T-shirts, Stamps and Gold – the New World of Authentication

The business of authentication is changing. Whilst the physical objects that we used to hold as important on account of their scarcity (such as precious metals and gems), or beauty (works of art or jewellery) have not lost their value, the digital and virtual worlds that are being created around us bring their own cherished icons.

The challenge for the technologies that are used to differentiate between real and fake objects is how they can be extended or disrupted to authenticate non- material valuables.

In response to this challenge, Washington state-based company Alitheon has developed FeaturePrint, an optical AI technology that digitises items to create a one-of-a-kind, unique identifier that does not require you to mark, modify or add anything to the item – in much the same way as your fingerprint is unique to you.

Using a camera, FeaturePrint enables identification, authentication, and traceability of individual items out of millions of similar ones. According to Alitheon, the system is driven by optical AI algorithms that automatically identify and codify the unique attributes and features inherently existing on the surface of the item. It then creates a one-of-a-kind FeaturePrint (similar to a digital fingerprint).