Batch authentication of materials for automated anti counterfeiting

A method of automated anti-counterfeiting, comprising:

• incorporating a patch of material into a visible surface of a test object at a predetermined position, the patch of material originating from a batch of materials of substantially the same composition and produced in the same process, the characteristic feature for the batch of materials having respective variability that varies from each other;
• obtaining one or more digital images for each of the batch of materials;
• extracting the variability from the obtained digital images;
• generating a plurality of basis functions based on the extracted variability;
• obtaining a digital image for the patch of material incorporated into a test object at the predetermined position;
• and
• reconstructing the digital image for the patch of material using a subset of the plurality of basis functions.