For those who want to protect everyday documents such as tickets, deeds and licenses against forgery, there have not been a lot of effective or affordable options. Highly sophisticated security features, such as those used in currency and passports, are too expensive, not to mention complex, for regular use.
Recently released technology from Xerox Corp. of Norwalk, Conn., may provide the answer by allowing documents printed with everyday toners and on standard color digital printing equipment to be protected against forgery. It embeds patterns or text in regular paper that can be read only with infrared light.
The technology relies on certain optical characteristics of printing colorants — toners, inks, dyes —that enable two colorant mixtures to appear the same under normal light but different under infrared light, said Raja Bala, co-inventor of the technique and a principal scientist for the company. For example, in many color laser printers, the black toner is carbon-based, and thus absorbs infrared light, while the other colored toners — cyan, magenta and yellow — do not absorb infrared light.
It is thus possible to find two toner mixtures — one with a small amount of black and the other with a large amount of black — that are indistinguishable under normal light but very distinct under infrared light.
If the protected document is copied or altered, the encoded text will appear substantially distorted when placed under an infrared light source. Practically any infrared light source and sensor can be used to detect the embedded text.
The patented InfraRedMark technology is designed to work with ordinary materials and can be used on the company’s standard digital printing systems. It is available in the FreeFlow Variable Information Suite 6.0 software.
Xerox also has developed other anticounterfeiting technology within the past year, including text that is printed smaller than a 1 point size, that is visible as a gloss effect when the paper is tilted, that is revealed by ultraviolet light or that is visible when an overlay key is superimposed.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Everyday Documents Protected with Infrared Technology-Special use of color toners protects tickets, coupons and other items against forgery.
Chip Performs Blood 'Biopsy'
CHARLESTOWN, Mass., Dec. 19, 2007 -- A microchip-based device the size of a business card uses 80,000 posts smeared with an antibody "glue" to capture hard-to-find tumor cells in blood samples, providing new information about the cells to help monitor and guide future cancer treatments.
The device, called the CTC-chip, was developed by a team from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Biomicroelectromechanical Systems (BioMEMS) Resource Center and the MGH Cancer Center. It can isolate, count and analyze circulating tumor cells (CTCs) -- viable cells from solid tumors carried in the bloodstream at a level of one in a billion cells -- from a blood sample. Because of their rarity and fragility, it has previously not been possible to get information from CTCs that could help clinical decision-making.
“This use of nanofluidics to find such rare cells is revolutionary, the first application of this technology to a broad, clinically important problem,” said Daniel Haber, MD, director of the MGH Cancer Center and a co-author of the report in the Dec. 20 issue of Nature. “While much work remains to be done, this approach raises the possibility of rapidly and noninvasively monitoring tumor response to treatment, allowing changes if the treatment is not effective, and the potential of early detection screening in people at increased risk for cancer.”
The existence of CTCs has been known since the mid-19th century, but since they are so hard to find, it has not been possible to adequately investigate their biology and significance. Microchip-based technologies have the ability to accurately sense and sort specific types of cells, but have only been used with microliter-sized fluid samples, the amount of blood in a fingerprick. Since CTCs are so rare, detecting them in useful quantities requires analyzing samples that are 1000 to 10,000 times larger.
Laser Safety (Interlock) Shutter
Shutter features include: integrated return spring, 0.5" (13 mm) aperture (larger optional), small size; low cost; high reliability, long life, standard or custom blade returns to "off" position with a power failure; 5 V, 12 V, 15 V, or 24 V DC operation; and simple drive circuit for TTL input commands. Special pricing for OEM applications.
e2v sensors
e2v are introducing their 15-µm pixel series of sensors at Photonics West 2008. Initial formats are: 2 k x 2 k, 4 outputs; 4 k x 4 k, 4 outputs.The choice of amplifiers are ultralow noise and scientific.
PC-Controlled Optical Polisher
Scepter is PC-controlled for Telcordia- compliant connector and bare fiber polishing. It features integrated air polishing routines, and independently suspended/optically aligned workholders. Fixtures are available for industry standard, MIL-SPEC and custom components. In-line video inspection is also available.
Seed Laser Diode Driver Assembies
AMI's OEM seed laser diode drivers are ideal for compact, TE-cooled industrial and medical laser applications. Output currents to 2.5 A from 10 ns pulse width to CW are provided. RoHS versions are available. Contact AMI today to discuss your custom requirements.
Andor iDus InGaAs
Andor iDus InGaAs offers 512 or 1024 element linear photodiode arrays (PDA) for NIR spectroscopy with high sensitivity and high resolution. Wavelength coverage from 800 to 2200 nm, peak QE >80%, low noise electronics, TE cooling to -85 °C, USB 2.0 connectivity.
SMT Laser
Osram Opto Semiconductors is showcasing the world's smallest surface mountable (SMT) high-power continuous wave (up to 6 W) laser. The laser is dustproof and cost-effective, making it ideal for volume applications in military, security, industrial, automotive and medical sectors.
