HIGHLY IDENTIFIABLE MATERIAL, METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING AND METHOD FOR DETECTION

Abstract

The invention is related to a highly identifiable material comprising a physical body (1) with an original spectral signature and an artificial tag incorporated on the physical body, which modifies the original spectral signature of the body. The artificial tag is configured to emit passively at least two spectral signatures (11, 12) in response to a source of energy received by the artificial tag. The spectral signatures are signals of interest for imaging technology. The artificial tag spectrally codifies all the information necessary to detect and/or identify a first predetermined feature of the highly identifiable material. The artificial tag comprises a spatial pattern, the spatial pattern comprising a predetermined combination of the at least two spectral signatures (11, 12). The invention also provides a method for manufacturing such a material and a method for identifying such a material.

Claims

1. Highly identifiable material comprising: a physical body with an original spectral signature; and an artificial tag incorporated on the physical body, which modifies the original spectral signature of the body, wherein: the artificial tag is configured to emit passively at least two spectral signatures in response to a source of energy received by the artificial tag; the spectral signatures are signals of interest for imaging technology; the artificial tag spectrally codifies all the information necessary to detect and/or identify a first predetermined feature of the highly identifiable material; and the artificial tag comprises a spatial pattern, the spatial pattern comprising a predetermined combination of the at least two spectral signatures.

2. Highly identifiable material according to claim 1, wherein the spatial pattern comprises a combination of the at least two spectral signatures which is repeated more than two times in the artificial tag, in such a way that the combination codifies the information.

3. Highly identifiable material according to claim 2, wherein the information codified by the spatial pattern is defined in terms of proportion of surface or relative abundance of each of the artificial spectral signatures on the artificial tag.

4. Highly identifiable material according to claim 2, wherein the information codified by the spatial pattern is defined in terms of the relative position or sequence order of the artificial spectral signatures belonging to that artificial spectral tag.

5. Highly identifiable material according to claim 2, wherein the information codified by the spatial pattern is defined in terms of the spatial distribution of the artificial spectral signatures belonging to that artificial tag.

6. Highly identifiable material according to claim 2, wherein the information codified by the spatial pattern is defined in terms of the shape of the artificial spectral signatures belonging to that artificial tag.

7. Highly identifiable material according to claim 2, wherein the information codified by the spatial pattern is defined in terms of a relationship between the spectral signature values and features of the spatial pattern belonging to that artificial tag.

8. Highly identifiable material according to claim 1, wherein the artificial tag is three-dimensional.

9. Highly identifiable material according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the spectral signatures belongs to the non-visible spectrum, and particularly to the infrared, radar and/or microwave spectrum.

10. Highly identifiable material according to claim 9, wherein at least one of the spectral signatures belongs to the infrared spectrum and at least one of the spectral signatures belongs to the radar spectrum.

11. Highly identifiable material according to claim 1, wherein the spectral signatures are suitable for being detected by artificial detectors.

12. Highly identifiable material according to claim 1, wherein the spectral signatures are suitable for being detected by automated or semi-automated processes.

13. Highly identifiable material according to claim 1, wherein the spatial pattern is engineered to provide particular information about a feature of the physical body.

14. Highly identifiable material according to claim 1, wherein the artificial spectral tag comprises a coating, a paint, a sticker or is embedded in the physical body of the material.

15. Highly identifiable material according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the spectral signatures is caused by at least one of a pigment, a resin, nanoparticles, crystal or conductive particles.

16. Highly identifiable material according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the spectral signatures is caused by at least one of a conductive material, oriented conductive particles, metal particles, a radar enhancing material or a radar reflector or is caused by surface features like the texture or roughness of the artificial tag.

17. Highly identifiable material according to claim 1, wherein at least two of the spectral signatures are arranged in different layers in the material.

18. Highly identifiable material according to claim 1, wherein the highly identifiable material is suitable for use in mobility technologies, such as vehicles, infrastructure and/or crash avoidance systems for an optimized vehicle conspicuity.

19. Highly identifiable material according to claim 1, wherein the highly identifiable material is suitable for use in search and rescue equipment or in emergency materials or in high visibility wear or materials or in occupational wear or materials.

20. Highly identifiable material according to claim 1, wherein the highly identifiable material is suitable for use in assets management, such as containers, pallets or pooling equipment.

