CAD Audio Conversion for Additive Manufacturing IP Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
The rapid adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies has exposed industries to significant cybersecurity and intellectual property theft risks, particularly through the misappropriation or malicious modification of CAD solid model files used in 3D printing.
Innovation Solution
A system converts CAD files into audio files using a series of processes including text-based conversion, binary value manipulation, normalization, and error string generation, enabling secure transmission and authentication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If CAD files are transmitted and stored in digital format for additive manufacturing, then productivity and manufacturing capability are improved, but vulnerability to cyberattacks and intellectual property theft increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the CAD file data into multiple components (audio data, error data, normalization factor) and distributes them across separate files. This segmentation prevents attackers from obtaining the complete design information from a single compromised file, thereby reducing the impact of potential cyberattacks while maintaining full manufacturing capability through reconstruction of the original CAD data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces audio files as an intermediary medium to represent and transmit CAD data. Instead of directly transmitting vulnerable digital CAD files, the system converts CAD data into audio format, which serves as a secure intermediary that can be transmitted and stored with reduced risk of intellectual property theft and malicious modification.
2Reliability
If CAD files are protected through encryption and security measures, then intellectual property protection is improved, but ease of operation and accessibility deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates audio file copies that represent the original CAD data in an inaccessible format. These audio copies can be freely transmitted and distributed without compromising the security of the original design information, as they cannot be easily converted back to usable CAD format without the additional components (error data, normalization factor) and the decryption process.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If CAD data is converted to audio format for secure transmission, then security against counterfeiting is improved, but device complexity and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical and digital security systems with an acoustic-based system. By converting CAD data into audio format, the system uses acoustic properties and signal processing instead of conventional encryption and security protocols, providing protection against counterfeiting and unauthorized modification through the inherent characteristics of audio data representation.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for producing an audio file comprises a non-transitory computer-readable medium with instructions stored thereon, that when executed by a processor perform the steps of converting an additive manufacturing design file to a text-based file, converting the text-based file to a series of binary values, converting the series of binary values to a series of integers, calculating a normalization factor for the series of integers, dividing each of the series of integers by the normalizing factor to produce an array of floating point numbers known as the design string, multiplying the design string with the normalizing factor and comparing the resulting arrays with the original array of integers to generate the error string, converting the design string to an audio file, and converting the normalizing factor and the error string to a text file. Systems for verifying the authenticity of, identifying, and compressing AM design files are also described.