A Never Before Seen Optical Trick Creates Ultra-Secure Cash

Pretty neat, IMHO. This new technology is the fruit of research in the growing world of biomimicry -- the creations of human technologies that mirror strategies used in the natural world. In this case, tiny holes are punched in currency to make it reflect light in a certain way. Patterns made from the nano-sized holes can be big enough for humans to see or inconceivable tiny. The holes can also be made to reflect infrared or ultraviolet light that cannot be seen with the naked eye but can be scanned by machines. This makes it possible to watermark bills and other items in ways that counterfeiters can't even detect.

This will foil counterfitters and make paper money more secure: something I personally would like to see as I am pro-cash and against the drift towards electronic money. As with all technologies, abuses are possible, but for now it seems a promising new salvo in the eternal war against forgery -- as well as just being a cool new technology.

Imagine a bill covered with microscopic holes that make it glow slightly in the light. It's tech borrowed from a butterfly, and it may soon be foiling counterfeiters around the world.

If all goes as planned, the world's supply of cash will soon be secured with a nano-scale optical defense that is as secure as it is visually impressive. Using arrays of holes no bigger than a virus, scientists at Toronto-based Nanotech Security have created an atoms-thick display that can be read by humans or machines and that shines with the brightness of a typical LED despite using nothing but reflected light.

The technology was inspired by the Blue Morpho butterfly, whose brilliant blue coloration comes not from pigment but the way that tiny holes in its scales reflect light. But the tech, called Nano-Optic Technology for Enhanced Security (NOtES), is different from the Morpho butterfly's wings, and pretty much all other bio-inspired reflective optical technologies, in that it is both extraordinarily thin and functions even in dim light.

More at source:
www.fastcompany.com...

reply to post by silent thunder

This makes it possible to watermark bills and other items in ways that counterfeiters can't even detect.

If the counterfeiters can't detect them, how do normal people? I mean if you hand it to the cashier and they can tell, what keeps a counterfeiter from being able to?

That's pretty cool. I wonder how long it took them to come up with that idea?

As for secure, yes for a bit.

You know what they say, if there's a will, there will be a way.

Sounds like a costly upgrade will be needed for stores to scan these currencies that will be an excuse to raise prices on goods and services.

Kind of reminds me of how companies like Tyson constantly demand of new technologies the animal raisers must use to stay within the terms of their contract.