Reflective Particle Tag for Arms Control and Safeguards Authentication

Year
2009
Author(s)
Keith Tolk - Sandia National Laboratories
Jack C. Bartberger - Sandia National Laboratories
Karl Horak - Sandia National Laboratories
A. Trujillo - Sandia National Laboratories
Antonio Gonzales - Advanced Information Systems Organization 5534
Abstract
The Reflective Particle Tag (RPT) is a next generation of tag technology developed with the goal of providing both a unique identifier and visual evidence of tampering. They are resin tags infused with reflective crystals that are placed over sensitive seals. Our goal is to develop a verification routine based on image processing that verifies the original set of images (gallery), of an RPT, against a set taken at a later time (probe). Each set contains images taken by illuminating the RPT from a number of orientations, creating different views due to crystal reflections. In this paper, we describe an algorithm for RPT verification using state-of-the-art computer vision techniques and discuss future work to help identify low-evidence tampering.