Authentication system and method
First Claim
1. An authentication system comprising:
- an input carried by an object;
a reference against which the input is correlated; and
a correlator that correlates the input against the reference to verify whether the input is authentic;
wherein one of the input and the reference comprises a phase volume mask having a plurality of pairs of phase volume structures;
wherein each of the structures has an aspect ratio of height to width of at least 1;
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Accused Products
Abstract
An authentication system using a correlator that correlates an input with a reference wherein at least one of the input and reference comprises a phase volume mask having structures, preferably points, that are each less than about six microns in size and can have an aspect ratio (AR) greater than 1:1 so as to produce a phase encoded random pattern having millions of combinations in a mask that is as small as one square millimeter. The random pattern can be convolved with a second pattern, such as a biometric pattern, to produce a phase convolved mask. The correlator preferably is a nonlinear joint transform correlator that can use “chirp” encoding to permit the input to be located in a different plane than the reference. The correlator optically Fourier transforms images of the reference and input that are thereafter nonlinearly transformed and inverse Fourier transformed by a processor to determine the presence or absence of a correlation spike indicative of authenticity. A spatial light modulator (SLM) can be used as an input or reference and preferably is a liquid crystal panel having pixels or elements whose phase or grey scale intensity can be selectively controlled by a processor. The SLM can be used to display a biometric pattern, preferably scanned in real time from a person, that is correlated against an input or reference that can comprise a label on a card, a tag, or another object.
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Citations
58 Claims
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1. An authentication system comprising:
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an input carried by an object;
a reference against which the input is correlated; and
a correlator that correlates the input against the reference to verify whether the input is authentic;
wherein one of the input and the reference comprises a phase volume mask having a plurality of pairs of phase volume structures;
wherein each of the structures has an aspect ratio of height to width of at least 1;
1.- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 44)
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30. An authentication system comprising:
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an input carried by an object;
a reference against which the input is correlated; and
a correlator that correlates the input against the reference to verify whether the input is authentic;
wherein one of the input and the reference comprises a phase volume mask having a plurality of pairs of phase volume structures;
wherein each structure has a size no greater than six microns. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
a door;
a processor operably connected to the correlator for determining whether the input is authentic;
an electronic door opening mechanism operably connected to the processor that
1) permits the door to be opened if the input is determined by the processor to be authentic and
2) does not permit the door to be opened if the input is determined by the processor to be not authentic.
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36. The authentication system of claim 35 wherein the electronic door opening mechanism comprises an electronic lock that is 1) unlocked if the input is determined to be authentic and 2) locked if the input is determined to be not authentic.
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37. An authentication system comprising:
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an input carried by an object;
a reference against which the input is correlated; and
a correlator that correlates the input against the reference to verify whether the input is authentic;
wherein one of the input and the reference comprises a phase volume mask having a plurality of pairs of phase volume structures;
wherein the mask has at least about one hundred million structures per square centimeter of mask surface area.
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38. An authentication system comprising:
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an input carried by an object;
a reference against which the input is correlated; and
a correlator that correlates the input against the reference to verify whether the input is authentic;
wherein one of the input and the reference comprises a phase volume mask having a plurality of pairs of Phase volume structures;
wherein the volume phase mask comprises a laminate having a protective layer disposed between the structures and an outer filler that overlies the structures, and wherein each of the structures is no greater than about six microns in size and has an aspect ratio greater than 1;
1.- View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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45. An authentication system comprising:
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an input carried by an object;
a reference against which the input is correlated; and
a correlator that correlates the input against the reference to verify whether the input is authentic;
wherein the input comprises a phase volume mask having a plurality of pairs of structures that each are no larger than six microns and that each have an aspect ratio greater than 2;
1 and wherein the phase volume mask comprises a label that is adhesively attached to the object.- View Dependent Claims (46)
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47. An authentication system comprising:
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an input carried by an object;
a reference against which the input is correlated; and
a correlator that correlates the input against the reference to verify whether the input is authentic;
wherein the correlator comprises an optical processor and a computer processor interfaced with the optical processor by an energy recording device;
wherein the optical processor comprises a source of light and a Fourier lens wherein the input and the reference are disposed optically between the source of light and the Fourier lens;
wherein the energy recording device has a plurality of recording elements that each have a size no greater than about 6 μ
m for being able to record a Fourier interference pattern produced by submicron size structures of at least one of the input and the reference.- View Dependent Claims (48)
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49. An authentication system comprising:
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an input carried by an object;
a reference against which the input is correlated; and
a correlator that correlates the input against the reference to verify whether the input is authentic;
wherein the correlator comprises;
a housing having a generally U-shaped light tunnel that includes a first leg, a middle leg, and a last leg;
a light source in light communication with the first leg;
a pair of aperture windows located at one end of the first leg with one of the aperture windows for receiving the input and the other of the aperture windows for receiving the reference wherein the aperture windows are spaced apart so as to space the input a distance from the reference;
a beam splitter disposed in the first leg optically between the light source and the aperture windows;
a collimating lens disposed in the first leg optically between the beam splitter and the light source;
a mirror disposed in the second leg;
a Fourier lens disposed in the second leg optically between the beam splitter and the mirror; and
an energy recording device disposed in the last leg. - View Dependent Claims (50)
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51. An authentication system comprising:
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an input carried by an object;
a reference against which the input is correlated; and
wherein at least one of the input and the reference comprises a phase volume mask having at least about one hundred million phase structures per square centimeter arranged in a pattern with each phase structure being no greater than about six microns in size and having an aspect ratio of at least 2;
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a correlator that correlates the input against the reference to verify whether the input is authentic comprising a source of light that illuminates the input and the reference such that an input signal representative of the pattern phase encoded in the input and a reference signal representative of the pattern phase encoded in the input is produced, a Fourier lens for Fourier transforming the input signal and the reference signal to produce a joint power transform having an interference pattern, an energy recording device that records the interference pattern, a computer that analyzes the recorded interference pattern by nonlinearly transforming and inverse Fourier transforming the recorded pattern to ascertain the presence or absence of a correlation spot that indicates whether the input is authentic. - View Dependent Claims (52, 53, 54)
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55. A method of authenticating an input against a reference comprising:
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a) providing an input and a reference with at least one of the input and the reference comprising a phase volume mask having a plurality of pairs of phase structures each having a size no greater than about six microns and an aspect ratio of at least 2;
1, a correlator having a light source, a Fourier lens, an energy recording device, and a computer operably connected to the recording device;
b) illuminating the input and reference to obtain an input signal from the input and a reference signal from the reference;
c) Fourier transforming the input signal and the reference signal;
d) recording the Fourier transformed input signal and reference signal as a joint power spectrum image;
e) nonlinearly transforming the recorded joint power spectrum image;
f) inverse Fourier transforming the recorded joint power spectrum image; and
g) determining whether a correlation peak is present. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58)
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Specification