RU2413964C1 - Composite mark - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: physics. ^ SUBSTANCE: composite mark has a multilayered film structure with layers on which information is recorded. On the surface of one or more layers, there are spatially set regions of a microrelief with a random shape. Microreliefs are formed in layers of the mark due to difference in wettability of fluorescent dyes and polymer layers. After optical digital processing and cryptographic coding, the shape of the microrelief is recorded into pre-marked fluorescent regions lying on different layers of the multilayer structure in form of an encoded sequence of symbols and serves as unique characteristic for authentication of the mark. ^ EFFECT: high information content and protection with low cost. ^ 1 dwg

Description

1. The purpose of the invention

The present invention relates to the field of development of optical and optoelectronic marking, analog-to-digital coding and decoding of various objects and products. More specifically, it relates to methods and systems for identifying product authenticity based on the use of combined brands of digital and analog information. At the same time, the main elements providing high information capacity and security at the low cost of the combined brand are its multilayer structure, combining various optical effects with an individual microrelief of the surface and with a special way of placing digital information and its encoding.

2. The technical level of the invention

Currently, one of the world's major problems is the protection against counterfeiting of various products of the trading industry and intellectual property such as optical memory devices (DVD, HD-DVD, Blue ray, fluorescent and other optical disks), as well as banknotes, securities, credit cards documents, etc. This forces the world community to develop a variety of methods and devices to identify and protect against counterfeiting the above elements and products.

Solutions to these problems are currently being implemented using, in particular, special brands in the form of one- and two-dimensional barcodes, embossed holograms or diffraction patterns, radio frequency identifiers and their various combinations. They are applied to the surface or to the volume of the protected object or its packaging.

As a rule, (with the exception of radio frequency identifiers), the protection effect is based on giving these brands specific properties that can be classified as protective because of the difficulty in imitating them. These difficulties arise due to the use of various marks in the composition of brands made of materials having properties that most often cannot be detected visually or organoleptically. Stamps (labels) can be made using special technologies that are not accessible to the general public, giving them a unique appearance or unique optical or other physicochemical characteristics.

Currently, the most common security technologies are barcode authentication and holographic stamps.

In general, there are two ways to encode information called barcode (or symbology): linear (one-dimensional) (ID) and two-dimensional (2D) barcode symbology.

In essence, one- and two-dimensional barcode systems are one of the varieties of optical memory tools. They can be both ROM- and WORM-type. In the first case, the barcode brands are ROM- and WORM-type. In the first case, ROM-type barcode stamps (the abbreviation “Read Only Memory” means “read-only memory”) so that the user cannot write their information to them. It is recorded and replicated by the brand manufacturer and cannot be erased for re-recording.

WORM-type barcode brands (the abbreviation “Write-Once-Read-Many” - “write-once-read-multiple”) are allowed to write their information directly to them once by the user. To do this, for example, thermal transfer or laser printers can be used.

Linear (one-dimensional) are barcodes 10 physically formed on the label in the form of a combination of strokes 11 and spaces 12 of different widths (drawing).

The most common linear symbols are:

EAN, UPC, Code39, Code 128, Codabar, Interleaved 2 of 5.

The basic information carrier in the linear bar code 10 is the ratio of the width of the dark stripes 11 (strokes) and the width of the bright stripes 12 (spaces) between the strokes. Each digit is encoded by a certain number of strokes 11 and spaces 12, which have an appropriate width and a specific location in the space reserved for the digit. The space reserved for each digit of the code 10 is called a digital sign 13, as a rule, have the same width and consist of modules 14, so the width of the lines 11 and spaces 12 is always a multiple of module 14. The module is the narrowest element, which can be seen from the drawing.

In order to conveniently record the barcode of each digit, and not draw the strokes themselves, a binary system for recording numbers is used, which successfully combines with a barcode image. To do this, strokes are indicated by the number “1”, and spaces are indicated by “0”. For example, the barcode of the number 5 in the EAN system is written as: 0110001.

A label with strokes serves as a machine-readable identifier on products containing basic information - a link to a position in an external computer database that stores all information about a product or product (name, manufacturer, price, etc.).

