娇色导航

Keith Shaw: Hi everybody, welcome to DEMO, the show where companies come in and show us their latest products and platforms. Today, I’m joined by Roei Ganzarski. He is the CEO of Alitheon. Welcome to the show, Roei. Roei Ganzarski: Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.

Keith: Tell us a little bit about the company and what you’re going to show us today. ?

Roei: Alitheon is a no-touch serialization technology company based in Seattle, Washington. Basically, what we do is fingerprint things.

If you think of fingerprinting people, it’s because you don’t want to rely on a badge, driver’s license, or passport — those can all be faked, lost, or given to someone else. The same goes for products.

We’ve come to believe in barcode stickers and hologram labels, and then assume the product is real, legal, and correct. What we’ve developed is a way to take pictures of items and serialize them — allowing you to trace them, detect counterfeits, and catch gray-market goods.

Ultimately, it tells people whether a product is the right product. Keith: Yeah.

Anti-counterfeiting is a huge industry, but counterfeiting is probably even bigger. How big of a problem is this?

Roei: The last published number by the International Chamber of Commerce put it at over $3 trillion a year — which is crazy. And we’re not just talking about Louis Vuitton bags or Rolex watches that you buy on Canal Street in New York.

That’s the first thing people think of with counterfeits. But we’re talking about brake pads on cars, jet engine parts in aircraft, computer boards in weapon systems, pharmaceuticals — you name it. We’re talking about bad people doing bad things.

Keith: And a lot of this was traditionally managed using barcodes, RFID, and similar technologies. What’s the problem with those?

Roei: Just like a driver’s license or passport, those can be lost. A barcode or QR code — or even a serial number — can be damaged, removed, or swapped to another product. So the barcode sticker might be authentic, but the product it’s on isn’t.

And worst of all, the Chinese and others have figured out how to copy even supposedly “uncopyable” barcodes and QR codes.

Keith: And that’s where your product, FeaturePrint, comes in? Roei: Yes, FeaturePrint. And while there’s an app version, that’s just one way to access it. Our manufacturing customers typically use an industrial camera on a production line. But the same technology is accessible via AWS. ?

Roei: So what I have here are micro-USB chips — small, cheap, and identical, which makes them perfect demo items. I’ve pre-registered four of them and labeled them 1 to 4. This one is number 2. These other ones haven’t been registered yet. I’ll show you how I register one.

Pick any one of these five. Keith: All right, got it. Roei: I’ll feature print it using my phone, label it number 5, and mark it “For testing only, do not install” — to avoid human error during use. Now, we’ve got items 1 through 5 registered.

Regardless of where I am in the value chain — manufacturing, receiving, distribution, installation, or returns — the key questions are always the same: Is this what I think it is? Is it real, legal, and correct? What’s the provenance?

If I can answer those questions, I don’t need barcodes or QR codes. All I need is my phone.

Keith: But these items are identical, right? Roei: They appear to be identical — but they’re not. After the Industrial Revolution, we learned that machines can't do the same thing exactly every time. After the first chip is made, the blade dulls slightly, the air pressure or temperature shifts.

These tiny variances affect the outcome. Engineers account for that with tolerances, like a board being 1 mm thick ±0.002 mm. While they look and function the same to us, our algorithm sees the micro-variations.

They're random and chaotic, so the probability of two items having the same "manufacturing fingerprint" is 1 in 4.5 trillion. And the best part? We can use standard cameras — even just a phone. No spectral imaging, no need to know what the product is. We just take a photo.

?

Keith: Okay, let’s test it. ? Roei: Sure. We’ve registered numbers 1 through 5. Mix them up, pick one at random, and hand it to me. Now I’ll switch to “identify” mode on my phone, take a picture...

It tells me it’s number 5 — the one marked “For testing only.” Yep, confirmed. You also get provenance: when it was feature printed, by whom, time, and even the physical location — drilling down to the building. That’s how you know no one’s tampered with it.

Now give me another one.

Keith: Okay, feels like a card trick. Roei: (Laughs) If this doesn’t work, I’ll head to Vegas. Taking a picture... it says number 1. Let’s check — yep, number 1. Now imagine I’m at a car manufacturer and this part shows up where it doesn’t belong. Red flag.

It’s real, but being used incorrectly. So you can catch human error, gray market items, or even false claims like “brand new” when it’s actually refurbished. Now I can also add data in real time.

I’ll say this was “Installed on aircraft #2” and even add a photo of the installation. That stays with the item’s digital fingerprint forever.

Now give me one of the unregistered ones. Let’s say I’m a bad actor trying to sneak something in. Keith: This is like the worst-case scenario? Roei: Exactly. Or it’s an insider at the factory doing a midnight run — using real materials but off the books.

These aren’t fake — they’re real, just not registered. I’ll take a picture. The system says “Not identified.” But if I decide this is legit, I can register it now as item number 6. If I check it again, it now identifies as number 6.

But if I try another unregistered board, the system says, “Sorry, not one of ours.” No counterfeit gets through.

Keith: What about wear and tear or damage? Roei: Great question. Give me another one. Don’t tell me the number. Taking a picture... it says number 2 — registered earlier for a DOD server farm. I even get my hotel location because that’s where I first registered it.

Now I’ll log “damage testing” and then take a Sharpie and mark it up. I’ll also scratch it with a pen. Let’s check it again. Still identifies as number 2. You can even compare the original and current image side-by-side in the app.

If this had been a QR code or serial number and I’d done this, it would be unreadable. That’s the power of digital fingerprinting.

Keith: Can this be used on anything? Roei: Almost anything. There are four exceptions: gas, powder, liquid — because we can’t take consistent images of those — and diamonds or gemstones. Why? Because they refract light so well that the images change every time.

We tried it with $50,000 diamonds — fun, but not viable on a smartphone. Otherwise, we support paper, plastic, 3D-printed parts, metals — even gold bullion for national banks.

Keith: Sneakers, collectible cards, art...? Roei: Yes. Sneakers, cards, art, luxury goods, pharmaceuticals, brake pads, aerospace, Department of Defense, precious metals. Everyone thinks of fakes as just handbags or watches. But when people counterfeit medicine or parts for planes or cars, lives are at risk.

And yet, people still do it. Keith: Amazing demo.

Where can people learn more?

Roei: Visit alitheon.com. We have 57 issued patents and everything is developed in-house in Seattle. If someone says they can do what we do and it’s not us — that's probably a red flag in itself.

Keith: This is great stuff. Roei, thanks again for being on the show and for the demo. That’s going to do it for this week’s episode of DEMO. Be sure to like the video, subscribe to the channel, and leave your thoughts in the comments.

Join us every week for new episodes. I’m Keith Shaw — thanks for watching.