Impinj, Inc., a RAIN RFID provider and Internet of Things pioneer, has announced the Impinj Authenticity solution engine to provide real-time, high-volume product authentication for brands and their customers. A new, first-of-its-kind offering, the Impinj Authenticity RAIN-RFID based solution cryptographically authenticates everyday items – such as retail merchandise, automotive parts, and medications – to help prevent counterfeits, ensure product safety, and secure the supply chain.
“The Impinj Authenticity RAIN-RFID solution engine leverages the whole Impinj platform, including Impinj endpoint ICs, reader ICs, readers, cloud services, and partner ecosystem, to cryptographically protect every item that enterprises manufacture, transport, and sell. And in so doing protect brands and people from counterfeit products that erode trust, create waste, and hurt people,” said Chris Diorio, Impinj co-founder and CEO. “Impinj Authenticity will provide the first real-time, wireless, long-range, high-speed, end-to-end cryptographic authentication capability to protect everyday items.”
Scalable to all products and locations for a secure supply chain
Counterfeit items are a global problem. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's 2021 report estimated that counterfeit and pirated goods amounted to up to $464 billion in world trade in 2019.
The Impinj Authenticity solution engine offers cost-effective product authentication across the entirety of an enterprise’s supply chain, from manufacturing through shipping, customs, store inventory, point-of-sale, and returns processing to cryptographically inhibit counterfeits. Impinj Authenticity also supports single-item or bulk-item authentication, wirelessly verifying the authenticity of individual items packed singly or in bulk without opening a box or product packaging. Impinj partners can integrate the Impinj Authenticity solution engine with their current product offerings or quickly develop solutions to meet the most demanding needs of their enterprise customers.
High-performance authentication at enterprise speed and volume
Using standards-based RAIN RFID and cryptographic methods, the Impinj Authenticity solution engine combines new tag chips and cloud services with readers and partner products to enable streamlined enterprise IoT solution development:
- Impinj M775 RAIN RFID tag chips connect individual items and enable partner services to quickly determine the connected item’s authenticity in addition to its identity. A cryptographic computation engine, combined with a unique cryptographic key in each tag chip, enables secure authentications while defending against malicious attacks.
- Impinj-based RAIN RFID readers scan hundreds of connected items simultaneously and send authentication requests to verify the connected items are genuine. Reader options include Impinj R700 readers and partner devices built with Impinj E family and Indy reader chips.
- Impinj Authentication Service verifies each tag chip’s authenticity in milliseconds. This cloud service uses standard, easy-to-use REST APIs to speed integration into partner and enterprise product authentication solutions.
- Avery Dennison and select Impinj partners provide additional solution components, such as a product database that stores, retrieves, and verifies item data.
“Avery Dennison is excited to join Impinj in bringing to market the latest in product authentication. Building on Avery Dennison's broad brand protection offering, the Impinj M775 expands existing brand protection methodologies and increases the effectiveness of our holistic authentication approach. Avery Dennison’s solution combines high-performance RAIN RFID inlays with the Impinj M775 chip and a robust and secure cloud platform through atma.io to properly retrieve, manage and verify unique item-level data,” said Francisco Melo, SVP & GM, Avery Dennison Smartrac.
“We are excited to help reduce the influx of counterfeit and gray market goods into the supply chain. With the Impinj Authenticity solution engine and the globally proven Bluebird Next-Generation RFR901 handheld reader, companies can authenticate thousands of items in seconds via standard GS1 Gen2 commands,” said Jinoh Kim, executive vice president at Bluebird, an Impinj partner. “Impinj Authenticity is not limited by line-of-sight and can inventory and securely authenticate items at a distance ranging from centimeters to meters.”
Proven expertise and RAIN RFID leadership
Purpose-built for product authentication, the Impinj Authenticity solution engine leverages the Impinj platform, comprising RAIN RFID tag chips, reader chips, readers, cloud services, and a global partner ecosystem. Impinj pioneered RAIN RFID, leads the way in IoT connectivity, and has shipped more than 60 billion tag chips and three million readers and reader chips. Together with partners, Impinj helps enterprises discover, engage, and now cryptographically protect every item they manufacture, transport, and sell. And when combined with Impinj Protected Mode, which is designed to protect consumer privacy and included in the Impinj M775 tag chip, Impinj delivers visionary and industry-leading protection for both items and people.
Click here to learn more about how the Impinj Authenticity solution engine helps prevent counterfeits, ensure product safety, and secure the supply chain.
