Anti-counterfeiting using phosphor PUF

Anti-counterfeiting is a global problem. Brand owners suffer from huge losses due to counterfeits every year, and turn to advanced solutions to gain back control over their brands. An anti-counterfeiting system normally encodes a digital identifier in a physical identifier in essence. The physical identifier then is attached with the product. If the physical identifier is cloneable or reusable, the counterfeit products could easily cheat the anti-counterfeiting system. This paper continues our work on the anti-counterfeiting system applying phosphor physical uncloneable function (PUF). An offline anti-counterfeiting system is proposed in this paper prevailing over the previously proposed online system as it does not require any online database. Furthermore, a prototype software running on the commodity mobile phone of consumers for verification is designed.

I. Introduction

Anti-counterfeiting is a global problem. A counterfeit product is imitation of its original product with the intent to cheat consumers. Untrained consumers normally cannot distinguish the original product from its counterfeit. A wide range of products have counterfeits in the market, including clothing and textiles, cosmetics and toiletries, electrical equipments, foodstuffs and beverages, lighting instruments, leather goods, luggage, medical equipment, tobacco, watches, pharmaceuticals etc.