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Filtered by Technology & Systems — 137 articles

Nicola Sudan

27 July 2021

1 min read

OpSec SmartCheck: Validating Holograms with the Ease of a Smartphone

OpSec Security has launched OpSec® SmartCheck, a proprietary, smartphoneenabled solution that uses artificial intelligence to validate optically variable devices (OVDs).

Authentication Technology & Systems

Nicola Sudan

19 May 2021

5 min read

YPB Group Launches World’s First Smartphone-Readable Tracers

The Australian brand protection and consumer engagement solutions provider YPB Group has launched MotifMicro™, its forensic, smartphone-readable, anti-counterfeit technology for high-volume applications, which will provide individualised markers for products and documents.

Authentication Technology & Systems

Alan Hodgson

4 Feb. 2021

5 min read

Drivers for Smart Packaging

Smart packaging is an area that is pertinent to the interests of our community. It has links to track and trace, product labelling and interaction with the brand through technology. The aim of this article is to take a wider look at trends in smart packaging and consider some of the potential implications for tax stamps and track and trace solutions.

Authentication Technology & Systems Track and Trace

Alan Hodgson

27 Jan. 2021

6 min read

A Post-COVID Vision, by Dr Alan Hodgson

The time has now come for us to be considering the changes that the current pandemic will make to our industry. The purpose of this article is to look at the reshaping of one particular technology with the intention of prompting a similar appraisal of others. It is does not attempt to identify all the solutions but to at least propose a framework for the questions.

Free Technology & Systems Free

Nicola Sudan

27 Jan. 2021

3 min read

Authenticating Whisky Without Touching a Drop

The Gaelic word ‘whisky’ can roughly be translated into English as ‘water’ and so it comes as no surprise that sales of the golden liquid are worth roughly £5 billion annually to Scotland’s economy. As with many premium products, whisky is a favourite target for counterfeiters, which not only takes income away from the legitimate brand owner but deprives revenue authorities of much needed taxes.

Authentication Excise Products Technology & Systems

Nicola Sudan

27 Jan. 2021

2 min read

Cannabis Global Integrates Metrc API into Transport System

Cannabis Global, Inc, a provider of what it calls disruptive cannabis and hemp-related technologies, has announced an enhancement to its Comply Bag™ Cannabis Transport System, in the shape of a fully integrated application that will allow shippers and receivers to track, monitor and confirm important aspects of cannabis shipments.

Excise Products Technology & Systems

Ian Lancaster

10 Dec. 2020

5 min read

The Era of Smart Packaging

AIPIA, the Active & Intelligent Packaging Industry Association, held its conference on Smart Packaging in mid-September – it’s first ‘Virtual Congress’.

Free Technology & Systems Free

Alan Hodgson

14 Oct. 2020

5 min read

The Threat from Technology Insurgents

Two recent articles in this publication specifically caught my eye and set in progress the compilation of this article. The first, ITSA Hits Back Over Tax Stamp Criticism, appeared in the June 2020 edition followed by Blockchain and Excise Supply Chains: Hype, Conjecture and Reality, in July.

Technology & Systems

Julie Sharps

30 Sept. 2020

6 min read

Cloud-Based Solutions Offer Greater Efficiency and Performance for Tax Administration

When it comes to the effective storage and management of data, it should be recognised that security, flexibility, and efficiency are key. Increasingly, governments, businesses, and organisations around the world are exploring cloud-based computing options as a complement – or alternative – to more traditional, on-premises hardware and software solutions. For tax administrators, the ongoing shift presents both opportunities and unique challenges.

Tax & Revenue Technology & Systems

Nicola Sudan

30 July 2020

4 min read

Recent Developments in Document Biometrics for Tax Stamps

The term ‘biometrics’ is commonly used to describe technologies that employ human features that are unique to individuals – such as fingerprints or retinal eye patterns – as a way to identify those individuals. But the term is also employed, within the authentication industry, to describe technologies which use the intrinsic microscopic or molecular properties unique to items such as tax stamps to identify and thereby authenticate those items. Hence the term ‘document biometrics’, or ‘fingerprinting’.

