Covert authentication method and apparatus

Description of equivalent WO 2005104008 A1

COVERT AUTHENTICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

[0001] The invention relates generally to authentication systems and more specifically to verification of authenticity of articles.

2. Description of Related Art [0002] There is a need to mark certain items to avoid counterfeiting. Such items may include monetary tools such as banknotes, stamps, checks etc, government documents such as passports, visas etc, or other high value commercial items. In some cases, such as in the pharmaceutical industry where counterfeit items may be a safety issue, the marking of an item may be primarily to protect consumers from using counterfeit items.

[0003] Many authentication systems are verified by a machine that reads a feature associated with the item. One particular system uses a small amount of an additive, known as a taggant. The taggant may be invisible under normal conditions and may be detected using a specialized detector. One advantage of using a taggant is that the reading or detecting of the taggant may be done by a machine at high speeds. Furthermore, in small amounts taggant may be very difficult to identify without use of the specialized detector.

[0004] One problem associated with systems that use a code applied to the article using taggant is that the number of code combinations may be limited. To make it harder to counterfeit some systems use a random distribution of fibers or patterns, but because they rely on simple optical scanning for reading, a photocopy of the image may also read as genuine in many cases. [0005] There remains a need to be able to uniquely mark a plurality articles to reduce the incidence of counterfeiting.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0006] In accordance with one aspect of the invention there is provided a method for verifying authenticity of an article. The method involves producing a representation of a distribution pattern of randomly distributed taggant particles on the article and producing a match signal when the representation at least partially matches a pre-defined representation of the distribution pattern of the randomly distributed taggant on the article.

[0007] Producing the representation of the distribution pattern may involve producing a representation of a distribution pattern of randomly distributed taggant particles carried in a medium on the article.

[0008] Producing the representation of the distribution pattern may involve producing a representation of a distribution pattern of randomly distributed taggant particles carried in a medium that may be the article.

[0009] Producing the representation may involve exposing the article to electromagnetic radiation, the medium and the taggant particles being operably configured to react differently in response to the exposure to facilitate differentiating between the taggant particles and the medium.

[0010] Exposing the article to electromagnetic radiation may involve exposing the article to infrared electromagnetic radiation to cause temperature differences between the taggant particles and the medium and producing the representation may include producing a thermal image of the article, the thermal image being representative of the temperature differences. [0011] Exposing the article to electromagnetic radiation may involve exposing the article to light radiation, the taggant particles and the medium being operably configured to have different optical properties and producing the representation may involve producing an image of the article, the image being representative of the different optical properties.

[0012] Producing the representation may involve producing an image of at least a portion of the article and generating data representing a location of the taggant particles in the image.

[0013] Generating data representing a location of the taggant particles in the image may involve locating a reference in the image and generating data representing a location of the taggant particles with respect to the reference.

[0014] The representation and the pre-defined representation may each include a plurality of locations of taggant particles and producing the match signal may involve producing a match signal when at least a pre-defined minimum number of the locations in the representation match locations in the pre-defined representation.

[0015] The method may involve retrieving the pre-defined representation of the distribution pattern from a computer database.

[0016] The pre-defined representation of the distribution pattern may include a code associated with the article and the method may involve reading the code and producing a signal representing the code.

[0017] Reading the code may involve scanning a barcode on the article.

[0018] In accordance with another aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatus for verifying authenticity of an article. The apparatus includes provisions for producing a representation of a distribution pattern of randomly distributed taggant particles on the article and provisions for producing a match signal when the representation at least partially matches a pre-defined representation of the distribution pattern of the randomly distributed taggant on the article.

[0019] The provisions for producing the representation of the distribution pattern may include provisions for producing a representation of a distribution pattern of randomly distributed taggant particles carried in a medium and the medium may be on the article.

[0020] The provisions for producing the representation of the distribution pattern may include provisions for producing a representation of a distribution pattern of randomly distributed taggant particles carried in a medium and wherein the medium may be the article.

