DESC:FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a security mark to detect a counterfeit product. More specifically, the present invention relates to an anti-counterfeit security mark for use as a copy proof security feature for value added products such as excise labels, medical cartons, certificates etc.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
With development of technology, the trend of shopping has also changed from going to a market place and purchasing goods to online shopping. While shopping online we go through a lot of advertisements, while some are from the authorized dealers and seller’s others are fake. In this scenario, the authentication of product cannot be guaranteed as the goods purchased go through a lot of hands before it is delivered to customer. Goods are vulnerable to counterfeit during its travel from seller’s address to destination address.
Not only goods, counterfeiting of printed documents is also common. Copying printed documents is the most common practice for counterfeiting and is carried out through photo copy, scan copy or fax copy etc. In case of printed documents in order to overcome counterfeiting, printed bands are disposed on a substrate comprising a warning word or symbol such as “VOID” and a background having some geometric elements which are not readily reproducible by a photocopy machine. The geometric elements here are dots and lines with varying densities. These solutions indicate the counterfeit by producing a visible pattern when copied. With development in technology, the copying machines too have improved and such geometric elements are also copied enabling counterfeiting of these printed bands.
US5078428A is a copy proof sheet which comprises a background and at least one latent mark, one of the background and latent mark is formed of multi-line images of about 65-line 10% which are reproducible on an obtained copy, the other of the background and latent mark is formed of fine mesh images of about 150-line 10% which are not reproducible on the obtained copy. The main drawback of this security marks is that it is vulnerable of being copied by an advanced high resolution copier machine.
Another technique known in industry to tackle counterfeiting of goods is tamper evident tapes which require special inks to indicate any tampering taken place. Counterfeiting attempted by means of application of heat or pressure for opening cartons of goods is indicated as these special inks change the color or bleeds. The use of special inks thus makes these tapes costly.
Therefore, there is a need of cost effective and user friendly technology to authenticate printed documents as well as products without any need of special scanners or special printing ink.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The main object of the present invention is to provide a novel solution for identifying counterfeited or altered printed document and products through a smart device such as smart phone and desktop computer.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an anti-counterfeit security mark with smart phone based authentication solution.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a high resolution anti-counterfeit security mark with copy proof security feature to indicate any tampering done in the anti-counterfeit security mark.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a cost effective security mark that requires neither any dedicated device for reading the security mark nor any special ink for printing the security mark.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an anti-counterfeit security mark with a smart phone based authentication solution that requires no special ink for generation. The anti-counterfeit security mark is for use as a copy proof security feature for authenticating value added products such as excise labels, medical cartons, certificates etc. The copy proof security feature of anti-counterfeit security mark is resistant to all kinds of copying techniques such as photo copy, scan copy, fax copy etc.
In an embodiment of the present invention an anti-counterfeit security mark is having a copy proof security feature to detect the counterfeit product. The anti-counterfeit security mark comprises of dots/pixels in an image area with variable dot strength varying from one region to another forming a plurality of pixel strips of variable size which varies in the entire image and printed at high resolution. For generation of the anti-counterfeit security mark, a product identifier image is taken which is processed in to generation algorithm and then printed at a very high resolution to obtain the anti-counterfeit security mark named as Blurcode.
In another embodiment of the present invention an anti-counterfeit security mark is authenticated using a smart phone based authentication solution. The anti-counterfeit security mark is captured and scanned through an authentication application using a smart device such as using a smart phone or a personal computer for authenticating the product. The anti-counterfeit security mark is detected and cropped to extract the copy proof features i.e. pixel strips. The authentication application thereafter checks the strips in the anti-counterfeit security mark. In case the specific strips in the security mark are not detected then the authentication application again captures the anti-counterfeit security mark. The anti-counterfeit security mark is then validated and based on the validation of the anti-counterfeit security mark, the result is displayed in the smart device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
A complete understanding of the system of the present invention may be obtained by reference to the following drawings:
Figure 1 is a flow-diagram elucidating process of generation of anti-counterfeit security mark according to the present invention.
Figure 2 is a flow-diagram elucidating process of authentication of anti-counterfeit security mark according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention will now be described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in which a preferred embodiment of the invention is shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiment set forth herein. Rather, the embodiment is provided so that this disclosure will be thorough, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
The present invention relates to an anti-counterfeit security mark with a smart phone based authentication solution that requires no special ink or no special technique for generation. The anti-counterfeit security mark is for use as a copy proof security feature for authenticating value added products such as excise labels, medical cartons, certificates etc.
In the most preferred embodiment, the present invention provides an anti-counterfeit security mark comprising a plurality of dots in an image area, wherein, the plurality of dots have a dot strength varying from one region to another region in the image area forming a plurality of pixel strips of variable size; said plurality of pixel strips act as copy proof security feature; and said anti-counterfeit security mark is generated by processing a unique product identifier image.
Here, the anti-counterfeit security mark is authenticated using a smart device having at least one image capturing unit, a display unit and an authentication application. The smart device includes but is not limited to a smart phone, laptop, etc.
In another preferred embodiment of the present invention an anti-counterfeit security mark is authenticated using a smart phone based authentication solution. authentication of anti-counterfeit security mark using said smart device comprises steps of: a) detecting and capturing/scanning said mark using the image capturing unit; b) cropping the detected mark obtained in step a) to extract the pixel strips; c) checking the pixel strips extracted in step b) using a prefed data for the anti-counterfeit security mark using the authentication application; d) repeating step a) to c) when a predefined strip is not detected and validating the mark; and e) displaying the authentication result in the display unit. Here, validating the mark includes detecting if the captured/scanned mark is grey image or monochrome image. The prefed data in authentication application includes ground truth elements determined for the mark and stored in authentication application.
In yet another preferred embodiment, the anti-counterfeit security mark is generated by processing a unique product identifier image comprising the steps of: a) fetching a product identifier image for a product; b) getting a geometric structure of said product identifier image obtained at step a); c) eliminating specific frequency components from said geometric structure obtained in step b) based on kernel; d) enhancing high frequency elements and applying monochrome conversion to obtain pixel strips in said anti-counterfeit security mark; and e) printing said anti-counterfeit security mark in high resolution. The resolution of printing the anti-counterfeit security mark lies in the range of 600 dpi and above.
Figure 1 is a flow-diagram elucidating process of generation of anti-counterfeit security mark according to the present invention. In a preferred embodiment the process of generation comprises of fetching a product identifier image which is unique for each product; then said image is processed to get a geometric structure of the image, eliminate specific frequency component based on kernel, enhance high frequency elements, and finally apply monochrome conversion process to get data strips to obtain the anti-counterfeit security mark named Blurcode and then the image is printed at high resolution.
Here, the product identifier image is an image which is unique for each product. The anti-counterfeit security mark consists of pixels in entire image area having pixel strip varying in the image which provides indication of photocopying as the anti-counterfeit security mark degrades while photocopying. Further, the anti-counterfeit security mark is printed at extremely high-resolution.
Figure 2 is a flow-diagram elucidating process of authentication of anti-counterfeit security mark according to the present invention. In another preferred embodiment the process for authentication of anti-counterfeit security mark using an authentication application installed in a smart device comprises of capturing the anti-counterfeit security mark using the smart device; scanning the captured anti-counterfeit security mark to detect and crop the features i.e. pixel strips; determining the strips in the anti-counterfeit security mark; in case the specific strips are not detected the anti-counterfeit security mark is again captured and scanned else the strip detected are validated and authentication result is displayed in the authentication application.
Here, for validation of anti-counterfeit security mark it is detected if the scanned mark is a grey image or a monochrome image. When it is detected that the scanned mark is a pixelized image, then specific pixel strips are found and compared with ground truth elements as determined and stored in the authentication application for the anti-counterfeit security mark.
For printing of anti-counterfeit security mark there is no requirement of any special ink, substrate or printing technique.
Therefore, the present invention provides a cost effective anti-counterfeit security mark for use as a copy proof security feature for authenticating value added products such as Excise labels, medical cartons, certificates etc. using a smartphone based authentication solution.
Many modifications and other embodiments of the invention set forth herein will readily occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.
,CLAIMS:CLAIMS

