Optical forensics for tracing counterfeit recorded media
Patrick J. Smith, Phelim O'Doherty, Carlos Luna, Sean McCarthy · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2004
We describe an optical forensic method for tracing a CD back to the pressing machine in which it was created, and present a system we have developed which maintains a library of the 'fingerprints' of such machines and can compare sample CDs against this library. In principle, any security feature that is deliberately created can be copied by a counterfeiter. In our forensic method we concentrate on features that arise spontaneously in the manufacturing process. Such features act as a signature or 'fingerprint'. In the case of CDs we show how the moulding process leaves an imprint of an unpolished part of the 'mirror plate' on the CD surface. Using machine vision and pattern-matching, we demonstrate the use of the system to acquire a positive match of a sample against a pre-recorded library entry created using a different CD from the same mould.