Method and system for certifying product authenticity using physical feature information including digitized surface fingerprint and blockchain

Abstract

Disclosed is a method and system for certifying product authenticity using physical feature information including digitized surface fingerprint and blockchain, each of which manages certification information, packaged by binding together unique product information and physical feature information including surface feature of a product as a unique product feature, based on a distributed ledger of a blockchain to reliably determine whether the product is authentic or not in various ways. The authenticity certification information is packaged as a unique product feature by binding a serial number of the product for which the certification information is generated, together with physical feature information of the product, including image-based surface fingerprint. The authenticity certification information is stored in the blockchain. Determination on authenticity is made by comparing the identification information and the physical feature information with the authenticity certification information stored in the blockchain.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is based on and claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2019-0143428, filed on Nov. 11, 2019 with the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present invention relates to a method and system for certifying product authenticity using physical feature information including digitized surface fingerprint and blockchain. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and system for certifying product authenticity, each of which manages certification information, packaged by binding together unique product information and physical feature information including surface feature of a product as a unique product feature, based on a distributed ledger of a blockchain to reliably determine whether the product is authentic or not in various ways.BACKGROUND[0003]Conventionally, companies have employed advanced appro...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0044]According to the method and system for certifying product authenticity using physical feature information including digitized surface fingerprint and blockchain of the embodiment of the present invention, the authenticity certification information is packaged as a unique product feature by binding a serial number (or equivalent) of the product for which the certification information is generated, together with physical feature information of the product, including image-based surface fingerprint. The authenticity certification information is stored in the blockchain. Determination whether the product is authentic or not is made by comparing the identification information of the product to be certified and the physical feature information including the digitized surface fingerprint extracted from the image information of the product to be certified with the authenticity certification information stored in the blockchain, thereby improving the convenience and reliability of the authenticity certification.

[0045]In particular, according to the present invention, the authenticity certification information includes the image that can serve as a reference for collecting the digitized surface fingerprint information from the product image, and the certification region of the product to be certified and the region from which the surface fingerprint is confirmed are automatically extracted based on the image included in the certification information upon the certification for the product to be certified, thereby improving the convenience of the certification. Furthermore, the image distortion of the product to be certified is automatically compensated by image-based matching, thus the authenticity certification is enabled even with the store server or the communication terminal provided with a low-precision camera.

[0046]Furthermore, the reliable authenticity certification can be provided even with a camera which is not capable of measuring the precise distance, by adding the information on the reference distance points when generating the certification information, or alternatively, by generating the arrangement information of the certification points with the information on ratio and angle between the points only, while the certification information for the authenticity certification can be reliably retrieved by the store server or the communication terminal without accessing the certification management server, thereby improving the convenience and reliability.

[0047]Additionally, the authenticity certification can be carried out taking account of the changes occurring due to the usage by registering, when the changes to a limited extent are detected upon the certification, new information on the changed parts, thereby advantageously enabling the reliable authenticity certification even when the product is changes over time.

Problems solved by technology

However nowadays, certification marks, such as infrared / ultraviolet / visible fluorescent pigment, far-infrared patterns, NFC chips, serial numbers, bar codes and RFID tags, can easily copied or duplicated due to the technology development, thus they do not meet reliability requirements for guaranteeing the product integrity.

On the contrary, there is a serious problem that those certification marks may be copied and used to deceive the consumers into believing that the products are not fake nor pony.

In other words, the consumer cannot find whether the product is genuine or counterfeited.

In such a case, the blockchain-based reliable certificate (guarantee) can be abused to illegally increase the value of counterfeited products, like other conventional certification marks.

Another approach has been attempted that a product image is provided accompanying with a physical or electrical certificate or guarantee in order to verify the product authenticity, but shape or color can be easily distorted due to shooting angle or environment and thus consistency would be compromised.

Using a simple image is legally limited to verify the product validation.

If the unique identifier is not genuine or has been previously transmitted, the consumer is informed that the product may be counterfeit.

Therefore, the anti-counterfeit solution has not been found yet in the case where the certification number, verification card or maker is forged and attached to the counterfeited product before the genuine product is launched and sold in the market.

If the fake is sold first and registered in the database, the genuine product may be wrongfully accused of the pony.

As physical appearance cannot be used as a reference for distinguishing genuine products from fake ones, it is extremely difficult for the examiner to visually determine whether the product is authentic based on the physical features since there are replicas elaborately manufactured with the same materials and the same serial numbers as those of the genuine products.

That is, counterfeited products cannot be prevented if they steal the serial numbers.

As stated above, the product authenticity verification only with the certification marks, such as infrared / ultraviolet / visible fluorescent pigment, far-infrared patterns, NFC chips, serial numbers, bar codes and RFID tags, is not sufficiently reliable.

However, such a method has still problems that the criteria for selecting the product's shooting location are not clearly defined, and errors may occur upon selecting the specific point again, and the certification is not easily conducted since the special precision camera is required which accurately measure the actual distance with a tolerance of several to tens of micrometers without distortion.

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