Anti-counterfeiting protection through surface analysis

At the end of April 2026, Rocky went traveling. Rocky is a teenage T-Rex and normally lives in the Altmühltal Dinosaur Museum in the Upper Bavarian district of Eichstätt. However, the ten-meter-long dino is currently staying in the Chinese capital Beijing on loan. A large part of his skeletal parts are original finds from the U.S. state of South Dakota and date back 60 million years. Bones that were missing were artificially produced in order to be able to present Rocky in his full size.

To ensure that at the end of the loan the same parts arrive back in the Altmühltal that were sent, the museum chose an unusual method: 100 original bones were photographed and identity-secured with the help of a special process. For this, the museum specialists worked together with Bosch Secure Authentication, which under the brand Origify offers a technology that is intended to guarantee almost 100% traceability and protection against counterfeiting.

Protection against counterfeiting and traceability - obligation and freestyle

What works with the dinosaur bones is intended to revolutionize product authentication in industry with its series production and make alternatives such as QR codes and matrix codes superfluous. That is nothing less than what Oliver Steinbis, Technical Managing Director and co-developer of Origify, has set out to do, because “Origify requires no labels, tags or markings of any kind,” Steinbis outlines, “Authentication takes place without impairing the aesthetics or adding visible elements.” Why is that so important?

Counterfeits are responsible for an enormously high economic loss: the OECD estimates that around 2.5 % counterfeits are in circulation in global trade, which means an annual loss of around EUR 60 bn in the EU alone. In addition, an estimated loss of around 670,000 jobs. Offering a standardized and cost-effective solution here is therefore obvious.

Traceability appears somewhat more subtle. “They actually do not generate any direct return on investment,” Oliver Steinbis knows. “It is, so to speak, a service that only indirectly contributes to goals such as better quality - as a rule, you cannot enforce a price increase after introducing such a system.” Nevertheless, it is important. For example, the automotive industry has strict requirements regarding the probability of failure of components; it is a few per million.

“In the event of an error, the manufacturer must quickly identify which vehicles are equipped with which batch of the component,” Steinbis explains. “Safety-relevant components must even be traceable - but as inexpensively as possible.” For labels, the costs for material (paper, adhesive) always come into play. Origify can save such costs with its method. But how exactly does it work?

Every surface is different

First, a camera takes a black-and-white photo of the product surface. This can be done by a smartphone or an industrial camera; a minimum resolution of

at least 12 megapixels. “Then 10,000 features are read from a section measuring five square millimeters,” Steinbis reveals. For comparison: people can be identified by fingerprint using only 12 features. “Our features include, for example, differences in brightness or height, but also the production date and location,” explains the Origify CEO. These features are then converted into a hash code only 10 kilobytes in size, which finds its home in the Origify cloud database and serves as a reference for later comparisons.

If there is suspicion of a counterfeit or a component has to be traced due to a defect, it is simple: via the Origify Detect app, it is possible to determine with the help of a photo or a video of the object in question whether it is the registered original.

“This comparison is very complex, but basically it works by how similar the two photographed parts are,” Oliver Steinbis illustrates, “and how far the distance is to the next most similar product and to the overall set.” If there is a match, the product is authentic; no match means that it is a counterfeit.. “Logos, holograms, engravings or other visible features can be copied - but a unique surface cannot,” Steinbis is certain.

Of course, all products are subject to natural wear and tear, and this applies especially to components from industry. According to the ISO standard, for authentication technologies such as QR codes, wear of about 30 % is acceptable before an object can no longer be authenticated.

The Origify technology allows for so-called "Wear & tear" of 40 %, which is enough to detect counterfeits 100 %. "Of course, it also depends on which part of the product is used for authentication," emphasizes Oliver Steinbis. "We therefore deal with the respective products in advance, so that the most suitable possible environment is used for the generation of the features." For sunglasses, for example, the hinge is almost wear-free; for watches, an area three millimeters below the twelve has proven to be ideal.

Surface images of (almost) all products

Origify has its origins in the automotive industry. The pilot project was launched in 2018 with the authentication of exhaust sensors. "The problem with the inexpensive tiny part was that there was no space on it for conventional methods such as glued-on labels," Steinbis recalls. "Since with Origify, however, only part of the surface is mapped, the size of the product plays no role." Most materials are also suitable for authentication via the surface structure: "Metals, plastics and natural materials such as leather or wood are perfect for this," according to the statement.

In series production, this authentication process takes place at the end of the production chain. For Steinbis, only physics is currently still the final boss: "Glass and highly reflective surfaces offer little structure; for this reason, the probability of delivering incorrect results is higher here." For expensive wine bottles, the workaround is therefore to use the cork for authentication; for luxury watches, photographs can be taken through the glass. "We only have a very hard time with textiles, because the wear is very high."

However, Origify technology is not only suitable for serial industrial and luxurious manufactured items. "Especially in high-security technology, it can provide very much more security," says CEO Steinbis.

This applies, for example, to tax stamps, passports, banknotes, or important documents. Not only the special security papers and inks could be saved in the process. Much more important is that in this way human errors, for example during passport control, could be avoided - after all, traceability via Origify takes only a few seconds.

The crucial question: with or without AI?

Even if the thought suggests itself, Origify does not use artificial intelligence for its technology. "Not because it is too bad for that - it simply starts elsewhere," explains Oliver Steinbis. "AI has to be trained with data on what the OEM's products look like. But in doing so it never gets down to the individual part."

That means: In the case of a counterfeit product, the AI could indeed say, "You are not good enough, therefore you are a counterfeit." But counterfeiters would only have to replicate the product well enough so that the AI can ultimately still be deceived. "And by now counterfeiters have become good enough for that," Steinbis is certain. In addition, while in the case of an expensive luxury watch a false-positive assessment would still be bearable, that is no longer the case with a cancer medication.

And why was Origify the method of choice for the Altmühltal Museum? The Rocky skeleton naturally had to be insured for the period of the loan - its value is 30 million EUR. To guarantee that later the same parts arrive back home that were shipped, this must also be verifiable. In this way Rocky can now move back into his homeland again - demonstrably with all original parts.