ES2958093A1 - HIGH SECURITY PHYSICAL LABEL FOR THE IDENTIFICATION AND PROTECTION OF PLASTIC WORK AND ITS REGISTRATION PROCEDURE AND AUTHENTICITY VERIFICATION IN A DISTRIBUTED DATABASE - Google Patents

Abstract

It is a security label (1) and a procedure for the protection and authentication of a work of plastic art (14) that comprises perforated die patterns (4) that cut at least two line works, one with a highlight (3) and the other photosensitive to ultraviolet light (2), fragmenting the label, if it is removed, and preventing its restoration and repositioning on another work of art; It includes anti-counterfeiting measures based on ultraviolet invisible ink (2) (10), infrared transparent microtext (8), non-infrared transparent microtexts (6) (9) and a hidden coded image (7), all of which prevent its reproduction; It comprises at least one connectivity element (5) with digital identification as well as a registration procedure (11) and verification (12) in a distributed database (13). The purpose of the invention is to guarantee that the work-label set forms an indivisible, authenticable entity.

Description

DESCRIPTION

HIGH SECURITY PHYSICAL LABEL FOR THE IDENTIFICATION AND PROTECTION OF

PLASTIC WORK AND ITS REGISTRATION AND VERIFICATION PROCEDURE

AUTHENTICITY IN A DISTRIBUTED DATABASE

TECHNIQUE SECTOR

The invention falls within the sector of protection of works of plastic art and historical artistic heritage and more specifically that related to the incorporation of anti-fraud measures that allow identifying its owner and preventing falsification of these.

The main object of the present invention is a digitally identified steganographic label equipped with such measures that once attached to the plastic work, the whole forms a unique, indivisible, inviolable and irreproducible entity, whose information is stored biunivocally and permanently in a distributed database, which can be consulted by the user through a connectivity element contained in the label itself, thus guaranteeing that the work-label set forms an authenticated entity.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The relationship between art and fraud has historically been difficult. Various market studies such as that of art historian and former director of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, Thomas Hovin, in his book “False Impressions: the Hunt for Big-Time Art Fakes” where he indicates that “... fake works represent between 10% and 40% of the total volume of the artistic sector market, and literally adds that, if I had to bet on a figure, I would bet on the highest one.” The big problem arises from the fact that these works were not protected from the moment of their creation. The authors only sign their work, which constitutes a measure vulnerable to falsification, which in the event of the artist's death can cause authentication problems for buyers. In many cases, authentication reports are not even conclusive.

To all of the above we must add the element of ownership or ownership of the work of art in purchase and sale transactions, where the ownership of a work is documented in a contract between parties, which does not protect the work itself, there being the probability that the work of art is not the original and that the seller is not the true owner.

Currently we can find different methods and tools that try to protect physical assets, including some aimed at works of art more specifically. We can include all of them in these three sections:

1. Authentication certificates, where an expert issues a party opinion based on an endless number of variables and assessment criteria or, in the best of cases, based on the opinion of the author himself; The verification of ownership documents remains an implicit and necessary step.

2. Adhesive labels that incorporate different electronically detectable elements and whose internal numerical coding is linked and stored together with the data of the work on centralized servers or in a blockchain.

3. Substances that are applied to the work and that configure digitized patterns of nanoparticles or biological sequences that return an encoding that is detected by Raman spectroscopy or spectrophotometry and whose data is stored on centralized servers or in decentralized networks such as the blockchain.

A detailed study of all these tools and methods allows us to discover the reasons why until now none of them have been able to be applied in an effective and standardized way to the physical protection of works of plastic art. For example, we list some of them:

to. Any electronically detectable element is vulnerable to access without permission and therefore susceptible to being reproduced.

b. None of the anti-counterfeiting measures currently adopted on labels for containers and wrappers and detailed in previous inventions can guarantee a sufficient level of security, as demonstrated by various organizations. For example, in 1998, European Union (EU) customs officers detained around one million counterfeit alcoholic beverages at the borders; By 2008, the figure had increased to 250 million. In 2011, global business in the pharmaceutical sector exceeded $880 million, with 25,000 packaging lines. However, according to the WHO, up to 15% of medicines were fake, increasing their number between 2005 and 2011 by 92%. These data give an idea of the great vulnerability of this type of labeling, which has the advantage that it is cheaper to implement, but much less secure, which is why its use is mostly intended for consumer items.