[0021] The provisions for producing the representation may include provisions for exposing the article to electromagnetic radiation, the medium and the taggant particles being operably configured to react differently in response to the exposure to facilitate differentiating between the taggant particles and the medium.

[0022] The provisions for exposing the article to electromagnetic radiation may include provisions for exposing the article to infrared electromagnetic radiation to cause temperature differences between the taggant particles and the medium and the provisions for producing the representation may include provisions for producing a thermal image of the article, the thermal image being representative of the temperature differences.

[0023] The provisions for exposing the article to electromagnetic radiation may include provisions for exposing the article to light radiation, the taggant particles and the medium being operably configured to have different optical properties and the provisions for producing the representation may include provisions for producing an image of the article, the image being representative of the different optical properties.

[0024] The provisions for producing the representation may include provisions for producing an image of at least a portion of the article and provisions for generating data representing a location of the taggant particles in the image.

[0025] The provisions for generating data representing a location of the taggant particles in the image may include provisions for locating a reference in the image and provisions for generating data representing a location of the taggant particles with respect to the reference.

[0026] The representation and the pre-defined representation may each include a plurality of locations of taggant particles and the provisions for producing the match signal may include provisions for producing a match signal when at least a pre-defined minimum number of the locations in the representation match locations in the pre-defined representation.

[0027] The apparatus may include provisions for retrieving the pre-defined representation of the distribution pattern from a computer database.

[0028] The pre-defined representation of the distribution pattern may include a code associated with the article and further may include provisions for reading the code and provisions for producing a signal representing the code.

[0029] The provisions for reading the code may include provisions for scanning a barcode on the article. [0030] In accordance with another aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatus for verifying authenticity of an article. The apparatus includes a detector operable to produce a representation of a distribution pattern of randomly distributed taggant particles on the article and a verification unit operably configured to produce a match signal when the representation at least partially matches a pre-defined representation of the distribution pattern of the randomly distributed taggant on the article.

[0031] The taggant particles may be carried in a medium and the medium may be on the article.

[0032] The taggant particles may be carried in a medium and the medium may be the article.

[0033] The detector may include a source operable to expose the article to electromagnetic radiation, the medium and the taggant particles being operably configured to react differently in response to the exposure from the source to facilitate differentiating between the taggant particles and the medium.

[0034] The source may include an infrared source operable to expose the article to infrared electromagnetic radiation thereby causing temperature differences between the taggant particles and the medium and the detector may include a camera operably configured to produce a thermal image of the article, the thermal image being representative of the temperature differences.

[0035] The source may include a light source operable to expose the article to light radiation, the taggant particles and the medium being operably configured to have different optical properties and the detector may include a camera operable to produce an image of the article, the image being representative of the different optical properties. [0036] The detector may include a camera operable to produce an image of at least a portion of the article and may include a processing unit operably configured to generate data representing a location of the taggant particles in the image.

[0037] The processing unit may be operably configured to locate a reference in the image and to generate data representing a location of the taggant particles with respect to the reference.

[0038] The representation and the pre-defined representation may each include a plurality of locations of taggant particles and the verification unit may be operably configured to produce a match signal when at least a pre-defined minimum number of the locations in the representation match locations in the pre-defined representation.

[0039] The verification unit may be operably configured to retrieve the predefined representation of the distribution pattern from a computer database.

[0040] The pre-defined representation of the distribution pattern may include a barcode associated with the article and the detector may include a barcode scanner operable to read the barcode.

[0041] In accordance with another aspect of the invention there is provided a method for tagging an article. The method involves randomly distributing taggant particles over at least a portion of the article.

[0042] Randomly distributing the taggant particles may involve dispersing the taggant particles in a medium and at least a portion of the article may be the medium. [0043] Randomly distributing the taggant particles may involve dispersing the taggant particles in a medium and applying the medium to the portion of the article.