We claim:
1. An anti-counterfeit security mark comprising a plurality of dots in an image area,

wherein,
the plurality of dots have a dot strength varying from one region to another region in the image area forming a plurality of pixel strips of variable size;

said plurality of pixel strips act as copy proof security feature; and

said anti-counterfeit security mark is generated by processing a unique product identifier image.

2. The anti-counterfeit security mark as claimed in claim 1, wherein said anti counterfeit security mark is authenticated using a smart device having at least one image capturing unit, a display unit and an authentication application.

3. The anti-counterfeit security mark as claimed in claim 2, wherein the smart device includes but is not limited to a smart phone, laptop, etc.

4. The anti-counterfeit security mark as claimed in claim 2, wherein authentication of anti-counterfeit security mark using said smart device comprises steps of:

a) detecting and capturing/scanning said mark using the image capturing unit;

b) cropping the detected mark obtained in step a) to extract the pixel strips;

c) checking the pixel strips extracted in step b) using a prefed data for the anti-counterfeit security mark using the authentication application;

d) repeating step a) to c) when a predefined strip is not detected and validating the mark; and

e) displaying the authentication result in the display unit.

5. The anti-counterfeit security mark as claimed in claim 4, wherein validating the mark includes detecting if the captured/scanned mark is grey image or monochrome image.

6. The anti-counterfeit security mark as claimed in claim 4, wherein the prefed data in authentication application includes ground truth elements determined for the mark and stored in authentication application.

7. The anti-counterfeit security mark as claimed in claim 1, wherein the anti-counterfeit security mark is generated by processing a unique product identifier image comprising the steps of:

a) fetching a product identifier image for a product;

b) getting a geometric structure of said product identifier image obtained at step a);

c) eliminating specific frequency components from said geometric structure obtained in step b) based on kernel;

d) enhancing high frequency elements and applying monochrome conversion to obtain pixel strips in said anti-counterfeit security mark; and

e) printing said anti-counterfeit security mark in high resolution.

8. The anti-counterfeit security mark as claimed in claim 1, wherein the resolution of printing the anti-counterfeit security mark lies in the range of 600 dpi and above.