It employs dataset of 3 million images

A new artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that allows your smartphone to differentiate between genuine and counterfeit versions of the same product has been developed by a team of Indian-origin researchers in the U.S.

Researchers at New York University noted that fake goods represent a massive worldwide problem with nearly every high-valued physical object or product directly affected by this issue.

7% of trade

Some reports indicate that counterfeit trafficking represents 7% of the world’s trade today, researchers said.

While other counterfeit-detection methods exist, these are invasive and run the risk of damaging the products under examination, said researchers, including Ashlesh Sharma.

Non-intrusive solution

The new method, by contrast, provides a non-intrusive solution to easily distinguish authentic versions of the product created by the original manufacturer and fake versions of the product made by counterfeiters.

It does so by deploying a dataset of three million images across various objects and materials such as fabrics, leather, pills, electronics, toys and shoes.

“The classification accuracy is more than 98%, and we show how our system works with a cellphone to verify the authenticity of everyday objects,” said Lakshminarayanan Subramanian, professor at New York University.