Slashdot Mirror
Xerox Exploits Printer Flaws To Make Pseudo-Holograms
Red Wolf writes "A chance discovery by Xerox lets printers superimpose glossy images on regular printouts, creating the possibility for document authentication along the lines of holograms on credit cards. The new technology, called Glossmark, can use ordinary office printers to superimpose a glossy image on an ordinary printed document in a way that can't be photocopied or otherwise easily reproduced."
I don't want to sound like a killjoy, but what do you think will be the odds that Xerox lets the average person get their hands on this technology? More likely that they'll take out about half a dozen patents on every known way of implementing it and then enforce ridiculously high licensing fees on any product or organisation which tries to use it.
Bash script for FP whores
Companies are going to adopt this technology because they can create an "uncopyable" product (probably tickets, coupons, and other vouchers), and they already have the technology in their office.
In the mean time, some counterfeiter who has the same technology in their office or home will simply copy the main image and recreate the superimposed image in a graphics program. Then he will be able to print "authentic" tickets or whatever whenever he wants.
The number one blockade in stopping conterfeiters is the machine that produces the items they want to counterfeit, not the complexity of the artwork or image. Sure, the complex image and holograph help, but that is mainly because consumer level and most business level products can't produce images that complex. Give me a few months and I could make a damn good couterfeit $20 bill if I only had the paper and the press that makes them. It wouldn't be perfect, but the average cashier wouldn't notice.
If I drive fast enough at the red light, it'll appear green.
I'd like to see some details about how they do this. Our office just got a Xerox color laser printer and would probably use this for some non-security stuff.
When they say "current printers," it sounds like ours would just need a driver upgrade or something. I don't know how that's possible, but I don't know much about hardware and drivers. I'm also curious whether they'll charge for this new "feature" or just include it as an upgrade. Or whether it will only be available on newer high end printers despite working on current technology.
Now this might be a stupid question but using this would it be possible to have say two pages imposed on one so you could "read" a book by twisting the page...
Just a thought
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
If you don't have sufficient access to the source that produces the hard copy (for instance, a locked PDF), how are you going to get a hard copy without the Glossmark on it? 'Cause, if all you've got is the hard copy with the hologram thing which can't be effectively scanned or copied, you're a bit stuck. (Unless you wanted to re-create the document, or re-create the Glossmark and hope people will think anything with it on it is authentic.)
mrg
Could I just point out that "laserjet" and "color laserjet" are trade marks of Hewlett Packard, not Xerox, and that the wax printer process from Tektronix is completely different? The "jet" bit is used generically across HPs imaging products.
(No, I don't work for HP, but I do work for a document output consultancy)
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Now, for those countries that use holograms on their currency as a form of validity, this could open the door to forgers more so than now.
Linux: The world's best text-adventure game.
While I don't think Xerox printers can handle such small pieces of papter without choking, based on PBS and Discovery channel educational shows on the subject, you can obtain the paper from already printed bills or from foreign currency. Counterfeiters used to chemically remove the ink from small denomination bills and reprint them.
It's why the US Gov added that metal strip into the 20+ bills with the denomination written into them.
Dalton paper is used around the world for government documents, so the stuff is probably easier to find than you might think. The big deal is that being in posession of blank Dalton paper is a treasonous act in many countries.
Considering that the USA is at war right now, does this make counterfeiting a potentially capitol offense?
But only because some morons didn't get that the SI-prefixes were Base 2 when it came to storage capacity and Base 10 when it came to bandwidth. I mean, of course we have subtle little secrets and speak in code words, we're computer geeks goddammit.
The kibi-, gibi-, and tebi- are the new abominations (imo) used to describe the old-school Base 2, thus a kibibyte is 1024 bytes (whereas a kilobyte was 1024 bytes in the "good old days"), and now a kilobyte it 1000 bytes.
cat
Yes and they aren't droppign anything surprisingly. NOONE tops Xerox in production printing. NOONE! We have a whole campus full of Xerox tech and they have some of the best products around. I wish that they would release VIPP for other manufacturer use as well. Just finished a course on it. VIPP is basically a modified postscript, but it's much more powerful. Feed the printer a tableful of data (comma delimited) with a proper dbm file on the printer (or a jdt for line mode) and you can create letters and even graphs. Plus Xerox makes a FULL COLOR printer that prints 60 ppm! Sure, it's huge, but anything that prints that fast is. Plus the Phasers they make now can understand not just postscript but VIPP as well. There is a chance that Xerox could possibly release VIPP at some point as it's very good and based on postscript in the first place. VIPP is their most open product they have. I doubt they will release it, but printing would change if they did! They aren't so much copier heads any more. Production printing is where it's at and they can make lots of money there.
Gorkman