[0044] Dispersing the taggant particles in the medium may involve dispersing the taggant particles in a medium operable to react differently to the taggant particles in response to exposure to electromagnetic radiation to facilitate distinguishing between the taggant particles and the medium.

[0045] Dispersing the taggant particles in the medium may involve dispersing the taggant particles in a printing ink and applying the medium to the portion of the article may involve printing the printing ink on the portion of the article.

[0046] Randomly distributing the taggant particles over at least the portion of the article may involve causing the taggant particles to be randomly distributed over a portion of the article indicated by a reference.

[0047] The method may involve producing a representation of a distribution pattern of the randomly distributed taggant particles on the article.

[0048] The method may involve storing the representation of the distribution pattern in a computer database.

[0049] Producing a representation may involve generating a code representing the distribution pattern and associating the code with the article.

[0050] Associating the code with the article may involve printing the code on the article.

[0051] Generating a code representing the distribution pattern may involve generating an encrypted code representing the distribution pattern. [0052] In accordance with another aspect of the invention there is provided an authentication method. The method involves tagging an item by randomly distributing a taggant in at least a portion of the item, the taggant being invisible to an unaided human eye under normal conditions and optically detecting the taggant by placing a detector in proximity to the item and generating data related to the distribution of the taggant. The method also involves verifying whether the data matches previous data from previously detected items.

[0053] Randomly distributing the taggant may involve printing on the item using a liquid and the liquid may include printing ink and taggant.

[0054] The method may involve detecting a registration feature.

[0055] Generating the data related to the distribution of the taggant may involve generating data related to the distribution of the taggant referenced to the registration feature, such that the verifying is at least partially invariant to the placement of the detector relative to the item.

[0056] Verifying whether the data matches previous data from previously detected items may involve verifying whether at least a portion of the data matches at least a portion of previous data from previously detected items.

[0057] Verifying whether the data matches previous data from previously detected items may involve storing at least a portion of the previous data from previously detected items in random access memory (RAM).

[0058] In accordance with another aspect of the invention there is provided an authentication system for authenticating an item including a material having a taggant mixed with the material. The authentication system may include a detector operable to detect a location of the taggant without contacting the taggant and a database for storing a plurality of taggant locations corresponding to a plurality of items. The system includes a verification unit for checking whether the location of the taggant on the item matches any of the plurality of taggant locations stored in the database.

[0059] In accordance with another aspect of the invention there is provided an authentication method. The method involves tagging an item by randomly distributing a taggant in at least part of the item and detecting the taggant by placing a detector in proximity to the item and generating first data representing the taggant distribution. The method also involves marking a code on the item representing the first data and verifying the item at a future time by placing a detector in proximity to the item and generating second data representing the taggant distribution. The method further involves comparing the second data to the code on the item.

[0060] In accordance with another aspect of the invention there is provided a detector for detecting invisible taggant on an item. The detector may include an electronic camera operable to form an image of a taggant distribution on the item and provisions for causing the taggant to be detectable by the camera. The detector includes image processing provisions for detecting a registration mark on the item and registering the taggant distribution to the registration mark.

[0061] In another aspect of the invention random patterns are generated when a quantity of a taggant is applied to or mixed with a material used in an item. The taggant may be dispersed in paper, printing inks, varnishes, paints, adhesives, plastics and even molten metals (as long as a taggant compatible with high temperatures is selected). The taggant may be detected by any physical or chemical property, such as light, magnetism or reactivity. The taggant may be invisible to the human eye (even under magnification) but may be made visible by creating the right conditions such as illumination with UV light, heating, chemical activation etc. When viewed under those conditions, a unique taggant image representation may be captured from items and stored in a database. When an item is to be authenticated, the taggant image is produced and compared to representation of taggant images stored in the database. Only items that at least partially match the database are recognized as genuine items.

