A breath reveals a hidden image in anti-counterfeit drug labels | Hacker News Reader

A breath reveals a hidden image in anti-counterfeit drug labels

ns.umich.edu

12 pointsalternize14 comments

The method requires access to sophisticated equipment that can create very tiny features, roughly 500 times smaller than the width of a human hair

Semiconductor fabs are doing this already, in the form of MEMS devices. The setup cost is not cheap, but not all that expensive either for determined counterfeiters.

This reminds me of holograms and microprinting - they were (and still are) considered great anti-counterfeiting measures, but now you can buy sheets of them printed with whatever you want for next to nothing. If this technology becomes popular, it might not be long before these "hidden images" end up everywhere.

If there was an easy way to test the drug itself for the right quantity and composition, I think that would be a much better solution, although somewhat more difficult in practice... for some reason this reminds me of http://xkcd.com/810/

Researchers always think of ambitious applications for their work. Somehow the presentation didn't show how it's easier for the legitimate manufacturer to do than for the counterfeiter. If it's nothing more than an expensive process they might not be able to afford, then why not short circuit it and attach money directly to the drugs to prove they're real?

> If it's nothing more than an expensive process they might not be able to afford, then why not short circuit it and attach money directly to the drugs to prove they're real?

The idea is indeed odd but this solution doesn't work. The point of expensive/complex anti-counterfeit measures isn't that they're expensive per-item, it's that they have a high fixed cost so they make setting up a counterfeit operation very expensive. They should be cheap or free in per-item variable cost, so that someone doing the real thing can amortize the large fixed cost over their large volume.

Slightly off-topic, but I hope the credit card they showed in the video was cancelled, because you can see the last 12 digits as well as the expiry. And using the logos and text displayed on the back it would be trivial to work out the first four digits.

I just received a patent which protects each tablet from being counterfeited, the actual tablet, not the label or packaging Holograms and expensive printing are nonsense, drug orgs have millions to spend on printers

It looks like cool technology but I missed how it combats counterfeiting of drugs. Was there something in there about how it's tied to the structure of the drug you're taking?

Counterfeiters presumably won't have access to the specialized equipment required to print the label.

How about a boxcutter and access to discarded empty bottles that used to contain the real medicine?

It doesnt make sense to me either. How would any one know this label should be there? Unless it was required to be on all drugs maybe.. But then thered still be other issues

That obviously rate limits the amount of counterfeiting they can do.

Yes, from 10% (current state) to 50% (the "limited" state).

Just like counterfeiters today don't have access to credit card hologram stickers oh wait.

Try getting moisture with your breadth on anything when its warmer than 24 C degrees..

No problem, I just did it at 25 °C with little effort.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com