In the case of a regular (one-dimensional) barcode, information recorded using a combination of strokes and spaces of different widths is read linearly in the direction orthogonal to the strokes (the stroke length does not carry an information load). From here follows a restriction on the amount of information - usually it does not exceed several tens (20-30) characters (usually numbers).

A regular barcode has vertical redundancy, meaning that the same information is repeated vertically. This is a truly one-dimensional barcode. Moreover, the height of the strokes can be reduced without loss of information. However, vertical redundancy allows a barcode that has print defects (such as spots or gaps) to maintain readability.

The main reason for the emergence of new technologies in this area is that now there is an urgent need to place and store on stamps (labels) a large amount of information. This is avoided using traditional one-dimensional barcodes, which usually contain 32 characters. They are often called “license plates”, since the information stored in such codes is only a key or a reference to an external database; the code itself does not contain comprehensive information about the product or any product.

The main difference between the two-dimensional code is that both orthogonal directions on the plane are used for information storage - vertical and horizontal. As a result, the capacity of two-dimensional code can be hundreds of times greater than the capacity of one-dimensional information in terms of the volume of stored information (for example, it is capable of storing several pages of text). If an external computer database is required when working with one-dimensional code, then in many cases the use of two-dimensional code allows you to abandon such a database, since the code capacity is sufficient to store complete information about the object. This is the qualitative difference between the two technologies.

In this regard, two-dimensional codes are indispensable, for example, in autonomous identification systems or, if necessary, the storage of complex characters of languages such as Japanese or Chinese. In addition, almost all modern technologies of two-dimensional codes, unlike one-dimensional codes, contain error correction tools and, therefore, guarantee greater reliability of data protection.

2D barcodes are essentially portable information files of high density and capacity and provide access to large amounts of information without reference to an external database. That is, 2D barcode technology allows you to store all or most of its necessary information in the barcode itself. 2D barcodes have a predominantly matrix form and do not use traditional strokes / spaces to encode information. Instead of the standard technology for determining the stroke width, matrix barcodes are used to encode information of a yes-no or one-zero design (that is, on / off - design). There are many varieties of 2D barcodes (e.g. PDF417, MaxiCode, Dotamatrix).

The structure of the code supports the coding of the maximum number from 1000 to 2000 characters in one code with information density from 100 to 340 characters. Each code contains a start and finish group of strokes that increase the height of the barcode.

However, devices for creating, applying, scanning and decoding a two-dimensional barcode are much more complex, and therefore more expensive than the widespread equipment for linear codes. Thus, printers with good resolution (thermal transfer or laser) are used to print 2D barcodes, and reading is carried out using special laser or CCD scanners.

2D barcode readers, unlike ordinary barcode scanners, first capture their image, then analyze the resulting image, and only then remove it and decode the barcode. Devices that use video analysis are necessary for efficient reading of matrix codes, but they can also read ordinary barcodes. Video analysis technology offers opportunities for reading signatures, optical character recognition, etc.

In fact, in terms of supported data volumes and functional capabilities, two-dimensional coding technology takes an intermediate place between one-dimensional barcode and remote identification technologies.

Initially, two-dimensional codes were developed for applications that do not provide enough space to accommodate a conventional barcode identifier.

The first application for such symbols was the packaging of medicines in healthcare. These packings are small in size and have little space for 1D symbols. The electronics industry is also showing interest in high-density codes and two-dimensional codes due to the reduction in the size of elements and products.

Barcodes are most often used to automate distribution of goods. The most widespread is the thirteen-digit EAN-13 code, developed in 1976 based on the UPC (Universal Product Code) code. The essence of the technology is labeling in the form of a sequence of lines, which together with the spaces between the lines occupy numerical values.

The advantages of using barcode authentication include: reduction in paper workflow and the number of errors; increased processing speed; automation of goods distribution.

The main disadvantage of one- and two-dimensional barcode authentication is that the data on the tag is presented in the clear and does not protect goods from fakes and thefts. In addition, barcode labels are short-lived, as not protected from dust, moisture, dirt, mechanical stress.

At the same time, many are of the opinion that the most effective modern means of protection against counterfeiting of securities, banknotes, various currencies, bank cards, excise and special stamps, forms of strict accounting documents, authentication of high-quality goods, pharmaceutical, radio engineering and other products are rainbow embossed holograms embossed on polymer films.