[0062] Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0063] In drawings which illustrate embodiments of the invention,

Fig 1-a to Fig 1-f are a series of schematic diagrams depicting the operation of an embodiment of the invention;

Fig 2 is a cross sectional view of a detector according to an embodiment of the invention; and

Fig 3 is a schematic view of a verification unit according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0064] Referring to Figure 2 and Figure 3, an apparatus for verifying authenticity of an article 1 according to a first embodiment of the invention is shown generally at 4 and 102. Referring to Figure 2, the apparatus includes a detector 4 for producing a representation of a distribution pattern of randomly distributed taggant particles 3 on the article 1. The detector 4 includes a camera 6, a lens 7 and a filter 13. The camera 6 is focused on the article 1 in order to produce an image representation of the distribution pattern of the taggant particles 3. The detector 4 includes a shroud 5 that prevents ambient light from reaching the camera 6. The camera 6 includes an output 101 for producing an image signal which may be an NTSC Video signal.

[0065] The detector 4 also includes a electromagnetic radiation source 8 for directing electromagnetic radiation towards the article 1. The source 8 may be a light source such as a light emitting diode (LED) and may be operated in a pulsed mode. The filter 14 may be an interference filter having a bandwidth and center wavelength corresponding to optical properties of the taggant in use. For a florescent taggant, which is responsive to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, the source 8 may be a high power UV LED, or a plurality of UV LEDs (such as Nichia part number NCCU001 E) and the filter 14 may block light above a wavelength of 0.4um. The filter 13 may be an interference filter with a bandwidth and center wavelength matched to a chosen florescent taggant. The detector 4 may also include a second radiation source 8' for illuminating a reference, (shown at 2 in Figure 1) should the reference not be clearly visible under the illumination of the source 8.

[0066] The detector 4 further includes a comparator 9 coupled to the output 101 of the camera 6 and a processing unit 11 coupled to the comparator. The processing unit 11 is also coupled back to the comparator 9 via a feedback line 10. The feedback line 10 facilitates automatically setting of a threshold of the comparator 9. The processing unit 11 further includes an output 105 for producing a data stream 12. For even greater security, the data stream 12 may be encrypted.

[0067] Referring to Figure 3, the apparatus also includes a verification unit 102 which includes a register 18 for receiving the data stream 12 from the processing unit 11. The verification unit further includes a database 23 for storing pre-defined representations of distribution patterns for a plurality of articles and a register 17 for temporarily storing data representing one of the pre-defined representations from the database. In cases where a large number of distribution patterns are to be stored in the database, at least a portion of the database may be implemented in random access memory (RAM) thus facilitating rapid searching of the database. The database 23 also includes a data input 15 for receiving pre-defined representations of the distribution patterns to be stored in the database.

[0068] The verification unit further includes a plurality of comparators 19 for comparing data stored in the register 18 to data from the database 23 that is stored in the register 17. The verification unit also includes a logic circuit 20 including inputs COM1 to COM 6, each input being coupled to one of the comparators 19. The logic circuit 20 includes an output 21 for producing a pass or match signal when there is a match between the data in the registers 17 and

18 and an output 22 for producing a fail signal when there is no match.

[0069] The apparatus may also include multiple verification units 102 (only one unit 102 is shown) coupled to multiple parallel ports 24 of the database 23, for facilitating parallel checking of portions of the data stream 12. This requires only the duplication of items 17, 18, 19 and 20, which are relatively low cost items.

[0070] The operation of the detector 4 and verification unit 102 will now be explained with reference to Figure 1-a to Figure 1-f, Figure 2 and Figure 3. Referring to Figure 1 -a the article 1 is shown under normal lighting conditions, where the taggant will not be not visible. The article 1 includes a reference 2 which may include a registration mark, a line, a company logo, a frame, an edge or edges of the article etc. [0071] In this embodiment an optical method of detection of the taggant is used. One advantage of optical detection is that the camera 6 may be a simple and inexpensive CCD or CMOS camera. For optical detection of the taggant a fine powder may be used in a low concentration (may be a few parts per million). Such a powder may be very difficult to detect without the detector 4, even when using forensic methods, and particularly if it has a color matching the color of a background of the article. By way of example, the taggant may be a fluorescent powder which is highly visible under Ultra Violet (UV) light radiation. Such fluorescent powders are widely used in fluorescent inks and markers, are readily available, stable and inexpensive. The particle size for such a powder may be in the range of 5 - 50 urn.

