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Fake Goods Set To Become A Thing Of The Past Thanks To Atomic-Level ID

Fake Goods Set To Become A Thing Of The Past Thanks To Atomic-Level ID

The technology is claimed to be ‘unclonable’

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

Counterfeiting is a problem that has stumped both law enforcement and brands alike for a long time, but thanks to a new technological breakthrough, it looks as though it could be set to become a thing of the past.

Researchers at Quantum Base, a Lancaster University spin-off company, took the ground-breaking discovery of graphene, the world's thinnest material, and used it to create identity tags for products that can be verified on a microscopic level.

The tags can be scanned using a special smartphone app. This will enable anything from a pair of trainers to a car part to be stamped and easily identified as either legitimate or fake.

Counterfeit shoes
Counterfeit shoes

Counterfeit trainers. Credit: PA

"The most exciting thing about this is it empowers the end-user," said Professor Robert Young, lead scientist at Quantum Base.

"So any person with a smartphone can verify any tag which has been labelled with our technology and verify whether it is genuine or not."

Research conducted by the Centre for Economic and Business Research suggested that counterfeiting affected 72,000 British jobs last year and cost the UK economy roughly £17.3 billion ($22.3 billion).

Quantum Base calls the technology Q-ID and claims that it is 'unclonable'. On the company's website, it says:

"[Q-ID] is the perfect solution to the counterfeiting or authentication problem. It provides an unclonable, robust system that can be measured using a smart phone and a cheap filter simply at any point throughout the supply chain.

"Unlike most anti-counterfeiting technologies and certainly none at this price point, the Q-ID has the ability to be 'turned off' at any point during the supply chain, a desirable property should a batch of products be lost or stolen."

Counterfeit goods
Counterfeit goods

Credit: PA

The Q-ID tags also have the benefit of being able to be altered infinitely in order to make each one entirely unique.

"Everything is unique at the atomic scale," explained Quantum Base's Prof Young. "These materials come with strange quantum properties and their properties change if you move a single atom.

"It is these changes that we are measuring. The properties of the materials are sensitive to small scale imperfections.

"There is nothing more unique and there is no level below atoms."

But what makes these tags so much more effective than the ones already available, such as holographs and similar methods of product authentication?

The answer lies in the material they're constructed from, which allows for the atomic-level detail that professor Young talks about.

This special type of graphene was invented by two scientists at the University of Manchester, who won the Nobel Prize in 2010 for their pioneering work.

This incredible, ground-breaking material is only one atom thick - this is why even the tiniest, most miniscule imperfections, caused by the smallest of changes in the structure of an atom, can be identified.

Lancaster University-based company Quantum Base is currently showcasing the invention at the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition in London.

Source: The Mirror

Featured Image Credit: PA