Digital fingerprinting object authentication and anti-counterfeiting system
First Claim
1. A computer implemented method comprising:
- acquiring digital image data representing an image of at least a portion of a physical object that belongs to a class of objects;
accessing a predetermined object feature template associated with the class of objects, the feature template identifying a plurality of individual authentication regions;
processing at least portions of the digital image data corresponding to the identified authentication regions so as to form a digital fingerprint of the object, wherein the processing comprises the following steps—
extracting at least one object feature to characterize the image data in each of the authentication regions;
for each of the extracted object features, forming at least one fingerprint feature vector that describes the object feature extracted from the image data; and
storing the fingerprint feature vectors of the object in an object database as part of a digital fingerprint of the object.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Improvements are disclosed for authentication of an object, verification of its provenance, and certification of the object as compliant with manufacturing standards. Or, an object may be reported as a suspected counterfeit. In one embodiment the system compares a digital fingerprint of the object, based in image capture, to digital fingerprints previously stored in a database and determines if the object has been registered before and is thus authentic. An object feature template may be created which has a list of features and attributes that are relevant for authenticating particular classes of objects. The object feature template can also be used to examine unregistered objects for signs of counterfeiting.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. A computer implemented method comprising:
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acquiring digital image data representing an image of at least a portion of a physical object that belongs to a class of objects; accessing a predetermined object feature template associated with the class of objects, the feature template identifying a plurality of individual authentication regions; processing at least portions of the digital image data corresponding to the identified authentication regions so as to form a digital fingerprint of the object, wherein the processing comprises the following steps— extracting at least one object feature to characterize the image data in each of the authentication regions; for each of the extracted object features, forming at least one fingerprint feature vector that describes the object feature extracted from the image data; and storing the fingerprint feature vectors of the object in an object database as part of a digital fingerprint of the object. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15)
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11. An apparatus comprising:
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a scanner arranged to acquire digital image data representing an image of at least a portion of a physical object; a digital processor coupled to the scanner to receive the digital image data; a memory accessible to the computer processor and storing an object feature template comprising data that specifies a class of objects, at least one authentication region for the class of objects, and at least one feature location in the authentication region for digital fingerprinting a object of the class of objects; the computer processor configured to execute instructions to— locate an authentication region of the scanned object based on accessing the stored object feature template; process the digital image data to select only image data corresponding to the located authentication region; in the selected image data, identify the object feature location based on the object feature template; extract an object feature from the image data at the identified object feature location; and store the extracted object feature as part of a digital fingerprint to identify the object without storing the acquired digital image data. - View Dependent Claims (12)
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Specification