[0072] Referring to Figure 1-b the article 1 has been tagged by mixing taggant particles 3 in a medium and applying the medium to the article in order to permanently anchor the taggant to the article. Alternatively the medium may be a material used to make the article. The radiation from source 8 causes the taggant to become visible to the camera 6. The shroud 5 blocks ambient light or other electromagnetic radiation from reaching the camera 6. As mentioned above, the reference 2 may be separately illuminated by a second source 8', should the reference not be visible under illumination from source 8. The taggant particles 3 In Figure 1-b are shown distributed over the article 1 , however the taggant may also be selectively applied as shown in Fig 1 -c, for example by mixing it only with a particular ink or varnish.

[0073] Referring to Figure 1-d the detector 4 is shown in position to produce a representation of the taggant particles 3 on a portion of the article indicated by the reference 2. The detector 4 need not be precisely aligned to the reference 2 as long as it covers the area of interest. [0074] Referring to Figure 1-e the camera 6 produces an image representation 1' of the taggant particles 3 in the area of interest, which includes the reference 2. The image representation V appears rotated due to the orientation of the detector 4 (as shown in Figure 1-d). The processing unit 11 may include software that provides functionality to recognize the reference 2 and rotate the image representation 1' to align it with the horizontal and vertical axis (or any selected reference axis). In the example shown in Figure 1-e, there are 6 taggant particles within the reference 2. The processing unit 11 may also set a minimum intensity threshold for the comparator 9 via the feedback line 10. The processing unit 11 may select a threshold for the comparator 9 that causes a desired number of taggant particles to be detected. Since the taggant particles may have a distribution of particle sizes, changing the minimum threshold will change the number of particles having an intensity representation that exceeds the threshold. Alternatively, a fixed threshold with a variable particle count may also be used.

[0075] Referring to Figure 1-e, coordinates are derived for the 6 taggant particles, each particle being represented by a pair of coordinates x and y (i.e.

X1Y1; X2Y2; X6Y6). The coordinates are then sent to the verification unit

102 in the data stream 12. The detector may use more or less particles to verify the article 1 depending on the number of distribution patterns stored in the database.

[0076] The verification unit receives the data stream 12 and stores the data in the register 18. Data items from the database 23 representing pre-defined distribution patterns from articles are sequentially retrieved from the database and temporarily stored in the register 17. The data in the register 18 is then compared to the data in register 17 by the comparators 19. In the example shown in Figure 3, there are six comparators 19 corresponding to the six taggant particles. The outputs COM1 - COM 6 of the comparators are coupled to the logic circuit 20, which is programmed with the number of matches which have to be reached before a "Pass" or match signal is generated.

[0077] If a match is found the logic circuit 20 produces a match signal at the output 21. If no match is found, a subsequent data item is retrieved from the database 23 and stored in the register 17. The process is repeated until a match is found or until all the items in the database have been compared to the data in the register 18.

[0078] For the case where six taggant particles are chosen to be representative of the distribution pattern, the required number of matches may be four or five matches. Requiring all six particles to match may cause problems in cases where one taggant particle is obstructed, missing or not detected.

[0079] In cases where the detector 4 and the verification unit are remotely located, the "Pass" signal may be sent back from the verification unit to the detector. The data links between the detector and the verification unit may be over phone lines, wireless, Internet or any other means. The required data rate may be relatively low: to verify 100 items per second the data rate is only 100x12bytes=1200 Bytes/sec.

