Indentification and/or authentication of objects using their surface properties

摘要

The method involves scanning a region (7) of a surface (1) of an article using a line-shaped beam profile (6) of a radiation source e.g. LED. A scanning signal representing a part of the surface structure within the region is received. A signature is generated from the received scanning signal. The signature is linked with the article. The signature is stored in a preset form in an electronic storage medium i.e. semiconductor memory, optical storage medium i.e. compact disk, a magnetic storage medium i.e. hard disk, or radio frequency identification chip, for subsequent comparison purposes. Independent claims are also included for the following: (1) a method for identifying and/or authenticating articles (2) a sensor for scanning a surface of articles.