Indeed, holographic marks applied in one way or another cannot be reproduced even by the most advanced copying and duplicating equipment.

Like barcode systems, holographic labels can be attributed to one of the varieties of optical media ROM-type. They are designed so that a user (not a criminal) cannot write down their holographic information on them.

By the nature of the image, protective holograms are divided into three main classes - two-dimensional or flat (2D), three-dimensional or three-dimensional (3D) and mixed (2D / 3D).

2D holograms are holograms of focused images of two-dimensional (flat) objects, with visible width and length. They are characterized by bright color reconstructed images that change color when the hologram is rotated relative to the light source. Two-dimensional holograms is a set of diffraction gratings.

Strictly speaking, these are not holograms, but diffractive optical elements, synthesized, as a rule, from individual diffraction gratings that differ in the frequency and angle of orientation of the dashes on the plane. This set forms a flat multi-color image. When changing the viewing angle, the color of individual parts of the image changes. 2D holograms are characterized by high brightness of the picture and undemanding to the quality of the light source.

Compared to other types of holographic images, they are relatively easy to fake or imitate, and therefore are rarely used on their own for protection, with the exception of low-value goods.

2D / 3D - holograms allow to restore single-color and color volumetric images of three-dimensional objects located near the registration plane and are characterized by the effect of multi-colored volumetric plans.

3D holograms are three-dimensional images of objects with a width, length and depth. The simplest example of a three-dimensional hologram is the image of a dove on a VISA card.

The ability of a hologram to protect a specific object from a fake depends on several of its properties:

1. The hologram itself has high protective properties due to the fact that it cannot be made or copied using any of the modern printing technologies. At the household level in authenticity control, an ordinary consumer, as a rule, is limited to visual control of the very fact of the presence of a protective hologram on the product, on which, as he knows, it should be;

2. A holographic image can be quite complex, contain several different elements with different diffraction effects visible to the naked eye, and at the same time contain elements visible only under certain conditions, the so-called hidden marks. This level of protection makes hologram forgery difficult. The main visual and hidden image elements used in the manufacture of protective holograms can be: image change depending on the angle of view, color coding, animation, kinematic effects (illusion of movement when the hologram is rotated) images visible only at large diffraction angles, moire effect, micro - and nanotexts, etc.

A separate element of hologram protection against fakes is the so-called hidden mark. As a rule, this is a hologram that restores a certain image at a certain distance under certain lighting conditions. Most often, the light of a laser diode incident on the hologram at a certain angle is used for restoration, and the image is restored on the screen, which is also placed in a certain place. Usually reading hidden tags is implemented in special devices.

Hidden marks can also be made machine-readable to automatically determine the authenticity of a hologram using a special device. However, in real life, machine-readable diffraction marks are practically not used in situ, since too high demands are placed on the orientation of the hologram in space relative to the reader and its deformation.

For multi-level protection of the properties of holograms, currently developed:

- holograms with a “standard” holographic image with the application of an additional non-holographic image by thermal transfer printing or laser engraving (microtext, guilloche grid, etc.);

- holographic labels with sequential alphanumeric numbering (ink or laser);

- Exclusive “image” holograms (with the possibility of incorporating security elements);

- holograms with a “standard” holographic image with the application of an additional non-holographic latent image by lamination, which can be visualized, for example, only using polarized light or by highlighting with special laser radiation with the formation of a fluorescent image.

A significant part of the above properties is possible only with the use of synthesized (digital) holography.

Thus, not only visual, but also instrumental (machine-readable) verification of the authenticity of holograms can be implemented.

Unfortunately, due to the widespread use of holographic technology even at the level of small private enterprises, many types of holograms, for example, Landis and Gur cinemagrams that restore images of simple geometric shapes or change their scale discretely when changing the direction of observation, are no longer a reliable means of protection from a fake. This is due to the fact that they can be reproduced on a professional level, however, with the corresponding financial costs.

In addition, a large number of criminal organizations involved in the illegal forgery of various products currently have great technical and technological capabilities. This allows them to copy even very technically sophisticated protective topographic stamps.

At the same time, a certain positive point is that it takes some time to realize this possibility.

