Copy-resistant symbol having a substrate and a machine-readable symbol instantiated on the substrate
View Patent ↗A variety of forms of machine-readable symbols are disclosed, as well as methods and systems of constructing machine-readable symbols, methods and systems of acquiring machine-readable symbols, and methods and systems of decoding machine-readable symbols.
1. An optical reader comprising:
an illumination source disposed to illuminate a presented copy-resistant symbol including machine-readable symbol;
a detection device disposed to receive light scattered from the presented copy-resistant symbol; and
a computational unit interfaced with the detection device and having:
instructions to optically acquire the machine-readable symbol from the presented copy-resistant symbol;
instructions to first decode the machine-readable symbol to derive a message;
instructions to second decode a portion of the message by applying a decoding process to the portion of the message;
instructions to determine a security feature from the decoded portion of the message; and
instructions to optically confirm a physical presence of the security feature on the presented copy-resistant symbol with the detection device.
2. The optical reader recited in claim 1 wherein:
the portion of the message is encrypted according to an asymmetric encryption algorithm; and
the instructions to decode the portion of the message comprise instructions to apply a publicly accessible decryption key to the portion of the message.
3. The optical reader recited in claim 1 wherein:
the portion of the message is encrypted according to a symmetric encryption algorithm; and
the instructions to decode the portion of the message comprise instructions to apply a secure decryption key to the portion of the message.
4. The optical reader recited in claim 1 wherein the computational unit further has instructions to confirm that the presented copy-resistant symbol comprises an optically variable material.
5. The optical reader recited in claim 1 wherein the machine-readable symbol comprises a barcode.
6. The optical reader recited in claim 1 wherein the presented copy-resistant symbol further comprises a substrate having the machine-readable symbol printed thereon.
7. The optical reader recited in claim 1 wherein the presented copy-resistant symbol comprises a substrate having a machine-readable symbol incorporated therein.
8. The optical reader recited in claim 1 wherein the presented copy-resistant symbol further comprises an identifying mark.
9. The optical reader recited in claim 8 wherein the security feature comprises an angular relationship of the identifying mark and a reference comprised by the copy-resistant symbol.
10. The optical reader recited in claim 8 wherein the security feature comprises a spatial relationship between the identifying mark and a reference comprised by the copy-resistant symbol.
11. The optical reader recited in claim 1 wherein the computational unit further has instructions to parse a second portion of the message to identify substantive information.
12. The optical reader recited in claim 1 wherein:
the copy-resistant symbol is on an item; and
the substantive information identifies the item.
13. The optical reader recited in claim 12 wherein the security feature comprises a mark made on the item during manufacture of the item.
14. The optical reader recited in claim 13 wherein the mark resulted from a substantially random outcome of the manufacture of the item.