Crystal Key - An Unforgeable Unclonable Personal Verfication System

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Crystal Key – An Unforgeable Unclonable Personal Verification SystemThe core of the AlphaFox Systems Ltd proposal is the development of a non-clonable (i.e. non-forgeable) and unique physical optical ‘personal identification tag’, called Crystal Key, that the consumer carries with them on their key-ring, purse, wallet, or similar personal item. The tag will be a strip of plastic about the size of supermarket key-ring loyalty cards and will comprise a special new material with a randomly-distributed array of ‘crystals’ in it with integrated light source. When verifying personal identity during making an m-commerce transaction, the mobile phone application would ask the consumer to press on the light button and hold the Crystal Key up to the phone camera which would automatically take a photograph of the Crystal Key and compare the image of the random crystal array/pattern with that stored on a payment verification database for that consumer. If there is not a match between the two images, then the transaction will be denied. Hence only legitimate transactions can take place.The Internet and, increasingly, (mobile phone) m-commerce are becoming the driving force behind commerce and retailing, allowing even the smallest and newest of companies to trade internationally. Similarly, an increasing number of consumers will carry out transactions on sites that they are not familiar with. This is providing additional opportunities to fraudsters looking to exploit loopholes in the security and authentication of transactions: e.g. is the payment site genuine?, is the payer who they say they are?, etc. It is now essential that transaction systems are able to verify the veracity of the purchaser in addition to the item being bought and the identity/legitimacy of the vendor.The most common way to uniquely code an individual item or tag is to assign it a printed number or QR barcode etc., that is trackable. Unfortunately, with the widespread use of low cost computing power and digital printing, this option is no longer adequate as numbers and barcodes can easily be copied or deduced. Modern RFID chips could provide the basis of the tag, but most mobile phones do not contain RFID readers. What is required is a system that exploits a mobile device's current range of sensor technologies. We propose to use randomly produced 'photographable' optical features ('tags') that are unique to each user and that cannot be copied. These tags need to be low cost and flexible and utilise verification equipment that is readily available and also low cost. Anyone attempting to copy the features will fail due to the vast number of mathematical variants that are possible (billions).Crystal Key meets all of these needs by providing a ‘tag’ that is unique to each individual consumer and which can be read using any smart phone camera. It will be inclusive in that those with a wide range of ‘IT savvy’ levels including technophobes should be able to use it. It will also work for people of limited dexterity and sightedness, and people from different cultures, since this simple ‘automatic photography’ step does not involve reading, typing, or speaking.