One of the cause countries around the world are transition from composition to plastic polymer banknotes was the promise they ’d be harder to imitative — but it did n’t take long for fake to proliferate . However , an avoidable defect insert during the manufacturing process of polymer banknotes could beused as a unique fingerprintto validate lawful currency .
investigator from the Department of Computer Science at theUniversity of Warwickand Durham University in England have discovered that every single polymer banknote has a unique but unwitting fingerprint that could be used to make a verification system that ’s impossible to fool . The research is detail in a report , ‘ Anti - Counterfeiting for Polymer Banknotes Based on Polymer Substrate Fingerprinting , ’ latterly published in the IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security journal , which also excuse how a practicable establishment organisation could be created that ’s more foolproof than a cashier shining a ultraviolet radiation light on a bill .
When polymer broadside are being manufactured the program of a decisive layer known as the opaqueness coating results in impurities in the ink being randomly propagate producing subtle translucent patterns that become more apparent when the banknote is held up against a brilliant light root .
Image: University of Warwick
To the defenseless eye , it ’s just random imperfectness that are scarcely evident because other details , including imaging , text , and knowing security features , obscure the blueprint . But every bill has small regions where those patterns are unobscured , and when placed on a backlit moving picture electronic scanner , those random patterns can be extracted in extreme detail and used as a unparalleled fingermark .
Having a singular fingerprint is one affair , in reality take reward of it to key out counterfeit currency is the material challenge . The researchers propose creating a database cataloging the unique fingerprint of every single bill produce at a mickle , correlated with its serial bit , and then using that as a tool to perform a shape match for verify whether a distrust counterfeit banknote is real or not . This confirmation would n’t happen every time a shopper passed a mickle of eyeshade to a cashier , but law enforcement agencies could be give tools that get to the database allowing them to easily spot a role player without require suspect forgery to be sent away to expert for in - deepness depth psychology .
With almost four billion banknotes circulating in the UK at the minute , the nominate organization seems like it has some logistical problems to overcome first because that ’s a lot of data to store and procedure . But speaking toNew Atlas , University of Warwick professor Feng Hao point out that the fingermark patterns are scan and commute to modest 256 - byte transmitter files , and for four billion bank bill that adds up to just over a terabyte of storage . If the system only focused on higher - time value banknotes , which counterfeiters direct , the storage and bandwidth requirements would be even modest .
Image: University of Warwick
Given how quickly smartphone tv camera have progressed and improved , there ’s a very existent chance this counterfeit spotting system could one day be rolled out through an easy - to - use app so it ’s accessible all over the world . But if it ever come to be , do n’t expect it to be made useable to anyone other than law enforcement . No one want counterfeit spotting vigilantes running around with smartphones in hand , impeach every little mummy and pop shop of being a money - wash front .
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