Remote object authentication using distortion-invariant ID tags
Elisabet Pérez–Cabré, María Sagrario Millán, Bahram Javidi · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2005
A number of applications in security or inventory control may benefit from an authentication system able to identify a remote object viewed from different perspectives or distances. Object identification can be accomplished by using optical ID tags, which include relevant information of the target and are located on a visible part of the object under surveillance. Encryption of the information codified in the ID tag allows increasing security and deters from unauthorized usage of optical tags. The identification process encompasses several steps such as detection, information decoding and verification which are all detailed in this work. Design of distortion-invariant ID tags has to be taken into account to achieve a correct object authentication even if the ID tag is detected and captured at different distances (i.e. different scales) or from different views (i.e. rotated versions of the original ID tag). Description of diverse distortion-invariant ID tags and authentication results using the proposed ID tags are provided. We show that distortion-tolerance is achieved by the described identification system. Information encrypted on the tested ID tags is correctly decoded and verified even if variations in scale and rotations are considered. The effects of environmental degradation are taken into account in the recognition process.