c. In the case of labels intended to be incorporated into the surface of the work, we have been able to study and verify that these could be violated with different techniques; Even in the case of using powerful adhesives, it was not guaranteed that they could be removed from the original work and replaced on a fake work of art without being detected.

d. The development of nanoparticles applied to the work as an element of identity through the spectral pattern that is captured by a Raman-type sensor or different patterns of biomolecules to which coding is associated by spectrophotometry and that detail some inventions, have been the subject of some of our lines of study, highlighting that their application in the terms in which they are described present problems of alteration due to oxidation of the organic compounds used as coating elements, which causes, over time, false readings; In addition, it constitutes a security method that requires expensive and sophisticated equipment and means to verify, which is why it continues not to be adopted.

EXPLANATION OF THE INVENTION

To solve all the problems raised above, we have developed a new physical security support, which we will call a steganographic label given that it integrates hidden security elements and that once attached to the plastic work, the entire work label forms a single, indivisible, inviolable and irreproducible entity. whose information is stored and related in a one-to-one manner in a preferably distributed database.

The main advantages of this invention are summarized as follows:

• Once the steganographic label is fixed on the work, both form a single entity, in the sense that any attempt to remove the label would produce fragmentation that would prevent its recovery and repositioning, making the attempt at manipulation evident.

• It has the same probability of being counterfeited as legal tender banknotes since it integrates anti-counterfeiting and steganographic elements with specific innovations that we have adapted given their intended use.

• It presents a connectivity element that provides in real time a certificate with the associated information, as well as its registration data in a distributed accounting network (Distributed Ledger Technology, DLT).

• A new authentication procedure for works of plastic art of economic origin and easy verification with a simple mobile device is proposed.

• For the first time it is certain that the authorship and ownership data correspond to the work on which the query is made.

The steganographic label object of the invention comprises a series of almost undetectable perforated die-cut patterns that in a preferred embodiment can be formed by lines and semicircles at almost all possible angles.

On the exposed surface or front face of the label, at least two types of line work are distributed which are printed with inks coded with different colors that change in the presence of ultraviolet light to another specific color. In a preferred embodiment, a line work may be formed by highlighted squares of different sizes and angles of rotation, randomly distributed over the entire surface; The other line work must be made up of very fine parallel lines close together, forming a pattern that covers the entire surface of the label.

The perforated die-cut patterns cut the line works at so many different angles and dispositions that removal of the label would result in its fragmentation and tearing, making exact repositioning impossible, as it would be extremely difficult to provide coherent continuity to the line works. lines without being noticeable, either with the naked eye or more obviously by observing the cut stripes with ultraviolet light. This type of elements gives the label its inviolable character once affixed to the work. The fixing system is a neutral adhesive that covers the back of the label and has been adapted for permanent fixation to porous surfaces typical of works of plastic art.

The steganographic label object of the invention also comprises a wide range of anti-counterfeiting measures that in a preferred embodiment includes infrared ink minitexts, images encoded by refraction patterns whose text is displayed by a lens that refracts light at an appropriate angle, at least three types of invisible infrared ink and those for coded line work such as highlighting and invisible ultraviolet ink.

In other preferred embodiments, the anti-counterfeiting measures can also be alternated or complemented with holograms, security threads and iridescence, among others.

The steganographic tag also comprises a visible unique numerical code, as well as one or more connectivity elements such as: magnetic stripe, radio frequency identification (RFID), near field communication (NFC), microchip, one-dimensional barcode and two-dimensional QR code, The latter two being the least vulnerable to electronic manipulations of their coding. All these elements allow the user to obtain relevant updated information about the plastic work, such as authorship, ownership, characteristics of the work, as well as a description of it. All this information is previously registered on a web platform by the author or owner himself and stored in an immutable and secure manner through the execution of a smart contract in a distributed ledger network (DLT), that is, a type of decentralized database that manages a community of participants, where there is no central authority that acts as referee and verifier. The distributed ledger increases transparency, making any type of fraud or data manipulation difficult.

