Some 8 years ago, fake ( forged ) currency notes of
high denominations , was a problem
That made me suggest following solution :
Ø Fak - e – Mon ……………………………. 17 July 2016
Extract :
# A secret
/ hidden / unique Serial Number , to be embedded / printed, in the
images of
all Rs 500 / 1000 currency notes, using Steganography ( art of "
hiding in plain sight " )
This could be IP V 6.0 URL number
# Govt to
develop a mobile app , to be aptly called , " Fak-e-Mon " and insist
its
pre-install on all smart phones
#
Fak-e-Mon can also be downloaded from Android / Apple Stores
#
Fak-e-Mon can be activated by the phone-owner , only after entering his ,
* Jan Dhan account number / Aadhar Number /
Mobile Number
# Whenever
presented with a Rs 500 / 1000 note for payment , a citizen simply
takes a
photo of that note With his mobile .
He has to do nothing more !
# Fak-e-Mon
transmits that photo to the Central Server of the Treasury which has
the MASTER
DATABASE of those unique Serial Numbers of Rs 500 / 1000
currency notes
Software compares
the Serial Number sent ( as photo ) with the Database
and determines whether that note is Genuine or Fake
# This
information is instantaneously relayed back to the sender and appears as
a
GREEN dot ( for genuine note ) or RED dot ( for fake note ) , on his mobile
, so that he can refuse to honour it !
Fak-e-Mon also transmits the GPS location of
the place of transaction , to figure
out " where " are these fake notes entering the circulation
# Central
Server records / logs , full details of ALL the good and ALL the fake
notes
processed through each Fak-e- Mon / mobile phone , to develop
CURRENCY VELOCITY and
CURRENCY
MAP of India
Still not good
enough ? No problem
Just print those
unique / hidden Serial Numbers on currency notes with INK
containing RFID micro-sensors
( Yes , these
are nano-scale , so
no problem to flow with ink ! )
Then tell
millions of unemployed young Indians :
" Go
out on the streets of your city with your GPS / NFC enabled and Fak-e-Mon
installed smart phones
As
you keep walking , now and then , on your mobile's screen , you will see
images
of FAKE currency notes popping up , out of the pockets of total
strangers !
Just touch those
images and earn Rs 10 !
( of
course, instantly deposited in your Jan Dhan Bank Account ! Only DBT - no
cash
! " )
Pokemon is so
passe ! Fak-e-mon is THE FUTURE !
Is anyone
listening ?
My Take :
Hey , 8 years on , MIT listened . Here is proof :
Extract :
A few years ago, MIT researchers
invented a cryptographic ID tag that is several times smaller and significantly cheaper than the
traditional radio frequency tags (RFIDs)
that are often affixed to products to verify their authenticity.
This tiny tag, which offers improved
security over RFIDs, utilizes terahertz waves, which are smaller and travel
much faster than radio waves. But this terahertz tag shared a major security
vulnerability with traditional RFIDs: A counterfeiter could peel the tag off a
genuine item and reattach it to a fake, and the authentication system would be
none the wiser.
The researchers have now surmounted
this security vulnerability by leveraging terahertz waves to develop an anti-tampering ID tag that
still offers the benefits of being tiny, cheap, and secure.
They mix microscopic metal particles
into the glue that sticks the tag to an object, and then use terahertz waves to detect the unique
pattern those particles form on the item’s surface. Akin to a fingerprint,
this random glue pattern is used to authenticate the item, explains Eunseok
Lee, an electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) graduate student and
lead author of a paper on the anti-tampering tag.
“These metal particles are
essentially like mirrors for terahertz waves. If I spread a bunch of mirror
pieces onto a surface and then shine light on that, depending on the
orientation, size, and location of those mirrors, I would get a different
reflected pattern. But if you peel the chip off and reattach
it, you destroy that pattern,” adds Ruonan
Han, an associate professor in EECS, who leads the Terahertz Integrated
Electronics Group in the Research Laboratory of Electronics.
The researchers produced a light-powered anti-tampering
tag that is about 4 square millimeters in size. They also demonstrated a machine-learning model
that helps detect tampering by identifying similar glue pattern fingerprints
with more than 99 percent accuracy.