Authentication Tax Stamps Technology & Systems

Michael Eads

30 July 2020

11 min read

Blockchain and Excise Supply Chains: Hype, Conjecture and Reality

Blockchain has generated nothing short of hysteria in the technology world. Blockchain made its big public debut in tandem with a new form of currency, the volatile but very real bitcoin, the world's first crypto-currency that many thought would be the end to traditional money.

Technology & Systems

Ian Lancaster

29 June 2020

4 min read

OpSec’s Equinox: Technology Review

In the year following the US state of Michigan’s introduction of a new tobacco excise tax stamp in 2014, tax revenues increased by $15.7 million – when they had in fact been predicted to decline – and exceeded the forecast for the year by nearly $30 million. Furthermore, it took only one year to recoup the costs of introducing this new stamp. Similarly, in Mozambique, alcohol and tobacco excise tax revenues increased by 85% in the first year after the introduction of a new stamp in 2017.

Companies Free Technology & Systems Free

Nicola Sudan

29 June 2020

4 min read

ITSA Hits Back Over Tax Stamp Criticism

The International Tax Stamp Association (ITSA) has responded to criticism of paper-based tax stamps in a new report on the use of blockchain technology for collecting excise duties.

Associations Tax & Revenue Technology & Systems

Nicola Sudan

9 Dec. 2019

2 min read

SICPA Launches its ‘Brightest Star’

If you ask an astronomer what a ‘quasar’ is, they’ll tell you it’s an extremely bright celestial object emitting an immense amount of energy in the form of, say, light or infrared radiation, from a compact source. Recently, SICPA launched its own ‘brightest star’ – QUAZAR® – which it describes as an optical security technology offering vibrant colours and engaging visible effects that are quick and easy for end users to authenticate, without the need for prior training.

Companies Technology & Systems

Ian Lancaster

30 Nov. 2019

6 min read

Human and/or Digital Interrogation of Tax Stamps

An intriguing and important discussion regarding the relative role of human senses and digital methods in authentication has been sparked by two contrasting presentations at the recent Tax Stamp Forum™. Ian Lancaster, who presented one of those papers, here describes the contrasting presentations and the follow-up discussion.

Editorials Technology & Systems

Nicola Sudan

7 Nov. 2019

4 min read

INCM - Art to Machine Readable Coding

The Portuguese Mint and Official Printing Office, INCM SA, in a presentation by Nuno Gonçalves at the recent Tax Stamp Forum™ in Budapest, described its new coding system, but unlike other such systems, this one, UNIQODE®, is artistically as well as technically innovative. (Patents are pending.)

Companies Technology & Systems

Nicola Sudan

7 Nov. 2019

3 min read

Graphi Mecc’s Serialisation Equipment Offerings

Italian equipment manufacturer Graphi Mecc Group (GMG), based in Verona, has devoted many years since its founding in 1985 to devising the most fool-proof way to produce encoded unique serial numbers, ensuring that sequences are correct, no numbers are skipped or duplicated and the encoding in a variety of formats is accurate.

Companies Technology & Systems Track and Trace

Latest News

OpSec SmartCheck: Validating Holograms with the Ease of a Smartphone

YPB Group Launches World’s First Smartphone-Readable Tracers

Drivers for Smart Packaging

A Post-COVID Vision, by Dr Alan Hodgson

Authenticating Whisky Without Touching a Drop

Cannabis Global Integrates Metrc API into Transport System

The Era of Smart Packaging

The Threat from Technology Insurgents

Cloud-Based Solutions Offer Greater Efficiency and Performance for Tax Administration

Recent Developments in Document Biometrics for Tax Stamps

Blockchain and Excise Supply Chains: Hype, Conjecture and Reality

OpSec’s Equinox: Technology Review

ITSA Hits Back Over Tax Stamp Criticism

SICPA Launches its ‘Brightest Star’

Human and/or Digital Interrogation of Tax Stamps

INCM - Art to Machine Readable Coding

Graphi Mecc’s Serialisation Equipment Offerings

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