Fake or real? Your smartphone app will let you know
Not sure if you're being given the real deal for your money? Well, now there's help at hand. Researchers have devised a technology that'll be able to separate the fake products from the real ones in a jiffy. Very soon you can just take out your smartphone, scan the item and know for sure if you're being duped or not. Here's all about it.
The rise of fake products
Counterfeiting is not restricted to roadside stores or that shady dealer who is selling products at a suspiciously low price. There have been instances where people have been duped of crores. Things that consumers considered to be authentic turned out to be a really convincing fake. Detection of such tricky fake products now will be possible via advanced research on a material called graphene.
A unique digital fingerprint
Graphene is a 2D material that is one atom thick. This material is capable of emitting light which can be measured with the help of a camera. When you put light on 2D material, tiny imperfections start shining and this glow is then converted to a unique signal. This signal can be turned into a digital fingerprint which will be unique to that material.
Proving authenticity
This small flakes are undetectable by human eyes and is equal to 1/1000th of a human hair. Once added to items such as money, credit cards, passports, authenticity detection will become easy. All one will have to do is use a smartphone app to read the unique signal emanating from the flakes. If it's not the real deal the digital fingerprint will not match.
Here's to the future!
Professor Robert Young of Lancaster University said that this technology will be instrumental in waging a full blown war against the global epidemic of counterfeiting. This patented technology will be made available for public use by the first half of 2018. Researchers say, it is capable of fitting into every surface or product and will eliminate product counterfeiting and forgery of digital identities.