21. Method for manufacturing a highly identifiable material according to claim 1, the method comprising: defining at least a first feature to be detected; associating a first spectral signature or a first artificial tag to the first feature; and incorporating the first artificial tag or a first artificial tag configured to emit the first spectral signature into a physical body, wherein the first spectral signature belongs to the non-visible spectrum, thus creating a highly identifiable material suitable for use in automated search and rescue equipment or in emergency materials or in high visibility wear or materials or in occupational wear or materials, or in assets management, such as containers, pallets or pooling equipment, or in mobility technologies, such as vehicles and infrastructure and/or crash avoidance systems which use artificial detectors and an optimized vehicle conspicuity.

22. Method according to claim 21, further comprising: choosing a predetermined spectral profile for each of the spectral signatures, wherein each predetermined spectral profile represents one particular feature of the material and/or the physical body, such as a final user, product model or manufacturer.

23. Method for detecting a highly identifiable material according to claim 1, the method comprising: performing a spectral analysis of a region of interest in order to detect the highly identifiable material; and detecting a first spectral signature belonging to the highly identifiable material.

24. Method according to claim 23, further comprising at least one of: measuring the relative abundance of at least two different spectral signatures; detecting the relative position of at least two spectral signatures; detecting certain order and/or sequence of at least two spectral signatures; detecting certain spatial distribution of at least two spectral signatures; detecting certain shapes of at least two spectral signatures; detecting a spatial pattern from the spectral analysis; and detecting a relation between one of the spectral signatures and the area covered by the spectral signature and/or the shape of the spectral signature and/or the spatial distribution of the spectral signature; thus extracting information about the highly identifiable material.

25. Method according to claim 23, further comprising: acquiring metadata related to at least one of the following: geopositioning data and/or time of acquisition of the first spectral signature; and geopositioning data of a sensor device used to detect the first spectral signature.

26. The method according to claim 25, further comprising: linking at least one of the acquired metadata to the spectral analysis.

27. The method according to claim 25, further comprising: organizing the information using one of the acquired metadata as a classifying criterion, such as the geopositioning data of the first spectral signature, so that it is accessible by a user.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0079] To complete the description and in order to provide for a better understanding of the invention, a set of drawings is provided. Said drawings form an integral part of the description and illustrate an embodiment of the invention, which should not be interpreted as restricting the scope of the invention, but just as an example of how the invention can be carried out. The drawings comprise the following figures:

[0080] FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of a two dimensional highly identifiable material according to the invention.

[0081] FIG. 2 shows the same material as in FIG. 1 applied to a three dimensional physical body.

[0082] FIG. 3 the same material as in FIG. 1 applied to a damaged three dimensional physical body

[0083] FIG. 4 shows a particular step of an embodiment of a method of detection according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0084] The example embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those of ordinary skill in the art to embody and implement the systems and processes herein described. It is important to understand that embodiments can be provided in many alternate forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein.

[0085] Accordingly, while embodiment can be modified in various ways and take on various alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown in the drawings and described in detail below as examples. There is no intent to limit to the particular forms disclosed. On the contrary, all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the appended claims should be included. Elements of the example embodiments are consistently denoted by the same reference numerals throughout the drawings and detailed description where appropriate.

[0086] FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of a highly identifiable material according to the invention. This material comprises a physical body 1, which in this case is a portion of a synthetic material, and a tag. The physical body 1 has an original spectral signature, which in this case corresponds to its original combination of colours, black and white. But in the case of the invention, an artificial tag has been incorporated into this physical body. For the sake of clarity, the artificial signatures of the artificial tag in this embodiment are represented as black and white too but do correspond to non-visible colours: a first infrared spectral signature 11 is incorporated into the black elements of the synthetic material and a second infrared spectral signature 12 is incorporated into the white elements of the synthetic material. In this figure, only a section of this synthetic material is shown, but the whole tag extends throughout the entire physical body 1.

[0087] This chosen combination of the two infrared signatures becomes a spatial pattern of polygons that is redundantly repeated. This spatial pattern is configured to emit passively the same predetermined combination of different artificial spectral signatures in response to a source of energy. This makes the artificial tag codify all the information necessary to detect and/or identify any object made with this physical body including the tag. For example, this tag and infrared spectral and polygon pattern may be incorporated in a vehicle in order to be identified later by a sensor. The pattern may be applied to a two dimensional physical body like in FIG. 1 for example to identify a vehicle flat part like an identification plate, but may be also applied three dimensionally for example to the full body of a vehicle.

