Methods for Authenticating Unclonable Optical Tags to Mitigate Counterfeit and Cloning Attacks

Description

This invention proposes a security solution based on optical security against counterfeiting attacks. The platform comprises dendrites as nanoscaled unclonable identifiers, a web-based parallelizable graph-theoretic authentication algorithm, and a reader technology based on network connectivity and adapters for 3D imaging. At the core of this technology are specific visual tags called dendrites that utilize the natural fabrication variability of metallic patterns grown over non-reactive substrates with durable coating layers. The utilized electrochemical process for ionizing silver molecules creates repeated self-similar bifurcation patterns that result in radial dendritic structures with extreme granularity, a nano-scaled 3D facet, and specific illumination properties as an optimal choice for product tagging. The identification technology relies on an elegant graph-theoretic algorithm that uses regular cameras for commercial applications and 3D polarized and holographic imaging for more sensitive applications. The extreme granularity and nano-scaled resolution of dendrites provide enough capacity to tag every molecule on earth with a unique number if required, so scalability never becomes an issue.

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