IBM’s Crypto Anchor Verifier

By Dmitriy

IBM’s latest product, which is called a crypto anchor verifier, is grabbing eyeballs everywhere. The technology is an amalgamation of artificial-intelligence software and a highly sophisticated, internally developed lens. It can essentially see items as tiny as the cells of animals and even distinguish between them.

The lens is tremendously powerful and is capable of detecting objects as small as a single micron.

The verifier has been specially designed to search and detect differences between a fake drug and a real drug, a cheap bottle of wine and an expensive one, or even imperfections in diamonds that are undetectable to human eyes.

The most remarkable achievement, however, is that this verifier is designed to do all this by downloading software developed by IBM to any smartphone. All that the phone’s camera needs is a custom lens over it which will turn the device into a scanner with the potential to extract immense value from every layer of a supply chain.

All the data that will be extracted will be stored with the help of the blockchain system and that is what will make this crypto verifier absolutely unique.

“You can use it without a blockchain,” Donna Dillenberger, an IBM fellow says. “But you need to put the record somewhere.”

The lens will generate heaps of data because it has the ability to search for optical characteristics such as shape, viscosity, saturation value, spectral values and the microscopic details of an object’s surface.

IBM’s software has a very important role to play after this. It will be used to compare those findings with known models to determine on a large scale, about an object’s authenticity and origin. The company gave a video demo to Forbes, and it was astonishing to see the hardware/AI combination actually distinguish between olive oil and water dyed yellow.

“We as consumers buy things, and some things we pay a premium to make sure this is really a particular gem grade or really an extra virgin olive oil or really a $1,000 bottle of wine,” says Dillenberger. “What we can do at the point the oil, gem or product is grown or developed is, record that and send it to a blockchain.”

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has confirmed that they are not only using the verifier developed by IBM but are in advanced stages of integrating it with a blockchain platform.