Method and device for authenticating a tag

1. A method for authenticating a current tag, the method comprising:

capturing a current image, with a communicating mobile terminal, of at least a portion of the current tag, the captured current image comprising at least a portion of an identifier visible to the naked eye, printed on the tag, the identifier being disposed over at least two hologram elements or diffractive elements;

transmitting the captured current image including said identifier to a server;

reading, from a memory of tag images, a previously-stored image of a previously-captured tag having a same identifier as the identifier of the current tag;

determining the distances of each hologram element or diffractive element to regularly-spaced positions on the previously-captured tag, at the server;

comparing the determined distances to distances of each hologram element or diffractive element to regularly-spaced positions on the image captured by the terminal;

transmitting, to said communicating mobile terminal, at least a portion of the previously-stored image read from the memory and the result of the comparison; and

displaying at least a portion of the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image superimposed on the current image captured by said terminal, a superimposition image resulting from a superimposition of the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image on a point-to-point basis.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, during the displaying, the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image are superimposed automatically to minimize a difference between the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, during the displaying, the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image to be superimposed are set to a same scale and orientation, by identifying characteristic points of the previously-captured tag and the current tag in the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image and superimposing the characteristic points.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, during the displaying, one of the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image is deformed to take a difference in viewpoint into account.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, during the displaying, one of the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image is translated relative to the other so that an automatic superimposition minimizes a difference between the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image, on the point-by-point basis.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, during the identifier transmitting, the mobile terminal transmits at least a portion of said captured image, the server determining said identifier from the image transmitted by the mobile terminal.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, during the identifier transmitting, the mobile terminal determines the identifier by processing at least a portion of said captured image and transmits symbols representative of the determined identifier.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, during the capturing of the current image, with the communicating mobile terminal, of at least a portion of the current tag and during the identifier transmitting to the server, said identifier is comprised of at least a portion of the captured image.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein, during the reading of the previously-stored image of the previously-captured tag having said identifier from the memory of tag images, at least a portion of the current image and at least a portion of the previously-stored image are automatically superimposed to minimize a difference between the current image and the previously-stored image.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein, during the reading of the previously-stored image of the previously-captured tag, the portion of the current image and the portion of the previously-stored image to be superimposed are set to a same scale and orientation on the point-by-point basis, and one of the image portions is deformed to take a difference in viewpoint into account so that an automatic superimposition minimizes a difference between the current image and the previously-stored image.

11. A device for authenticating a current tag by a communicating mobile terminal, the device comprising:

an image capturing system configured to capture a current image of at least a portion of the current tag, the captured current image comprising at least a portion of an identifier visible to the naked eye, printed on the tag, the identifier being disposed over at least two hologram elements or diffractive elements;

a transmitter configured to transmit the captured current image including said identifier to a server;

a receiver configured to receive, from the server, at least a portion of a previously-stored image read from a memory of the server and a result of a comparison of (i) the distances of each hologram element or diffractive element to regularly-spaced positions on the previously-stored image of the tag determined at the server, to (ii) distances of each hologram element or diffractive element to regularly-spaced positions on the image captured by the terminal; and

a display configured to display at least a portion of the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image superimposed on the current image captured by said terminal, a superimposition image resulting from a superimposition of the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image on a point-to-point basis.

12. The device according to claim 11 , wherein the display is configured to automatically superimpose the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image to minimize a difference between the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image.

13. The device according to claim 11 , wherein the display is configured to identify characteristic points of the previously-captured tag and the current tag in the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image, to superimpose the characteristic elements and to set the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image to be superimposed to a same scale and orientation.

14. The device according to claim 11 , wherein the display is configured to deform one of the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image to take a difference in viewpoint into account.

15. The device according to claim 11 , wherein, the display is configured to translate one of the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image relative to the other so that an automatic superimposition minimizes a difference between the current image and the transmitted portion of the previously-stored image, on the point-by-point basis.