[0088] As may be seen in the figure, in this case, the information codified by the spatial pattern is defined in terms of proportion of surface or relative abundance of each of the artificial spectral signatures 11, 12 on the artificial tag. The surface covered by each one of these spectral signatures in the polygons may follow for example a 1:2 ratio between the first infrared signature 11 and the second infrared signature 12.

[0089] Further, the information codified by the spatial pattern is defined in terms of the spatial distribution of the artificial spectral signatures belonging to that artificial tag, since a single portion comprising the first infrared signature 11 is completely surrounded by a crown of the second infrared signature 12.

[0090] Further, the information codified by the spatial pattern is defined in terms of the shape of the artificial spectral signatures belonging to that artificial tag. The fact that the shape of the single portion comprising the first infrared signature 11 is pentagonal and the crown of the second infrared signature 12 surrounding each portion of the first infrared signature 11 comprises five hexagons is distinctive enough. Choosing different shapes for the non-visible spectral signatures may lead to different information about the object. As a consequence, the same design appearance may be used in different applications, and the non-visible artificial tag is used to identify each particular application, since the appearance is not.

[0091] In other embodiments, the information codified by the spatial pattern may also be defined in terms of a relationship between the spectral signature values and features of the spatial pattern belonging to that artificial tag. For example, a first infrared wavelength of 905 nm associated with the extension of the surface of the signature, a squared shape of 905 cm2 may mean a particular information about the object.

[0092] In this case, the spectral signatures have been printed on the surface of the physical body, thus creating the highly detectable material. Ink is applied on the surface of the body by a printer. However, in different embodiments, other methods may be used to achieve this feature, such as the use of a coating or a sticker including a pigment, a resin, nanoparticles, crystal or conductive particles.

[0093] FIG. 2 shows a particular example of the highly identifiable material shown in FIG. 1 applied to a three dimensional object.

[0094] The information provided by the artificial tag is substantially the same regardless of the orientation of the object 2.

[0095] FIG. 3 shows a particular example of this material when the physical body 1 has been damaged or its image or sensing information is incomplete. Despite the heavy deformation of the highly identifiable material with respect to the original three-dimensional tag shown in FIG. 2, it is possible to identify the proportion of each spectral signature in a spectral analysis and verify that the spectral histograms of each of the three spectral tags shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 are equivalent.

[0096] Although only one layer of printed material has been deposited on the physical body, in different embodiments of the invention, there may be different layers which comprise different spectral signatures.

[0097] FIG. 4 shows a particular embodiment of a method according to the invention. In this method, the physical body 1 is a car, This car comprises the tag shown in FIG. 1, with a redundant spectral pattern. Again the black and white polygons represent two different non-visible infrared spectral signatures. In this case, the features of a particular vehicle may be codified by a non-visible artificial tag which is incorporated in the coating of the bumper, the corners or the whole body of the vehicle.

[0098] This spectral pattern is repeated so as to provide a redundant combination. As has been mentioned above, even in the event that the tag is incomplete, damaged, deformed or even broken, and regardless the orientation thereof, the artificial tag may be detected by an automated sensor, so as to determine the presence and features of this particular highly identifiable material.

[0099] This way the material may be used in mobility technologies such as vehicles, infrastructure and/or crash avoidance systems for an optimized vehicle and object conspicuity.

[0100] A method according to the invention would comprise the steps of [0101] defining a first feature to be detected, such as the model of the car; [0102] associating a first spectral pattern to this feature; and [0103] incorporating the first spectral pattern in a material which is suitable for manufacturing a car, such as a coating or a sticker which contains this spectral pattern.

[0104] The spectral pattern may be the one of FIG. 1, wherein each colour represents a different non-visible emission. The spectral pattern would therefore comprise a plurality of polygonal first spectral signatures and a plurality of polygonal second spectral signatures.

[0105] Obviously, in different embodiments, more than one feature may be associated to different spectral patterns, so that a single highly detectable material may contain a plurality of interesting data, such as the manufacturer, model year, batch, etc.

[0106] Regarding the way of detecting and managing the information obtained in this process, the sensor 3 detects a first spectral signature from the car 1 and some processing means 4 perform a spectral analysis measuring the amount of surface covered by different spectral signatures, such as in a conventional spectral histogram. Then, the information of the highly identifiable material is obtained from the spectral analysis. Since this spectral pattern refers to a particular feature or features of this material, this information is easily gathered.

[0107] Geopositioning data and/or time of acquisition of this first spectral signature is easily acquired and linked to this result, so that the position and the particular information of any object comprising the highly identifiable material may be easily classified and presented.