Therefore, to solve the problem of protection against fakes, it is necessary:

- as much as possible complicate the production technology of the protective marks themselves with the aim of making their falsification unprofitable and, on the other hand,

- to carry out their change quite often, again to complicate their falsification.

In this regard, firms specializing in the production of holograms designed to protect against counterfeiting of critical documents and securities are developing new types of embossing of rainbow holograms, the falsification of which is much more difficult. It is possible:

- either in connection with the new physical principles underlying them,

- either with a fundamentally new and fairly sophisticated technology,

- either with the introduction of multilevel degrees of protection of the holograms themselves.

Nevertheless, overcoming the situation, as practice shows, cannot be solved only by creating elements that certify the authenticity of the product (barcode or holographic stamps, etc.). These elements do not or do not carry enough information about the product itself and related obligations to use intellectual property. The absence of such information in this case does not guarantee the receipt of payments to the owners of the relevant rights provided for by applicable law and agreements between participants in a commercial project.

Thus, one of the key areas of protection of intellectual property rights is the creation of an integrated protection system that combines the functions of:

- authentication of the product itself;

- evidence of legal rights to the implementation of this product, taking into account compliance with obligations to use copyright and related rights;

- registration of the fact of the sale of products combining fiscal tasks with the protection of intellectual property on the basis of checking the availability of all the above certificates.

In accordance with the declared functions, the integrated intellectual property protection system includes a number of technological subsystems and elements:

- product labeling subsystem;

- subsystem of protection and authentication of the marked product;

- a fact registration subsystem during actions with a product with confirmation of authority to carry out such actions.

One of the interesting and promising materials for the formation of protective brands are materials that, for example, are transparent when exposed to visible radiation, but luminesce when exposed to, for example, UV or IR radiation. The properties of luminescence (fluorescence or phosphorescence), such as intensity, shape of the glow spectrum, wavelength of the maximum of the spectrum, spectral range, lifetime of the excited state, polarization characteristics of the glow, etc. can be used as protection elements. However, the ability to copy such fluorescent labels significantly limits their protective properties.

[US 3,276,316] describes a method for producing a polymer layer with a dichroic fluorescent dye dissolved in it, which is capable of anisotropically glowing under UV radiation.

[JP 60250304] proposes a medium with fluorescent adhesive and polarizing layers.

[US 5,532,104] describes a system for reading information from a recording medium such as a book cover with an anisotropic fluorescent image in the form of a barcode.

In [US 2003/9106994] a protective label was proposed to identify an object, including a fluorescent or phosphorescent material with an orientationally ordered molecular structure. When the label is irradiated with UV radiation, it re-emits polarized fluorescent or phosphorescent light, the polarizing and frequency parameters of which are protective signs to identify the authenticity of the object.

[US 2003/0006170] proposes a method and apparatus for multispectral imaging for identifying and sorting objects.

[US 2005/230965] proposes thermal transfer printing for the manufacture of identification cards. The process involves printing a stamp on the ink-perceiving surface of the card substrate. The stamp is printed with a combination of yellow, magenta and blue dye. The top coating has latent luminescent properties. The printed stamp is visible in normal light and detects bright fluorescence when illuminated with ultraviolet light.

[US 2002/0153423] proposes an automatic system and identification method using a machine-readable multilayer label. The label has many layers of machine-readable labels arranged one after the other. Each of the layers is encoded with identification symbols that are detected using one or more sensitive technologies. Each of the layers may include the same or different coding materials, providing the ability to read using x-ray, radio, thermal magnetic or ultrasonic radiation. Composite symbols can be formed either within one layer, or in the form of composite fragments.

[UA 16893] proposes a method for verifying the authenticity of a holographic security element with a microrelief [UA 16894] formed on the surface of a polymer film with fluorescent labels. The method includes the operation of excitation of a fluorescent dye using light with a specific wavelength, reading the fluorescence spectrum, analysis and comparison of the fluorescence spectrum of the investigated holographic element with the spectrum of the reference holographic element. If the essential features of the fluorescence spectra of the investigated and reference holographic elements coincide, a decision is made on the authenticity of the first. In case of mismatch, a decision is made on the authenticity of the holographic element being studied.