Because the terahertz tag is so cheap to produce,
it could be implemented throughout a massive
supply chain. And its tiny size enables the
tag to attach to items too small for traditional RFIDs, such as certain medical devices.
The paper, which will be presented at
the IEEE Solid State Circuits Conference, is a collaboration between Han’s
group and the Energy-Efficient Circuits and Systems Group of Anantha P. Chandrakasan,
MIT’s chief innovation and strategy officer, dean of the MIT School of
Engineering, and the Vannevar Bush Professor of EECS. Co-authors include EECS
graduate students Xibi Chen, Maitryi Ashok, and Jaeyeon Won.
Preventing tampering
This research project was partly
inspired by Han’s favorite car wash. The business stuck an RFID tag onto his windshield
to authenticate his car wash membership. For added security, the tag was made
from fragile paper so it would be destroyed if a less-than-honest customer
tried to peel it off and stick it on a different windshield.
But that is not a terribly reliable
way to prevent tampering. For instance, someone could use a solution to
dissolve the glue and safely remove the fragile tag.
Rather than authenticating the tag, a better security solution is to authenticate the item itself, Han says. To achieve this, the researchers targeted the glue at the interface between the tag and the item’s surface.
Their anti-tampering tag contains a
series of miniscule slots that enable terahertz waves to pass through the tag
and strike microscopic metal particles that have been mixed into the glue.
Terahertz waves are small enough to
detect the particles, whereas larger radio waves would not have enough
sensitivity to see them. Also, using terahertz waves with a 1-millimeter
wavelength allowed the researchers to make a chip
that does not need a larger, off-chip antenna.
After passing through the tag and
striking the object’s surface, terahertz waves are reflected, or backscattered,
to a receiver for authentication. How those waves are backscattered depends on
the distribution of metal particles that reflect them.
The researchers put multiple slots
onto the chip so waves can strike different points on the object’s surface,
capturing more information on the random distribution of particles.
“These
responses are impossible to duplicate, as long as the glue interface is
destroyed by a counterfeiter,” Han says.
A vendor would take an initial reading of
the anti-tampering tag once it was stuck onto an item, and then store those
data in the cloud, using them later for verification.
AI for authentication
But when it came time to test the
anti-tampering tag, Lee ran into a problem: It was very difficult and
time-consuming to take precise enough measurements to determine whether two
glue patterns are a match.
He reached out to a friend in the MIT
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and together
they tackled the problem using AI. They
trained a machine-learning model that could compare glue patterns and calculate
their similarity with more than 99
percent accuracy.
“One drawback is that we had a
limited data sample for this demonstration, but we could improve the neural
network in the future if a large number of these tags were deployed in a supply
chain, giving us a lot more data samples,” Lee says.
The authentication system is also
limited by the fact that terahertz waves suffer from high levels of loss during
transmission, so the sensor can only be about 4 centimetres
from the tag to get an accurate reading.
This distance wouldn’t be an issue for an application like barcode scanning,
but it would be too short for some potential uses, such as in an automated highway toll booth.
Also, the angle between the sensor and tag needs to be less than 10 degrees or
the terahertz signal will degrade too much.
They plan to address these
limitations in future work, and hope to inspire other researchers to be more
optimistic about what can be accomplished with terahertz waves, despite the
many technical challenges, says Han.
“One thing we really want to show
here is that the application of the terahertz spectrum can go well beyond
broadband wireless. In this case, you
can use terahertz for ID, security, and authentication. There are a lot of possibilities out there,” he adds.
Dear PM Shri Narendrabhai ,
You have repeatedly advocated use of technology to
eliminate corruption / black
money
I urge you to invite Prof Anantha
Chandrakasan ( deanofengineering@mit.edu
) to
confirm :
# This tag can be embedded on Rs 500 currency notes
# Its accumulation of more than 10,000 notes, in any geo-fenced
area ( of
3mx3m / 57 trillion square of www.What3Words.com ) can be traced to alert
ED / IT dept for Black Money
with regards,
Hemen Parekh
www.HemenParekh.ai / 19
Feb 2024
Related Readings :
{ Links to my 39 emails on the subject of embedding RFID in currency notes
}
CC : Prof Anantha Chandrakasan ( deanofengineering@mit.edu )
Ø
===================================================
CC : Prof. Sanjay Emani Sarma ( MIT )
Dear Sanjay ,
This is a follow up of your following email :
From: Hemen Parekh [mailto:hcp@recruitguru.com]
Sent: 28 August 2017 17:46
To: 'SESARMA@MIT.EDU''
Cc: Hemen Parekh
Subject: CATCHING UP WITH YOU
Dear Snjay :
On 25 March 2016
, you wrote to me :
Dear Mr.