The basic stages of a steganographic label registration and verification procedure are described below, which includes the following stages:

STAGE I: Registration of the label associated with the work:

• The author or owner documents all the data of the work in a web application along with a photograph of it.

• The application executes the functions of a smart contract deployed in a decentralized database, generating a unique transaction code that uniquely links the label with the work.

• The author or owner receives the steganographic tag along with a certificate containing all registration data and consultation and verification instructions.

• The author or owner proceeds to remove the protective sheet from the back of the label to attach it to the work, thus forming a single entity protected by all the security elements included in the label.

STAGE II: Verification of the label associated with the work.

• Visual inspection of the label to check if it has been tampered with.

• Technical inspection of the security measures included in the label.

• Verification using an electronic device of all the information related to the work of art registered in Stage I and using the connectivity element for this purpose.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To complement the description that is being made and in order to help a better understanding of the characteristics of the invention, a set of drawings is attached as an integral part of said description, where, with an illustrative and non-limiting nature, the following has been represented. following:

Figure 1.- Shows a front view of the steganographic label with the set of security elements based on a preferred embodiment.

Figure 2.- Shows a front view of the steganographic label with details of the shape and arrangement of the cutting patterns using perforated die-cutting.

Figure 3.- Shows a front view of the steganographic label with details of the shape and arrangement of the line work.

Figure 4.- Functional block diagram that schematically represents the use of the registration and authenticity verification procedure.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

For this preferred embodiment, a balance has been sought between the security measures to be applied to the surface of the label and the cost of implementing them, which does not mean that in other embodiment examples they can be applied more or less depending on the type of object. of value to protect.

For this type of implementation, a type of steganographic security label is proposed for the protection of works of plastic art that is attached to the back of the work using a non-chemical adhesive adapted to porous surfaces. The label presents on its front surface (1) fine perforated die-cut cuts (4) that are distributed on the label forming patterns of strategic cuts, so that when an attempt is made to remove the label from the work, the cut areas of the die-cut where no adhesive causes the label to be destroyed, clearly indicating a violation of its integrity.

In the event that an attempt is made to reposition the fragments, the steganographic label is provided on its surface with two types of line work transparent to ultraviolet light (2) (3) that cross the cutting patterns (4) at all angles. and directions preventing the repositioning of the fragments for their relocation in another work of art since it would be impossible for the plots of the line work to coincide with the cut areas; Even in the case of achieving extreme accuracy that is not observable to the naked eye, the application of ultraviolet light would clearly show all the tear lines, thus strengthening the protection method and rendering the steganographic label useless given the characteristics that this detection system gives it. inviolability.

To make the reproduction and falsification of the steganographic security label unfeasible, the following security measures, similar to those used on banknotes, have also been implemented on the front (1) of the label:

a) Use of Non-Transparent to Infrared (Non-TIR) and transparent to infrared (TIR) inks in the following security elements:

• Correlative Non-TIR numbering (6): each label will have a unique identification code.

• Coded image (7): which is only displayed if it is read with a light refracting device at a certain angle.

• TIR minitext (8): very small text only readable with ultraviolet light.

• Non-TIR Minitext (9): very small text that hinders falsification

b) Invisible fluorescent ink (10) of various colors: yellow, blue, red, magenta pink, only visible, for example, with ultraviolet lamps. This element is also included in the line patterns (2) (3) and guarantees the inviolability of the steganographic tag.

On the other hand, a two-dimensional QR code (5) has been selected as the preferred connectivity element of the label, which itself encrypts a link to the site for reading and verifying the data of the work based on the unique identification number (6 ).