Closest to the technical nature of the present invention is a fluorescent holographic security element and method for verifying its authenticity, proposed in [US 6,263,104; US 6,535,638; US 6,832,003; US2005100222]. In particular, in [US6,263,104] a device and method for reading information from holograms and other diffraction objects, including fluorescence coding and decoding on transparent holograms and objects such as various cards, are proposed. In the latter case, fluorescent labels were placed on the opposite side of the object with respect to the hologram, and the spectral properties of light-emitting particles were the coding element.

To protect against falsification of various products and documents, you can use the methods of analysis of the microrelief of the surface of the protected products. The surface microrelief is an individual characteristic stable in time, which cannot be artificially reproduced in the manufacture of fakes. Several suggestions of such techniques are known.

In the patent RU 2088971 C1 (G07D 7/00), for example, it is proposed to apply a label in the form of a piece of a transparent film subjected to special processing, during which micropores are filled in the film, filled with a special coloring matter. Micropores are track marks etched in an alkaline medium after processing the film with heavy ion beams. Micropores in this case are located on the surface of the film randomly with a density of the order of 10 ⁶ pores per mm square. Images of the distribution of track pores are initially recorded using microscopic techniques and entered into the database of protected products (securities). When checking the authenticity of a security, the stored images are compared with the images taken from the document being checked. Comparison can be done either manually using a special computer program, or fully automated using more complex computer programs. It is assumed that the micrograph of the location of the pores on the label is violated when trying to re-stick the label or trying to copy it.

In patent RU 2088971 C1 (G07D / 00) it is proposed to perform computer analysis of optical microimages directly on the surface of the protected products. A hardware-software complex is used, consisting of a personal computer, a digital camera connected to a computer, a specialized digital microscope (USB video magnifier), a digital authentication (encryption) unit, a printer, and software. The recognition process is automated. For authentication, a personal computer, a specialized digital microscope (USB video magnifier) and software are used.

The order of protection of rarities includes the following:

1. The surface of the protected object is selected a small (1 × 1 cm) relatively flat area that meets the following requirements

- The platform must not be subjected to mechanical stress.

- The site should be an integral part of the protected object

- The area must have a rough surface

- The area should not be covered with shiny varnish

- The site should be located in such a place of the object that next to it there is some natural feature or mark (crack, jagged, angle, intersection of lines, etc.) to provide a simple search for the location of the control site when checking the authenticity of the object.

2. The object is photographed in such a way as to unambiguously indicate the location of the control site in the photographs received.

3. Scan the image of the control site using a digital microscope.

4. We print a certificate of authenticity of the object (a rare book passport), on which we place information about the protected object, photographs of the object with the designated location of the control site according to claim 2., a security control mark, which contains information about the microrelief of the control site, protected by a digital electronic signature.

Object authentication is performed as follows:

1. Using the photographs on the certificate, we find the control site on the controlled object and scan the image of the control site using a digital microscope.

2. Using a digital microscope, scan the security label on the certificate.

3. After processing the information according to claims 1-2, the computer issues a decision on the authenticity of the object presented for control.

