INVISIBLE TAGGANTS ENSURE AUTHENTICITY

Government-issued documents — whether passports or currency, for example — could one day soon each have a unique, forensically invisible identifier that matches only one serial number.

Traceless, a product by Creo, Vancouver, Canada, consists of taggant particles that are randomly distributed throughout various other materials. If the taggant is placed in explosives, for example, forensics experts investigating terrorist activities could trace those explosives back to a particular store, manufacturing plant or geographic location. Taggants embedded in currency could help to trace money laundering or track the money path of organized crime or terrorist financing.

The product allows creation of unique, optically and forensically invisible identification codes. The powder taggants can be mixed with a range of materials: paper pulp, woven fibers, printer inks and varnish, copier and digital printer toner, plastics, paints, glass, fertilizers and explosives.

Creo supplies a reader that can capture the image of the randomly distributed taggant particles and create a unique ID using an encrypted algorithm. Individual items can be tracked with a machine-readable identification code — the equivalent of an invisible barcode. This code is encrypted and stored in a database, which can be integrated with customer databases to track items.

The ratio of taggant particles is less than 2 parts per million; therefore the taggants cannot be discovered, even by forensic trace methods. The detection threshold of the hand-held imaging reader is about 10 parts per billion. Since impurity levels of most materials is significantly higher than 2 parts per million, the taggant is hidden below the contamination level and has no effect on material. With Traceless systems, counterfeiters cannot find the security features so they cannot copy them.

An agreement between Creo and Acucote, a Graham, N.C.-based pressure-sensitive label stock manufacturer, will allow the production of product brand authentication label stocks that target the global problem of product counterfeiting, document authentication and brand security. “These new label stocks will allow genuine brand owners to regain control of their brands and stop brand-equity erosion resulting from counterfeiting,” says Lynn Crutchfield, Acucote executive vice president. “In the future, we can expect to see customs agents using Creo readers to find authentic labels produced from Acucote’s materials on everything from high-value luxury goods to inexpensive consumer products.”