
- and
- d. verifiying the item at a future time by
- i. placing a detector in proximity to the item,
- ii. generating second data related to the taggant distribution and
- iii. comparing the second data to the marked code.
7 more elements
A detector for detecting invisible taggant in an item, the detector comprising of:
- a. an electronic camera capable of forming an image of a taggant distribution in the item;
- b. means of making the taggant detectable to the camera;
- and
- c. image processing means capable of
- i. detecting a registration mark on the item and
- ii. registering the taggant distribution to the registration mark.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.