Physical credentials and related methods
View Patent ↗Directional albedo of a particular article, such as an identity card, is measured and stored. When the article is later presented, it can be confirmed to be the same particular article by re-measuring the albedo function, and checking for correspondence against the earlier-stored data. The re-measuring can be performed through us of a handheld optical device, such as a camera-equipped cell phone. The albedo function can serve as random key data in a variety of cryptographic applications. The function can be changed during the life of the article through use of a variety of different card constructions (e.g., involving quantum dots, phase change materials, MEMS structures, etc.). A variety of other arrangements and features are also detailed.
1. An identity credential comprising a substrate conveying information related to an individual, and further comprising non-spherical quantum dots, wherein the non-spherical shapes of at least certain of said quantum dots serve to define a credential-identifying directional albedo function.
2. The identity credential of claim 1 , wherein at least some of said quantum dots have a cylinder shape.
3. The identity credential of claim 1 in which the substrate is printed with textual information related to the individual, so that the credential serves to identify said individual.
4. The object of claim 1 , wherein at least some of said elements have an oblate spheroid shape.
5. The object of claim 1 , wherein at least some of said elements have a prolate spheroid shape.
6. The object of claim 1 , wherein at least some of said elements have a scalene ellipsoid shape.
7. The object of claim 1 , wherein the identity credential is a card.
8. A system comprising:
an object having substrate and non-spherical quantum dots; and
an apparatus adapted to sense plural data relating to directional albedo wobble or azimuth angles from said object and to make a decision based thereon.
9. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
sense directional albedo data from a credential; and
use said sensed directional albedo data in authenticating a transaction conducted by a wireless telecommunications device.
10. A wireless telecommunications device including a camera and a processor, wherein the processor is configured to control the wireless telecommunications device to perform operations including:
sense directional albedo data from a credential, using the camera; and
use said sensed directional albedo data to authenticate a transaction conducted by said device.
11. An article of manufacture having a surface and comprising non-spherical quantum dots, wherein the non-spherical shapes of at least certain of said quantum dots serve to define a machine-readable directional albedo function across at least a portion of the surface.