As a preferred embodiment, a registration and authentication verification procedure for the steganographic label associated with the work is also established based on two stages with their corresponding development flows:

STAGE I: registration (11) which includes the following phases:

1. Access (15) to the web application (19) and upload of the work data.

2. Registration (16) of the work and the label (20) in a Blockchain network.

3. Delivery (17) of the label to the user

4. Fixing (18) of the label to the work

STAGE II: authenticity verification (12). With the security label that we propose in the present invention and the registration procedure in the blockchain, a buyer or certifier of works of art would have a powerful verification tool to determine in very few steps whether it is the work of art originally protected:

1. Visual inspection (21) of the label to verify that it has not been violated or manipulated; To do this, you must verify that the label is not damaged and that the line work remains aligned with the die-cut patterns. In the affirmative case of manipulation (22), it would be concluded that the work is false or stolen.

2. If tampering is not detected visually, a technical inspection (23) will be carried out with the detection kit (24) that contains verification tools such as: ultraviolet and infrared light flashlights, refractive magnifying glass and magnifying glass. For this purpose, a magnifying glass or ultraviolet light flashlight would be sufficient; the latter would return an image of a manipulated label with all the fragmentation stripes perfectly defined in black. In the affirmative case (25) of verification that the label is invalid, it would be concluded that the work is false or stolen.

3. If no alteration is detected in the technical security elements, the QR code (26) will be read through a mobile device (27). In the affirmative case (28) that the ownership data of the work of art stored in the blockchain (13) matches the credentials presented by the supposed owner, then the ownership and authenticity of the work would be definitively confirmed. If not (29), the ownership of the work of art would not coincide with the ownership credentials presented for verification of the work, concluding that, although the work is authentic, its supposed owner does not prove who he claims to be.

Claims (6)

1. Steganographic label for the protection of works of plastic art that includes anti-counterfeiting and secure integration measures in the work, as well as other connectivity and digital identification elements that allow the consultation of data previously stored biunivocally and permanently in a database. of distributed accounting data and comprising: • Fine cuts using perforated die-cutting (4) that are distributed on the label forming strategic cut patterns in the form of lines and semicircles arranged at almost all possible angles. • At least two types of line work where one of them is formed by highlighted squares (3) of different sizes and angles of rotation, distributed randomly throughout the surface and another is printed with inks coded with different colors that vary in presence of ultraviolet light to another specific color forming very fine parallel lines close together (2), both give rise to a pattern that covers the entire surface of the label (1). • High-tack adhesive layer located on the back of the label that allows it to be permanently attached to the artwork. • Correlative Non-Transparent Infrared (Non-TIR) numbering (6): this is a unique identification code. • Coded image (7): which is only displayed if it is read with a light refracting device at a certain angle. • Minitext transparent to infrared (TIR) (8): very small text only readable with infrared light. • Non-TIR Minitext (9): very small text that hinders falsification • Invisible fluorescent ink (10) of different color codes, only visible with ultraviolet light. 2. Steganographic label (1) according to claims 1 characterized in that the perforated die-cut patterns (4) cut the line works (2) (3) at so many different angles and arrangements that removal of the label would result in its fragmentation and torn, making its exact repositioning impossible since it would be extremely difficult to give coherent continuity to the line work without it being noticed, either with the naked eye or more obviously, by observing the cut strips with ultraviolet light, thus revealing the attempt to fraud. 3. Steganographic label (1) according to claims 1 and 2, characterized in that once attached to the work of plastic art, both form a single and indivisible one. 4. Steganographic label (1) according to claims 1, 2 and 3 characterized in that once attached to the work, it becomes an element of identity specific to and exclusive to said work. 5. Steganographic label (1) according to claims 1, 2, 3 and 4 characterized in that once attached to the work, the identity of said work, made up of its most relevant data, is associated with the digital identity of the label, which It allows its registration and storage in a distributed database, as well as its consultation through the connectivity element integrated into the same label. 6. Procedure for registration and verification of the data of the owner and the work according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, characterized by a one-to-one association between a registration stage (11) where it is stored in a distributed database the identity of the work and that of its owner after identification and verification of the latter; and an authenticity verification stage (12) based on the development of a sequence of actions necessary to identify the authenticity of the work of plastic art and its ownership in a simple and economical way.