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From SCDigest's OnTarget e-Magazine
- Jan. 22, 2014 -
RFID and Auto ID News: Cool New Technology Called Digimarc Creates New Category of Automatic Identification
Technique Can Embed Code in Any Image or Photo; Supply Chain Applications? Not Clear
SCDigest Editorial Staff
At the NRF "Big Show" 2014 in New York last week, there was some potentially big news in the auto ID world, as a company called Digimarc unveiled technology of the same name that literally creates a new automatic identification category.
SCDigest Says:
Clearly Digimarcs could play a role in anti-counterfeiting and product authenticity. The images on the authentic product would contain the Digimarcs, while the fake ones would not.
What is a Digimarc? It is a type of code that a company can embed in any image or graphic, and encodes anything from a web URL (similar to the increasingly ubiquitous QR codes) or a string of data more like a traditional bar code does.
It does this by somehow manipulating the yellow portion of a four-color image in a way that can be read as data by a smart phone camera or a traditional imaging scanner (with the Digimarc app), even though it is unobservable by the human eye. About the only area that cannot be Digimarced is a pure white space. Even what appears to be a strip of black can be encoded with a Digimarc, if yellow ink is added when it is printed.
So what is the point? From the "QR code replacement" perspective, some marketers find QR codes, which consumers can scan to launch a URL that takes them to additional product information, sort of ugly, degrading a magazine ad or brochure's look.
A Digicode can eliminate the QR code in favor of a smaller graphic that notes the Digimarc is in an image, as a Ford auto brochure did in an example the company featured at the NRF show. Another example was the picture of a loaf of bread on a cooking magazine cover that contained a Digimarc that would take readers to the recipe - a QR code would have made the look much different.
Company spokesman Damon Knight also said companies using QR codes often have to go through third-party services, whereas they can use Digimarc's directly.
In another example of how a Digicode can be used, virtually the entire outside packaging of a consumer products item could contain a Digimarc without taking up any packaging space as a QR code would, as the company showed for a canister of coffee at the NRF show. The entire surface of the round can contained a Digimarc.
That could also allow a company to embed Digimarc's all over a package without taking up any additional space, meaning the code could be read at retail point-of-sale without the cashier needing to find where the UPC code is. In this case, the invisible Digimarc would encode the UPC number.
In fact, Digimarc set some sort of record at NRF for fastest UPC scans, with a Guinness Book of World Records auditor there to authenticate the accomplishment.
See our brief NRF video review of Digimarc technology below, which shows some of the example use cases noted above.
New Digimarc Technology Unveiled at NRF 2014
(RFID and AIDC Story Continued Below)
CATEGORY SPONSOR: SOFTEON
Are There Supply Chain Applications?
Digimarc is cool new technology for sure, but beyond potential POS scanning does it have any real supply chain applications?
SCDigest isn't yet sure, but it is certainly possible. If Digimarcs add value in high speed POS scanning, could they do the same in high speed sortation in a distribution center? It might certainly be of value on scanning individual items in piece pick applications.
Clearly Digimarcs could play a role in anti-counterfeiting and product authenticity. The images on the authentic product would contain the Digimarcs, while the fake ones would not.
Digimarcs are being used on the top of large bolts by one auto components manufacturer, the company says, eliminating the need for bar code labels.
Using Digimarc's for identifying a SKU seems feasible; whether they could ever be used for serialization marking seems a lot more questionable.
The company has a unique and what appears to be a generally low cost pricing model, in which Digimarcs are licensed (along with the know-how to create them) by the number of unique marcs used, regardless of the quantity of the marcs. Meaning the bolt maker referenced above, for example, would pay just a few bucks or a bit more for each SKU, even if it made a million of each of them.
The company says its roots are in putting Digimarcs on printed currency throughout much of Europe. It also says that unbeknownst to most of us, there is a good chance your US state driver's license contains a Digimarc, to identify real licenses from fake ones.
Do you have any ideas on how Digimarcs might be used? We'd love to hear them. But a new class of auto ID has been created.
Any reaction to this Digimarc technology? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.
Recent Feedback
Understanding better how it is used now may help understand more about the possible future. It is far more widespread in currency, media and security. This digimarc presentation last year should help!
