Digital Fingerprinting Provides Digital Twin for Every Manufactured Part

Alitheon’s FeaturePrint ID is a universal identity asset for virtually any product. Through mature machine vision and statistical methods, even the most resistant objects can now be securely identified again and again. Every industry has struggled to identify and trace its goods, a deeply consequential issue in a world of autonomous and connected products. Now with FeaturePrintID every object, whether manufactured of metal, plastic, fibers, or even wood, can simply identify itself? Alitheon’s FeaturePrint technology transforms how objects, components and finished products are authenticated, tracked and traced across supply chains and distribution systems throughout the world. Once registered by Alitheon’s optical artificial intelligence system, any individual item can be subsequently identified wherever it exists to verify authenticity, determine place and time of origin, detect signs of tampering, measure wear and identify grey market and counterfeit products including unauthorized ‘over runs’ and previously rejected products.

*Alitheon Co-founder and Chief Scientist Dave Ross scanning Printed Circuit Boards*

With FeaturePrint ID manufacturers can virtually prove a physical object’s true digital identity. FeaturePrint ID represents product surfaces as math formulas, ready for on-demand verification via industrial cameras or simple handheld apps. FeaturePrint algorithms encode any item’s unique image traits into a compact dataset typically 10% of the size of the original image. This data transfers easily across site networks and applications. As a pure math model, the FeaturePrint ID contains no product class, image, or user information. This structure ensures every object is both precisely known and automatically protected from tampering. In milliseconds, contactless algorithms discover the unique details of individual objects, distinguishing one item from millions. Alitheon’s FeaturePrint software works with standard cameras to see and remember products with certainty. FeaturePrint ID’s are digital assets that link a business application to individual products.

Alitheon’s core registration and authentication functions are built to accommodate industrial physical and environmental challenges.

Instant Digital Twin For Every Single Manufactured Part

Key application and research topics include: – Verifying obscured, worn, or contaminated products – Maintaining insensitivity to product orientations or rotation – Processing batches of parts and parts in motion – Versioning to support item-level audit histories – Validating multiple components in assembly relationships In January 2020 Alitheon announced the close of $14.9 million in venture capital financing to expand its FeaturePrint technology across the defense, aerospace, aviation services, automotive, semiconductor, luxury goods, additive manufacturing, pharmaceutical and government sectors. Participants in the round included BMW i Ventures, IPD Capital and Shasta Ventures alongside current and former senior management from Accenture, Boeing and Fidelity. “Relying on no-touch digital traceability, our software identifies nearly any item with machine vision whereby the true, precise identity of each item is unlocked without any physical contact or alterations,” stated David Mills, Director of Product Management. “We’re really a complementary tech to metrology processes, adding precision item identity and traceability to detailed metrology information already being gathered and used for that same item.” Alitheon has 41 issued patents with many more pending, and its founders have three decades of experience developing expert and AI systems for identifying product tampering, counterfeiting and security threats. Alitheon’s founders helped create the first machine vision-based explosives detection systems and have also developed fraud detection systems, satellite image analysis software and other mission-critical automated systems for governments, corporations and non-profits worldwide. “Alitheon’s ability to identify an item using only the object itself, independent of markings, tags or other modifications, is groundbreaking,” said Marcus Behrendt, Partner, BMW i Ventures. “FeaturePrint technology has the potential to bring a new level of trust to supply chains that does not currently exist.”

For more information: www.alitheon.com