Methods and systems for determining the authenticity of a component

1. A method for determining the authenticity of a supply item in an imaging device, the method comprising:

receiving, by a supply item follower component in the supply item communicatively connected to an imaging device leader component in the imaging device, a seed;

storing the seed in a block of non-volatile memory in the supply item follower component;

calculating, by the supply item follower component, an output of a cryptographic function with the input based on the seed and storing the output in the block of non-volatile memory;

iteratively calculating, by the supply item follower component, the outputs of the cryptographic function wherein for each iteration the input for the cryptographic function is based on the seed and all previous outputs, and for each iteration storing the output in the block of non-volatile memory; and

determining the authenticity of the supply item based on a selected output of the cryptographic function of the supply item follower component, the selected output being one of the outputs stored in the block of non-volatile memory,

the method further comprising:

calculating, by an imaging device component in the imaging device, the output of the cryptographic function based on the seed in the same manner as the calculation by the supply item follower component, and storing the output in a block of non-volatile memory in the imaging device component; and

iteratively calculating, by the imaging device component, the outputs of the cryptographic function wherein for each iteration the input for the cryptographic function is based on the seed and all previous outputs in the same manner as the calculation by the supply item follower component, and for each iteration storing the output in the block of non-volatile memory of the imaging device component,

wherein the number of iterations of the calculation of the cryptographic function performed by the supply item follower component is the same as the number of iterations of the calculation of the cryptographic function performed by the imaging device component, and

wherein determining the authenticity of the supply item comprises comparing the selected output of the cryptographic function of the supply item follower component with the corresponding output of the cryptographic function of the imaging device component to determine if they are the same.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the imaging device component is an imaging device follower component in the imaging device communicatively connected to the imaging device leader component.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the imaging device component is the imaging device leader component.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein upon a determination that the selected output of the cryptographic function of the supply item follower component is the same as the corresponding output of the cryptographic function of the imaging device component, the supply item is identified as an authentic supply item, and wherein upon a determination that the selected output of the cryptographic function of the supply item follower component is different from the corresponding output of the cryptographic function of the imaging device component, the supply item is identified as a non-authentic supply item.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the authenticity of the supply item comprises:

the imaging device component requesting the selected output from the supply item follower component;

upon receiving the request from the imaging device component, the supply item follower component transmitting the selected output to the imaging device component; and

the imaging device component comparing a threshold time with the total time taken to receive the selected output from the supply item follower component after the request from the imaging device component, wherein upon a determination that the total time is less than or equal to the threshold time, the supply item is identified as an authentic supply item, and wherein upon a determination that the total time is greater than the threshold time, the supply item is identified as a non-authentic supply item.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein upon the supply item follower component receiving the request from the imaging device component the supply item follower component retrieves the existing stored selected output which is stored in the block of non-volatile memory of the supply item follower component.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein iteratively calculating, by the supply item follower component, the outputs of the cryptographic function stops when the block of non-volatile memory in the supply item follower component is full.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein iteratively calculating, by the supply item follower component, the outputs of the cryptographic function comprises looping around to start a new chain when the block of non-volatile memory in the supply item follower component is full.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cryptographic function is one of a hash function, a salted hash function, a keyed-hash message authentication code, and an encryption function.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the imaging device leader component sends an authentication request to the supply item follower component triggering it to perform the calculations.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the supply item follower component sends an encryption of the selected output of the cryptographic function to the imaging device leader component.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the supply item follower component changing the size of the block of non-volatile memory in the supply item follower component.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the imaging device component generates a new seed periodically.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the imaging device component generates a new seed when the supply item is detected in the imaging device.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the imaging device leader component generates a new seed periodically.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the imaging device leader component generates a new seed when the supply item is detected in the imaging device.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the calculations of cryptographic function are hardware accelerated in the supply item follower component.

18. An imaging system comprising:

an imaging device having an imaging device leader component; and

a supply item having a supply item follower component communicatively connectable to the imaging device leader component, the supply item follower component being configured to:

receive a seed;

store the seed in a block of non-volatile memory in the supply item follower component;

calculate the output of a cryptographic function with the input of the seed and store the output in the block of non-volatile memory; and

iteratively calculate the outputs of the cryptographic function wherein for each iteration the input for the cryptographic function is the seed and all previous outputs, and for each iteration store the output in the block of non-volatile memory,

wherein the imaging device is configured to determine the authenticity of the supply item based on a selected output of the cryptographic function of the supply item follower component, the selected output being one of the outputs stored in the block of non-volatile memory,

wherein the imaging device further comprises an imaging device component, the imaging device component being configured to:

calculate the output of the cryptographic function with the input of the seed and store the output in a block of non-volatile memory in the imaging device component; and

iteratively calculate the outputs of the cryptographic function wherein for each iteration the input for the cryptographic function is the seed and all previous outputs, and for each iteration store the output in the block of non-volatile memory of the imaging device component,

wherein the number of iterations of the calculation of the cryptographic function performed by the supply item follower component is the same as the number of iterations of the calculation of the cryptographic function performed by the imaging device component, and

wherein determining the authenticity of the supply item comprises comparing the selected output of the cryptographic function of the supply item follower component with the corresponding output of the cryptographic function of the imaging device component to determine if they are the same.