3. Disclosure of the invention.

The aim of the present invention is the creation of a combined protective and informational brand (hereinafter, for brevity, just a brand). Its main advantages compared to well-known technical solutions that provide high information capacity and security at low cost are the combination of holographic protection methods using various parameters of the optical and spectral-luminescent properties of substances, such as intensity, absorption and emission wavelengths, spectral shape and glow time, polarization characteristics, as well as with special placement of digital information generated using discrete elements, optical Kie properties of which differ from the optical properties of the medium in which they are arranged so that the spatial region which it (information) takes a partially or fully overlaps with the region of space occupied by the hologram. In this case, both the holographic and luminescent components of such a combined brand can be made in the form of a single or multilayer information-bearing structure, which is one of the new varieties of optical means of ROM- or WORM-type memory. The latter means the ability to record information in pre-labeled or homogeneous fluorescent areas, including those located on different layers of the multilayer structure. However, such a brand design cannot provide comprehensive protection for both the brand itself and the product protected by it. Therefore, one or more layers of the brand, including transparent to optical radiation in the visible range of the spectrum, they are formed with the formation of microrelief layers during the manufacturing process, including in special areas of the brand, which serves as an individual unique feature of this brand, information about the structure (shape, topology), or the digital image of which can be specially encoded including secret and public keys, carrying out an electronic signature under the characteristic features of this brand. The encoded features or digital image of the brand can be stored separately in an electronic database and used as necessary, or recorded after scanning the microrelief, digitizing and encoding the information in the pre-marked or homogeneous fluorescent areas of the brand, including those located on different layers of the multilayer structure in as an encoded sequence of characters. When checking the brand for authenticity with a scanner, reader or some other reading device, the area of microrelief identification is read and compared with the characteristic features of the object (brand) stored in an electronic database or applied as an encoded cryptographic sequence directly to the brand or product on which it fixed. It is important that in the case of transparent layers, microreliefs can be formed in different layers, including one below the other, and carry encoded full or partial information (in a separate layer) about the authenticity of the brand (object). In addition, through a transparent mark, the characteristic microrelief of an object or part can be read onto which the mark is pasted and, according to the above procedure, the digitized cryptographic information can be written into the mark. In the case of the presence of opaque layers in the brand, for the implementation of the above-described method, transparent regions can be made in these layers through which the microstructure or microrelief of the surface of the object on which the brand is pasted can be read. Random microreliefs or microstructures in the layers of the brand can be formed in a special way, including due to the difference in the wettability of mainly fluorescent paints and polymer films or layers onto which they are applied or through the use of nanoparticles that form random visualized microstructures during the structuring process.

4. A brief description of the drawing.

The drawing schematically shows the structure of a multilayer combined brand.

5. The implementation of the invention.

In accordance with the invention, in general, a multilayer combined brand includes a substrate and polymer layers that differ in their optical characteristics and carry information in analog or digital encoded form, which allows identification of the brand’s authenticity both organoleptically (visually) and using machine-readable and electronic means. A distinctive feature of the present invention is that the surface of a number of layers of the brand, primarily luminescent, fully or partially has a microrelief, the structure of which is encoded and recorded in a certain identification region of the brand in digital form and is actually a unique characteristic of this object. It is also possible to record in the mark of the microrelief of the surface of the object on which the mark is glued.

The drawing schematically represents the transverse structure of one of the variants of the proposed combined brand. Grade 1.1 consists of a substrate 1.2, which can be used in various metal, semiconductor or polymeric materials, including materials that are transparent in the visible range of the spectrum or their combination (for example, polymer films with sprayed layers, etc.), coated on layers of 1.3. polymer material. Such a material may be a film with a latentogram recorded on it, i.e. with optically polarizing elements. On top of a film with a latentogram 1.3. films 1.4-1.6 are applied with information luminescent elements. For their manufacture, thermoplastic polymers can be used, as well as thermo-, photo- or radiation-curable oligomeric or monomeric compositions. Layers 1.5-1.6 contain in predetermined places elements with a microrelief 1.7, which is a characteristic feature of this layer or brand as a whole. Such microreliefs can be digitized and encoded accordingly. A protective film may be applied over the layers (not shown in the drawing). A microrelief may be formed during the manufacture of the brand as a result of the selection of appropriate materials, for example, materials having limited (partial) wettability. The shape of such a microrelief is random, cannot be repeated by known methods and is an individual characteristic of the brand (“fingerprint” area). After optical digitization of the microrelief, it is encoded by known cryptographic methods. The resulting sequence is stored in electronic form or recorded after scanning the microrelief, digitizing and encoding information in pre-marked or homogeneous fluorescent areas of the brand, located, including, on different layers of the multilayer structure in the form of an encoded sequence of characters. In the case of using polymeric materials, such a mark can be made transparent for the visible range of light and information layers can only be read using special aids or their combination, for example, polaroids and fluorescent lights.

Claims (1)

A combined brand authenticating the product, including a multilayer film structure with layers on which information is recorded, characterized in that on the surface of one or more layers there are spatially defined regions of the microrelief, the shape of which is random, while the microreliefs are formed in the layers of the brand due to the difference wettability of fluorescent paints and polymer layers, and the shape of the microrelief after optical digital processing and cryptographic coding is recorded in preliminary size chennye fluorescent regions located on different layers of a multilayer structure of a coded symbol sequence, and serves to authenticate an individual characteristic of the mark.