Abstract
Traceability is considered a promising solution for product safety. However, the data in the traceability system is only a claim rather than a fact. Therefore, the quality and safety of the product cannot be guaranteed since we cannot ensure the authenticity of products (aka counterfeit detection) in the real world. In this paper, we focus on counterfeit detection for the traceability system. The risk of counterfeiting throughout a typical product life cycle in the supply chain is analyzed, and the corresponding requirements for the tags, packages, and traceability system are given to eliminate these risks. Based on the analysis, an anti-counterfeiting architecture for traceability system based on two-level quick response codes (2LQR codes) is proposed, where the problem of counterfeit detection for a product is transformed into the problem of copy detection for the 2LQR code tag. According to the characteristics of the traceability system, the generation progress of the 2LQR code is modified, and there is a corresponding improved algorithm to estimate the actual location of patterns in the scanned image of the modified 2LQR code tag to improve the performance of copy detection. A prototype system based on the proposed architecture is implemented, where the consumers can perform traceability information queries by scanning the 2LQR code on the product package with any QR code reader. They can also scan the 2LQR code with a home-scanner or office-scanner, and send the scanned image to the system to perform counterfeit detection. Compared with other anti-counterfeiting solutions, the proposed architecture has advantages of low cost, generality, and good performance. Therefore, it is a promising solution to replace the existing anti-counterfeiting system.
Highlights
Accepted: 26 January 2021Over the past decade, consumers around the world have become increasingly concerned about product safety [1]
Based on the analysis above, an anti-counterfeiting architecture for traceability systems based on 2LQR codes is proposed, where the problem of counterfeit detection for the product is transformed into the problem of copy detection for the
A comparison of the proposed architecture and other solutions, such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) based solutions, is made, which shows that counterfeit detection using 2LQR code has the advantages of low cost, high reliability, and high usability
Summary
Consumers around the world have become increasingly concerned about product safety [1]. Traceability is considered a promising solution for product safety, as well as to achieve consumer confidence [2]. TRU), throughout its entire life cycle, by means of recorded identifications [3,4]. The first component (identification of TRUs) is the most important component that the other two components build on, whereas the other two components are in principle independent [4]. Identification of TRUs includes identifier code type and structure, identifier granularity and uniqueness, and association of identifier to TRU [4]
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