He found that imperfections in many materials can be read with ordinary cameras and proper lighting. Referring to the new application developed by UK scientists, Smith said that given the known properties of how laser speckle works, "it certainly makes sense that speckle could be used to read surface fingerprints."
Impossible to Copy
Cowburn, meanwhile, notes that document imprints illuminated by laser speckle are virtually impossible to copy with current technologies.
"Most traditional document-protection schemes work on the principle of 'Let's do something difficult for the bad guys to do.' The problem with that philosophy is the bad guys are clever and well resourced," Cowburn said.
"With this system, it's like, 'Let's do something impossible,'" he added. "Not even I know how to reproduce [these fingerprints]. All I can do is read them. So the task of the bad guy is then much, much harder."
The fingerprints are also resistant to rough handling.
For example, the fingerprints on a piece paper survived after the paper was scrunched into a ball, flattened, submerged in cold water, dried, and baked at 356° Fahrenheit (180° Celsius).
Quick and Efficient
According Cowburn, laser speckle allows researchers to record the identity of a document or piece of packaging quickly, efficiently, and cheaply.
To do so, a laser reader could be mounted at the end of a production line. As a product, such as an identification card or packaging for pharmaceuticals, goes by, the scanner could record the fingerprint and send it to a computer database.
The recording process can take as little as one thousandth of a second, Cowburn said. Once the fingerprint is electronically stored in a database, any suspect document or packaging could be checked for authenticity.
In the demonstration study described in Nature, the researchers recorded a 1.6-by-0.2-inch (40-by-5-millimeter) fingerprint of a piece of paper.
Although a smaller area is sufficient to get a fingerprint, Cowburn said that for security reasons "in most cases you're going to want to record a bigger area."
Smith, of Intel Research Seattle, cautioned that while document-fingerprinting technologies are an attractive way to prevent fraud, such systems require a standardized technology, which takes time and money to achieve.
For example, a label-making company would need to purchase and install the necessary equipment, such as computers and a scanning laser. "They're not going to do it unless someone has [the corresponding] readers out there." Smith said.
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