Zygo's NewView 7000 Series
Zygo's NewView 7000 series provides unprecedented performance and value. Based on noncontact and proprietary scanning technology, the NewView delivers unmatched speed, precision, resolution and flexibility. A wide range of surfaces can be quantitatively measured including smooth, rough and stepped surfaces.
OPAL-1000 1 Megapixel Camera
The OPAL-1000 camera has a 1/2" CCD area array sensor with 1024 x 1024, 5.5-µm square pixels which can deliver 120 full frame images per second. Other important performance parameters include global shutter, channel matching to below noise level, automatic black and shading, dynamic range of 63 dB and defect pixel correction.
Repair Damaged Optical Connectors
Repair scratched and damaged optical connectors and fibers with the Rev Polisher. Whether damaged by high-power lasers, repeated matings, or general handling, Rev processes components to their original surface finish and geometry in as quickly as 15 seconds.
Industrial Laser Power
The 802 series from Lambda's ALE systems group are high power, HV capacitor-charging supplies that define standards for reliability and performance in industrial lasers. Available with output ratings up to 8 kJ/s, and 50 kV, featuring full remote and local controls.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Mother Lied To Win Hannah Montana Contest
GARLAND, Texas - A North Texas mother made up a tragic story about a father dying in Iraq for an essay contest to win a Hannah Montana prize package.
But the company decided not to award Priscilla Ceballos' daughter with the contest's grand prize, Club Libby Lu CEO Mary Drolet said Saturday in a wr"After awarding the grand prize, we unfortunately learned that the statements made in the essay were untrue," she said in the statement. "Club Libby Lu greatly values honestly and integrity. In order to uphold these values, we have decided to withdraw the award initially given to the Ceballos family."
On Friday, Ceballos told NBC 5 by telephone that it was a big misunderstanding. She said she made up the story to win the contest. No one asked her if the story was true, she said.
Her daughter had beat out more than 1,000 other Hannah Montana fans with the essay she wrote for the Club Libby Lu "Hannah Montana Rock Your Holidays Essay Contest."
"My daddy died this year in Iraq," the little girl wrote in the essay. "I am going to give mommy the Angel pendant that daddy put on mommy when she was having me. I had it in my jewelry box since that day. I love my mommy."
Ceballos told contest organizers her husband was killed April 17, 2007, while serving in Iraq.
Research done by NBC 5 revealed that only one U.S. soldier died on April 17 of this year, and it was not Jonathan Menjivar. Neighbors said the girl's father, a carpet cleaner, is alive and is not a soldier.
The mother's sister said the story was intended to be a Christmas story.
"It was supposed to be told like a Christmas story, a good Christmas story, basically," she said. "And that's what she wrote, a Christmas story. But she didn't know it had to be true or anything."
One neighbor said she couldn't imagine anyone making something like that up, calling it "shocking."
"It's wrong," the neighbor's daughter said. "It's really wrong."
The contest's grand prize was a Hannah Montana makeover inside Club Libby Lu, tickets to Hannah Montana's sold-out concert in Albany, N.Y., in January, airfare and accommodations to the show and a Hannah Montana gift bag.
Club Libby Lu, a sort of salon for tweens, sponsored the contest and invited reporters to a party for Ceballos' daughter on Friday. When the child was asked about the essay that made her dream come true, her mother responded by saying: "We don't really want to talk about that ... OK?"
Shortly after that, Ceballos took her daughter and quickly left the store.
On Friday, Club Libby Lu's public relations firm said it had no reason to believe the information in the essay was false.
In a statement released late Friday, Drolet said: "Club Libby Lu has learned the essay submitted under the name Alexis Menjivar in the Club Libby Lu "Hannah Montana Rock Your Holidays Essay Contest" is untrue. We are reviewing the facts in the matter so that we may determine an appropriate resolution to the situation. Club Libby Lu had no knowledge of the inaccuracies in the essay until 2:45 this afternoon - Friday, December 28. We regret that the original intent of the contest, which was to make a little girl's holiday extra special, has not been realized in the way we anticipated."'
The company said it is awarding the grand prize to another contest winner. Club Libby Lu said it would not disclose the name of the new winner to protect the family's privacy.
Keep Jessica away from games, says Tom Brady
Although Patriots quarterback Tom Brady seems more the go-to man for football advice, not relationship advice (just ask Bridget Moynahan), Brady has reached out to Jessica Simpson’s new man, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, to warn him about bringing his girl to games.
“After that debacle of a game with Jessica being flashed on the screens during every play, Tom told Tony to put a stop to allowing Jess to come to games. Think about it: How often do you see Gisele [Bundchen] cheering Tom on?” said a friend of Brady’s.
Simpson isn’t just going to games, she even accompanied Romo to his weekly radio gig, “Inside the Huddle,” on Dec. 26. “Clearly subtle has never been a part of Jessica’s personality,” said one longtime friend of Simpson’s. Brady and Gisele have been dating for nearly a year, and according to a friend, even if the Patriots make the Super Bowl, “Gisele will likely know enough to keep away. Unlike Jessica, she realizes football is more than just a game, it’s his career.”
