Covert Optical Authentication Markings Using Emitter-Absorber Pairs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional security features are visible and can be easily replicated by counterfeits once their existence is known, limiting their effectiveness in authenticating documents and products.
Innovation Solution
Covert optically encoded markings using combinations of emitters and absorbers that exhibit emissions and absorption changes in response to specific excitations, creating machine-readable responses undetectable by the human eye, such as fluorescence, phosphorescence, or up-conversion, integrated into coatings, inks, threads, and fibers for authentication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional visible security features are used, then authentication capability is provided, but counterfeiting becomes easier once the features are known
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the security information from the visible domain and places it in the invisible spectral domain. The security features are converted into emissions at wavelengths outside human vision (e.g., infrared, ultraviolet) while maintaining machine-detectable authentication capability. This extraction from the visible realm prevents human observation and subsequent counterfeiting attempts.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces spectral emission characteristics as an intermediary between the security feature and the detection system. Instead of direct visual observation, the security information is mediated through specific wavelength emissions that require specialized detectors. This intermediary layer creates a barrier against conventional counterfeiting while enabling reliable machine authentication.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If covert invisible markings are used, then counterfeiting resistance is improved, but detection capability requires specialized equipment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent designs the spectral emission security features to be detectable by multiple types of sensors across different wavelength ranges. The same security marking can be detected by infrared sensors, ultraviolet sensors, or other spectral detectors, making the detection system versatile and reducing the need for highly specialized single-purpose equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes changes in spectral emission parameters (wavelength, intensity, temporal characteristics) to encode security information. By modulating these physical parameters, the system creates detectable signals that can be distinguished from background noise using relatively simple spectral analysis, reducing the complexity of detection equipment while maintaining security.
3Reliability
If photochromic or thermochromic inks are used, then authentication capability is enhanced, but the response changes are subtle and require probes for detection
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the subtle absorption-based chemical responses of photochromic/thermochromic inks with direct optical emission responses. Instead of measuring small changes in light absorption that require sensitive probes, the system uses materials that emit light at specific wavelengths, creating strong, easily detectable signals that can be measured with simpler optical detectors.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Provides a secure, machine-detectable authentication method that prevents counterfeiting by utilizing cumulative changes in emissive responses, enhancing the protection of documents and products without being visible to the naked eye.
Implementation Method 1
The type of compound responsible for this phenomenon absorbs light at a certain wavelength and reemits it at a higher wavelength for the exposure time
Implementation Method 2
The encoded markings are provided in the form of visible or invisible coatings that exhibit one or more excited emissive and/or absorptive responses
Implementation Method 3
least one absorber that undergoes a change from a first absorption characteristic to a second absorption characteristic within at least a portion of the emission band of the emitter material in response to a second excitation
Implementation Method 4
The type of compound responsible for this phenomenon absorbs light at a certain wavelength and reemits it at a higher wavelength
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for document and product authentication are provided using a combination of interacting absorption and emission materials that are formed into covert optically encoded markings. The markings are formed from at least one emitter and at least one absorber, that exhibit a first emission in response to a first excitation of the emitter and a change in that emission in response to excitation of the absorber such that various combinations of emitter and absorber materials create a machine readable response that cannot be detected by the human eye.