High-security technology developed at the UC is already being used to combat tobacco counterfeiting

New tax stamps for tobacco produced by the National Press "Casa da Moeda" (INCM) are already in circulation. The University of Coimbra (UC) is part of the high-security technology behind this new version of the seals, which are placed on cigarette packs to prevent smuggling and tax evasion.

In partnership with the National Press "Casa da Moeda" (INMC), a team of researchers from the Institute of Systems and Robotics (ISR) of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC), led by Nuno Gonçalves, has developed and patented a system of coding technology and information decoding, made up of different security elements with different levels of complexity, impossible to forge.

"UniQode" allows the authenticity of a brand to be read and validated in seconds using a mobile device (smartphone).

The team has developed an innovative mobile application (the first capable of reading holographic elements) for both Android and iOS, so that accredited government professionals can carry out inspections and verify the authenticity of information. Nuno Gonçalves says: "It is a robust system, designed to be read by ubiquitous systems (smartphones), with a high reading speed. Until now, the validation process has been slow and costly, carried out only in forensic contexts, in the laboratory, using specific equipment".

Consisting of a range of technologies, including glitter prints, holograms and graphic codes, this solution brings together the best and most advanced validation and security measures in the world: "We have developed very sophisticated security algorithms. In addition, the system incorporates security features from various invisible sources. For example, the glitter particle printing technology we have developed allows us to create a unique identifier per object that is impossible to clone," he says.

If we want to keep it simple, this machine-readable code can be considered as an evolution of the usual two-dimensional barcodes," adds Gonçalves.

In order to achieve the highest level of security, the FCTUC and INCM research teams had to overcome several challenges. The biggest, according to Professor Nuno Gonçalves, "was the challenge of reading and validating the holographic elements using a smartphone. Because it depends on so many conditions, hologram validation is extremely complex. It was very difficult to find an algorithm that could validate these elements quickly and effectively. Until now, there has been no mobile device that can authenticate a hologram".

UniQode", a trademark of INCM, has been successfully applied to tobacco tax stamps and DUA and can be extended to other markets. "It has a wide range of applications for brand protection, from pharmaceuticals, food, alcoholic beverages, footwear, luxury goods and sports brands to marketing and communications," says the project coordinator.

Gonçalves adds that the validation app "will be extended to ordinary citizens, allowing them not only to verify the authenticity of their documents or of a particular product they wish to buy, such as a piece of jewellery, but also to be an ally of the authorities in the fight against fraud and counterfeiting".

^{Translation by Diana Taborda}