Creating authenticatable printed articles and subsequently verifying them based on scattered light caused by surface structure

An apparatus for creating authenticatable articles, comprising:

• a printer driver operable to create instructions for a printing device to print an image;
• a data acquisition interface for receiving a set comprising groups of data points from signals obtained by a detector arrangement with a plurality of photodetector elements arranged at different respective angles relative to a surface of an article during a scan in which coherent light from the particular direction relative to a surface of the article is scanned sequentially over each of a plurality of regions of the surface of the article during printing, wherein each of the groups of data points relates to scatter caused by the intrinsic surface structure of the light from the different regions of the surface of the article;
• and
• a processor for determining a digital signature of the article from the set of groups of data points obtained during the scan and creating a record in a database, wherein the record includes the digital signature, and a representation of the image.

An apparatus for verifying the authenticity of articles, comprising:

• a scanning device incorporating a coherent source for scanning coherent light over each of a plurality of regions of a surface of an article, and a detector arrangement arranged to collect a set comprising groups of data points from signals obtained as the light is scanned, wherein the detector arrangement includes a plurality of photodetector elements in which each photodetector element is arranged at a different respective angle relative to the surface of the article, wherein each of the groups of data points is collected by a respective photodetector element in the detector arrangement and relates to scatter caused by the intrinsic surface structure of the light from the different regions of the surface of the article;
• a processor for determining a digital signature of the article from the set of groups of data points;
• a database comprising a plurality of records of previously scanned articles, each record including the digital signature previously determined for that article and a visual representation of that article;
• and
• a signature verification module operable to search the database to establish whether there is a match between a digital signature obtained by the scanning device and a digital signature stored in one of the records, and, if a match is found, to display the visual representation of the article stored in the record with the match.

A method of creating authenticatable articles, comprising:

• printing an image onto an article;
• performing a scan in which coherent light from a particular direction relative to a surface of the article is scanned sequentially over each of a plurality of regions of the surface of the article, and collecting during the scan by a detector arrangement with a plurality of photodetector elements arranged at different respective angles relative to a surface of the article a set comprising groups of data points from signals obtained as the coherent light is scattered from the article, wherein each of the groups of data points relates to scatter caused by the intrinsic surface structure from the different regions of the surface of the article;
• determining a digital signature of the article from the set of data points collected during the scan;
• and
• creating a record in a database, wherein the record includes the digital signature and a representation of the image.

A method of creating authenticatable articles, comprising:

• performing a scan in which coherent light from a particular direction relative to a surface of an article is scanned sequentially over each of a plurality of regions of the surface of the article, and collecting during the scan by a detector arrangement with a plurality of photodetector elements arranged at different respective angles relative to a surface of the article a set comprising groups of data points from signals obtained as the coherent light is scattered from the article, wherein each of the groups of data points relates to scatter caused by the intrinsic surface structure from the different regions of the surface of the article;
• determining a digital signature of the article from the set of groups of data points collected during the scan;
• and
• printing onto the article an image and a label that encodes the digital signature according to a machine-readable encoding protocol.

A method of verifying the authenticity of an article, comprising:

• performing a scan in which scanning coherent light from a particular direction relative to a surface of an article is scanned sequentially over each of a plurality of regions of the surface of the article, and collecting during the scan by a detector arrangement with a plurality of photodetector elements arranged at different respective angles relative to a surface of the article a set comprising groups of data points from signals obtained as the coherent light is scattered from the article, wherein each of the groups of data points relates to scatter caused by the intrinsic surface structure from the different regions of the surface of the article;
• determining a digital signature of the article from the set of groups of data points collected during the scan;
• providing a database comprising a plurality of records for previously scanned articles, each record including the digital signature previously determined for that article and a visual representation of that article;
• and
• searching the database to establish whether there is a match between a digital signature obtained by the scanner and any of the digital signatures stored in the database, and, if a match is found, displaying the visual representation of the article stored in the database.