Alitheon Inc

Alitheon’s FeaturePrint optical AI technology securely links the physical and digital worlds. A FeaturePrint is a digital representation of the inherent random features unique to an object that arise from the object’s creation. FeaturePrinting allows high confidence distinguishing of individual items out of millions of similar and so-called “identical” objects. Each FeaturePrint is unique, even between objects that have been made to be identical and manufactured in the same way, and thus appear identical to the human eye. It is to a solid object what a fingerprint is to a person, but with vastly more detail and associated with vastly higher recognition and authentication confidence. Of the plethora of various objects, we have FeaturePrinted and identified, we have never made a high-confidence mistake.

With FeaturePrint, proxies such as barcodes are unnecessary as we make the object its own identifier. FeaturePrinting enables accurate tracking on an assembly line and throughout distribution channels. It prevents counterfeiting not by detecting counterfeits but by identifying originals. It enables human biometrics with no possibility of profiling and creates the unbreakable object link that Blockchain needs to be secure and that smart contracts need to function.

At induction, unique random characteristics of the object are characterized and the resulting digital fingerprint – the FeaturePrint – is stored. At authentication, identification, or point of trace, a new FeaturePrint is extracted and compared with reference FeaturePrints to activate retrieval of the stored information or to determine that the object has or has not previously been seen.

FeaturePrint is insensitive to partial views and to degradation of the object between induction and authentication. This provides greater accuracy in object identification and authentication and allows continuous monitoring of objects as they change during manufacturing or become part of an assembly. It is insensitive to image distortions such as rotation, scale, off-axis viewing, and perspective.

 FeaturePrint is not an image

A FeaturePrint is a set of numbers characterizing the unique features of an object. Features common to similar objects are rejected, and only the information that makes this object unique is preserved.

FeaturePrint represents THE single object, not a class of objects

A FeaturePrint characterizes the specific object from which it was extracted, not the kind of object. It may, for example, represent a particular Intel Core i9 processor, not the class of all Intel Core i9’s. All class-based information is intentionally removed.

A FeaturePrint is not a proxy for authentication

Most identification systems today use proxies such as barcodes, QR codes, or RFID tags. These can be obscured, detach from the object, or themselves be counterfeited. By making the object its own identifier, Alitheon does not need them.

So what can you do with this technology?

With FeaturePrint, the item is its own proof, like a fingerprint is to a human, and thus you can authenticate items; you can identify specific items; you can track & trace individual items.