A cryptographic tag developed at MIT uses terahertz waves to authenticate items by recognizing the unique pattern of microscopic metal particles that are mixed into the glue that sticks the tag to the item’s surface.

TL;DR MIT researchers have developed an antitampering ID tag that is tiny, cheap, and secure. It is several times smaller and significantly cheaper than the traditional radio frequency tags that are used to verify product authenticity. The tags use glue containing microscopic metal particles. This glue forms unique patterns that can be detected using terahertz waves. The system uses AI to compare glue patterns and calculate their similarity. The tags could be used to authenticate items too small for traditional RFIDs.

  • QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    You’d have to read the article to know what they’re getting at.

    The use case provided was for businesses like a car wash that puts a sticker on a car windshield. The ML model would be able to detect if the customer attempted to transfer the sticker from one car to another.

    A pretrained ML model to detect this is actually a very good use case.

    However, I think the implimentation of this as an “anti-tampering detector” is a dangerous route to tread since there are other factors that need to be considered.