A NEW technology could soon be implemented to help identify counterfeit designer goods travelling both into and out of Britain. The terahertz time-domain spectroscopy has been developed by the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL), and aims to identify fake products which would otherwise be undetectable to the human eye.
But how does it work? According to The Telegraph, an electromagnetic radiation beam will be passed over items that will be able to detect the exact composition of the fabric. A unique profile can then be built for each product, based on how the beam reacts – and this profile can then be compared against the profile of suspected counterfeit goods. It’s expected that the technology will eventually be used by customs officials.
“Counterfeit clothes can look and feel almost exactly like the real thing and so customs officials need technological assistance to spot them,” explained John Molloy, who worked on the NPL project. “Terahertz spectroscopy is a fast, safe and reliable test that could help safeguard one of the UK’s most valuable industries.”
Fake goods are believed to cost the British fashion industry an estimated £3.5 billion each year. A report released last year found that one in five shoppers searching for a bargain online were tricked into making purchases from fraudulent websites.
The total number of counterfeit seizures was down in 2012 in comparison to 2011 in America, but it was never established whether this was due to there being fewer imitation products overall – or whether they are simply getting harder to spot.
Culled from: http://www.vogue.co.uk
© comfort for Royal Times of Nigeria Newspaper, 2013. |
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