Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Product Authentication Using QR Codes: A Mobile Application to Combat Counterfeiting

  • Published:
Wireless Personal Communications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Counterfeiting is one of the biggest challenges for the authenticity of genuine products. An estimated average of 8–9 % trade consists of counterfeit goods that create a loss of revenue. To combat this situation, the product manufacturers use hologram and barcodes. The issue of genuine product remains the primary challenge in the market. With emerging trends in mobile and wireless technology, Quick Response (QR) codes provide a robust technique to fight the practice of counterfeiting the products. Apart from being used extensively in marketing and information transfer applications, the QR codes and encrypted QR codes are primarily used in security and privacy applications. Many web applications use QR codes for secure login where the user need not remember his/her login ID and password. The encrypted unique user ID is verified at the server using QR codes. Our proposed approach uses QR codes based on 2-dimensional codes (such as 19 Aztec, Data Matrix, etc.) to authenticate the product. This approach simplifies the size of QR code, and minimizes the complexity of encoding and decoding in QR code.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Shin, D.-H., Jung, J., & Chang, B.-H. (2012). The psychology behind QR codes: User experience perspective. Elsevier Journal of Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 1417–1426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Schultz, M. K. (2013). A case study on the appropriateness of using quick response (QR) codes in libraries and museums. Elsevier Journal of Library and Information Science Research, 35, 207–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Kan, T.-W., Teng, C.-H., & Chou, W.-S. (2009). Applying QR code in augmented reality applications. In Proceedings of ACM international conference virtual reality continuum and its applications in industry (VRCAI), Yokohama, Japan, December 14–15, 2009, pp. 253–257.

  4. Moon, T. K. (2005). Error correction coding—Mathematical methods and algorithms. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Morelos-Zaragoza, R. H. (2006). The art of error correcting coding (2nd ed.). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  6. Muñoz-Mejías, D., González-Díaz, I., & Díaz-de-María, F. (2011). A low-complexity pre-processing system for restoring low-quality QR code images. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, 57(3), 1320–1328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Szentandrási, I., Herout, A., & Dubská, M. (2012). Fast detection and recognition of QR codes in high-resolution images. In Proceedings of ACM 28th international spring conference on computer graphics (SCCG), Budmerice, Slovakia, May 2–4, 2012, pp. 129–136.

  8. Espejel-Trujillo, A., Castillo-Camacho, I., Nakano-Miyatake, M., & Perez-Meana, H. (2012). Identity document authentication based on VSS and QR codes. In Proceedings of Elsevier Iberoamerican conference on electronics engineering and computer science (CIIECC), procedia technology 3, Guadalajara, Mexico, May 16–18, 2012, pp. 241–250.

  9. Lorenzi, D., Vaidya, J., Chun, S., Shafiq, B., et al. (2012). Using QR codes for enhancing the scope of digital government services. In Proceedings of ACM thirteenth annual international conference on digital government research (DGO), College Park, MD, USA, June 4–7, 2012, pp. 21–29.

  10. Yao, H., & Shin, D. (2013). Towards preventing QR code based attacks on android phone using security warnings. In Proceedings of ACM eighth SIGSAC international symposium on information, computer and communications security (ASIACCS), Hangzhou, China, May 8–10, 2013, pp. 341–346.

  11. Maurer, M.-E., Luca, A. D., Hang, A., Hausen, D., et al. (2013) Long-term experiences with an iterative design of a QR-code-based payment system for beverages. In Proceedings of Springer human–computer interaction (INTERACT), LNCS vol. 8120, held with 14th IFIP international conference TC, part IV, Cape Town, South Africa. September 2–6, 2013, pp. 587–594.

  12. Dabrowski, A., Krombholz, K., Ullrich, J. & Weippl, E. R. (2014) QR inception: Barcode-in-barcode attacks. In Proceedings of ACM fourht international workshop on security and privacy in smartphones & mobile devices (SPSM), Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, November 7, 2014, pp. 3–10.

  13. Kim, S.-H., Choi, D., Jin, S.-H., & Lee, S.-H. (2013). Geo-location based QR-code authentication scheme to defeat active real-time phishing attack. In Proceedings of ACM international workshop on digital identity management (DIM), Berlin, Germany, November 8, 2013, pp. 51–62.

  14. Chu, H.-K., Chang, C.-S., Lee, R.-R., & Mitra, N. J. (2013). Halftone QR codes. ACM Transactions on Graphics, 32(6), 217:1–217:8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Krombholz, K., Fruhwirt, P., Kieseberg, P., Kapsalis, I., et al. (2014). QR code security: A survey of attacks and challenges for usable security. In Proceedings of Springer second international conference on human aspects of information security, privacy, and trust, LNCS Vol. 8533, held with HCI international, Heraklion, Crete, Greece, June 22–27, 2014, pp. 79–90.

  16. Falkner, S., Kieseberg, P., Simos, D. E., Traxler, C., et al. (2014). E-voting authentication with QR-codes. In Proceedings of Springer second international conference on human aspects of information security, privacy, and trust, LNCS Vol. 8533, held with HCI international, Heraklion, Crete, Greece, June 22–27, 2014, pp. 149–159.

  17. Hakulinen, L., & Malmi, L. (2014). QR code programming tasks with automated assessment. In Proceedings of ACM 19th annual conference on innovation and technology in computer science education (ITiCSE), Uppsala, Sweden, June 23–25, 2014, pp. 177–182.

  18. Lerner, A., Saxena, A., Ouimet, K., Turley, B., et al. (2015). Analyzing the use of quick response codes in the wild. In Proceedings of ACM 13th annual international conference on mobile systems, applications, and services (MobiSys), Florence, Italy, May 18–22, 2015, pp. 359–374.

  19. DataGenetics (2013). QR Codes—How do they work, and how much can you damage them and still have them work? Wounded QR codes. http://datagenetics.com/blog/november12013/index.html, November 2013.

  20. Denso Wave Incorporated (2014). QR Code.com, error correction features: For advanced users. http://www.qrcode.com/en/about/error_correction.html.

  21. Eby, C. (2015). QR code tutorial—character capacities by version, mode, and error correction. http://www.thonky.com/qr-code-tutorial/character-capacities. Thonky.com’s QR code tutorial under a creative commons attribution, May 15, 2015.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University School of Information and Communication Technology, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi, India

    M. Bala Krishna & Arpit Dugar

Authors
  1. M. Bala Krishna
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Arpit Dugar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Bala Krishna.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bala Krishna, M., Dugar, A. Product Authentication Using QR Codes: A Mobile Application to Combat Counterfeiting. Wireless Pers Commun 90, 381–398 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-016-3374-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-016-3374-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation