AlpVision debuts iPhone4 app for moulded part authentication

AlpVision has launched a new iPhone app to complement its Fingerprint technology for authenticating moulded components, including containers for liquids, powders and tablets.

Fingerprint relies on scanning a specific area of a product and comparing the digital image produced with images of the original product taken at the time of manufacture and stored on a secure server. Critically, it does not require the addition of any coding or marking motif, but relies purely on the intrinsic properties of the item.

The technology has already been applied for verification of cardboard packaging, individual tablets, and moulded containers, including plastic bottles and vials and potentially other healthcare components such as inhalers or medical devices, according to Fred Jordan, AlpVision's chief executive.

The new Genuine or Fake app, which allows verification to be carried out using a regular Apple iPhone4, extends AlpVision's original system which relied on the use of document scanners. A number of pharma customers already make use of the Fingerprint system for moulded parts using conventional scanners, Jordan told SecuringPharma.

After selection of a product type, for example a 300 ml container, and a mould cavity number which is visible on the item, an overlaid shape appears on the iPhone4 screen, according to AlpVision (see picture).

The user has only to position the iPhone4 to match the overlaid shape with the item to be verified, continues the company. If the item is genuine, a beep sounds and a message appears on screen.

"A Genuine-or-Fake verification takes usually about three seconds, most of which is taken up by the time it takes to pick up the item and position the iPhone over it," said AlpVision in a statement.

Beyond healthcare, the new technology has broad applications in fast-moving consumer good containers, toys, footwear, home appliances, circuit breakers and "many other products in industrial and consumer markets," added the company.