Parekh,
Yes, placing
tags on money has certainly been considered in the past.
I think it
is a matter of time before it happens.
I do agree
with your idea.
Having said
that, as more and more transactions become digital (credit cards,
bitcoin,
Adhaar card, etc.) the need for tracking cash goes down — ironically as
our
ability to track it increases.
-Sanjay
Sanjay
Sarma , 35-206 MIT. 617 253 1925 (T). 617 253 7549 (F).
Email
: 'SESARMA@MIT.EDU'
Comments by ChatGPT :
Good
morning! Your suggestion from 8 years ago regarding the use of technology to detect fake currency notes
is interesting and
innovative.
The
concept of embedding a secret serial number using steganography and creating a
mobile app like "Fak-e-Mon" for citizens to verify the authenticity
of currency notes is a creative
approach to addressing the issue of fake currency circulation.
It's a comprehensive solution
that involves citizen participation and real-time verification.
The
recent MIT research on a tiny, tamper-proof ID tag using terahertz waves to
authenticate objects is also fascinating.
The idea
of embedding such tags on currency
notes could indeed provide an additional layer of security and help in tracking
the movement of currency notes.
Your
follow-up email to Prof. Anantha Chandrakasan and the mention of using the
technology to trace black money by accumulating more than 10,000 notes in a
geo-fenced area show a proactive
approach to implementing the technology for addressing broader issues
like corruption and black money.
Overall,
your suggestion aligns with the
current advancements in technology,
and the MIT research further supports the feasibility of using such methods for
authentication and anti-tampering purposes.
It
would be interesting to see how such innovative ideas could be incorporated
into the existing systems to enhance security and reduce fraudulent activities.
Comments by GEMINI :
I've read
your blog post and the news article about the MIT research, and I think you raise some interesting points about using
technology to combat black money. Here's
my breakdown:
Your Proposed Solution:
1.
Embedding
unique serial numbers in currency notes: This could be done using steganography or RFID tags.
2.
3.
Developing
a mobile app ("Fak-e-Mon") to verify note authenticity: Users would take a photo of the note, and the
app would compare the serial number to a central database.
4.
5.
Rewarding
users for identifying fake notes: This would incentivize participation and potentially help track the
spread of counterfeit notes.
Strengths:
·
Increased
security: Unique
serial numbers and verification could make it harder to counterfeit notes.
·
Public
participation: Engaging
citizens in the process could raise awareness and deter counterfeiting.
·
Real-time
tracking: Fak-e-Mon
could potentially track the location of fake notes in circulation.
Weaknesses:
·
Cost: Implementing and maintaining such a system
could be expensive.
·
Privacy
concerns: Some might
be wary of sharing their location or personal information.
·
Technical
challenges: Steganography
and RFID tags have limitations, and Fak-e-Mon's effectiveness might depend on
internet connectivity.
MIT's Anti-Tampering Tag:
·
Uses
terahertz waves to detect unique patterns in glue: This makes it difficult to tamper with the
tag without destroying the pattern.
·
Potentially
cheaper than traditional RFID tags: This could make it more feasible for large-scale implementation.
·
Limited
range and requires specific angles: This might pose challenges for practical use.
Your Request to the Prime
Minister:
·
You propose
inviting Prof. Chandrakasan to discuss using the MIT tag on Indian currency.
·
You suggest
tracking accumulations of notes in specific areas to identify potential black
money hoards.
Overall:
Both your
idea and the MIT research offer promising solutions for combating black money.
However,
each has its own challenges and limitations.
Combining
elements from both approaches and addressing the limitations could lead to a
more effective solution.