[0080] By way of example, if the camera has a resolution of 600x400 pixels and this is divided into a coarser grid of 256x256 and if the area of the reference

2 is about 100x100 pixels then using 6 particles allows approximately (100x100)^=10^Λ24 unique images. Even if partial matches of 5 out of the 6 particles are allowed there may be billions of unique images. Correspondingly for one billion unique images, the amount of storage required in the database 23 would be in the region of 12 Gigabytes (2 bytes per particle and 6 particles would need 12 bytes per article stored in the database). The storage requirements in the database 23 and data transmission requirements from the detector 4 to the database 23 are thus quite modest.

[0081] Pre-defined distribution patterns for articles may be initially produced by a detector similar or identical to the detector 4 and stored in the database 23 via the data input 15. The data in the database 23 need not be ordered since the image representations contain random data and may thus be stored sequentially in the database. Alternatively, large databases may employ special algorithms to classify the images for faster retrieval.

[0082] Many of the components of the detector 4 are available as a standard package from suppliers of machine vision systems, such as the InSight product line made by Cognex (Natick, Ma). Yellow or red fluorescent powders may be used to good effect since many articles have blue fluorescence due to the presence of whitener (the colors mentioned refer to the emitted light, not to the color of the powder in the unexcited state, which is typically white).

[0083] In an alternative embodiment, a higher level of security may be provided by a taggant that is optically and chemically inert. One such taggant would be a powder with thermal properties that are different from those of the background of the article. When exposed to a pulse of intense light (at almost any part of the spectrum) and viewed with a camera sensitive to the 5um-10um range of the IR spectrum, the taggant particles will appear brighter or darker than the background, depending on their thermal properties. The light pulse may have a duration from about 0.1 mS to 50 mS and the representation may be produced within a few mS of the light pulse. The camera used for producing a thermal image representation may be of the microbolometer type. By way of example, good results were obtained with an AGEMA microbolometer camera model 570 and a close-up lens. [0084] By way of example, the taggant may be aluminum or stainless steel powder, glass or polystyrene microspheres, or alumina (Al₂0₃) powder. For the thermal taggants the source 8 may be a camera flash unit and the filter 13 may be a long pass filter blocking any light below 3um. The filter 14 may be a short pass filter blocking any light above 2um (in order to avoid blinding of the camera by the flash units). Taggant materials heating up less than the background will show up as dark dots and taggant materials heating up more than the background will show up as light dots. The particle size of the taggant may be in the 20-50um range. A similar system used to detect small defects in copper traces is disclosed in commonly assigned US patent 6,340,817 to Gebbart.

[0085] In another alternative embodiment the system may be operated in a "stand alone" mode thus removing dependence on a database to store predefined taggant representations. In this embodiment a pre-defined code is derived from the distribution pattern of the taggant and may be as simple as a string of taggant coordinates XnYn or an encrypted version thereof. The predefined code may be generated using a detector similar or identical to the detector 4 shown in Figure 2 and the code is associated with or printed on the article. Each time the item is presented for authentication, a code is generated using the same rules as were used to derive the pre-defined code, and the code is compared to the pre-defined code printed on the item. If the code matches the pre-defined code, the item is verified. Even if the code is copied onto a counterfeit item, it will not match the unique taggant distribution on the counterfeit item. If the code is machine readable, such as a barcode, the authentication process may be automated.

[0086] The stand alone mode may also be used in combination with the database. For example, if the database is not functional for some time, the stand alone mode may be used. One advantage of the database is that other information can be attached to each item in the database. [0087] Clearly the high level of security provided does not depend on the taggant used, only on the fact that it is very difficult to duplicate the random patterns. Unlike other tagging systems, the security is not compromised even if the taggant is known and available to counterfeiters. What cannot be easily duplicated is the random distribution. One reason for making the taggant invisible is in order not to alert anyone that an authentication system is used; when this is not an issue, the system may be simplified by using a visible taggant or applying a random pattern via spraying of paint etc.

[0088] While specific embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated, such embodiments should be considered illustrative of the invention only and not as limiting the invention as construed in accordance with the accompanying claims.