Sneakers from various manufacturers are considered sought-after collector’s items and also as an investment. Certain models are even traded for five-figure sums. The expensive cult models have long been counterfeited on a mass scale – and so for some customers, what was supposed to be a good purchase turns into an expensive flop, and the manufacturer’s image is damaged. Authentication features applied to the product or packaging have long been imitated – even recognized experts need a few minutes to authenticate a product such as a pair of rare and therefore valuable sneakers. With Origify, Bosch offers a solution that provides luxury products with a digital fingerprint as early as the manufacturing or packaging phase. For this purpose, each individual product is optically recorded in a standardized manner during ongoing production, i.e. photographed. The suitable areas of the product are determined when the technology is set up and are then automatically recorded during ongoing production. The image is then converted into a binary and non-tamperable data set of a few kilobytes, which is stored in a secure cloud.
Authenticity check via app
Once registered, these products, such as a pair of sneakers, can be checked in just a few seconds in the future. What is required is a suitable smartphone and the Origify app or a manufacturer app that is connected to the Origify database via an interface or a software development kit. For a pair of shoes, the app provides a mask of the area to be photographed. If the cell phone is aligned accordingly, Origify’s technology can compare in just a few seconds whether the features correspond to the data set stored during production. This works even if small parts of the surface have changed due to storage or use. However, if a shoe or other product has severe signs of wear that have affected the surface, the technology no longer allows for reliable identification. “The core of our technology is an optical system that records unique distinguishing features that cannot be perceived by the eye, even in ongoing mass production, converts them into a non-manipulable data set and thus allows the identification and traceability of a product via app. This is possible for a large number of products from a wide variety of areas – shoes, glasses, watches and jewelry and many others,” says Oliver Steinbis, who is responsible for the project in the Bosch Group.
Initial recording as part of quality assurance
Bosch offers its own Origify camera module for the initial capture of a product during production or packaging. Companies that already work with image-based processes in quality assurance can also use these systems for recording, depending on the requirements. Converting the image into a binary data set takes a few seconds and is stored in the secure cloud automatically. “For us as a group, the basis for development was that the technology could also be integrated into industrial processes in order to capture products in large quantities cost-effectively. Manufacturers benefit in multiple ways from the system, which does not require any intervention in the products, marking or the attachment of NFC chips. The app functionalities for authentication by retailers, customers or other authorized persons can be integrated into existing manufacturer apps for retailers or end customers via our software development kit,” says Oliver Steinbis, describing the features of Origify. The technology offers increased security for end customers, retailers and the manufacturers themselves – in addition to authentication, the supply chain or OEM producers who produce goods on behalf of a large brand can also be better monitored.
