InkSure Technologies Inc on Wednesday launched CarSure, a forensic-level reader that can read taggants (optical codes) and authenticate documents through car windows.

The company, which makes machine readable taggants and handheld readers, said it designed CarSure to be used on car windshields to authenticate documents commonly fixed inside cars.

InkSure said CarSure can be used by police and government authorities to validate the authenticity of such documents and could help improving enforcement of motor vehicle safety laws and regulations.

CarSure uses spectrum technology to create a system of taggants and hand-held readers and the invisible taggants are then integrated into documents during the manufacturing process, the company said.

The taggants can only be detected by a specially-engineered CarSure reader once incorporated into the document.

“Spectrophotometry is used by InkSure to create an authentication system that is almost impossible to reverse engineer. Someone outside the government body that deals with the manufacture of the car documents would have a very difficult time trying to figure out how to imitate the taggant system because the components cannot be seen or touched,” said Viktor Goldovsky, head of business development at InkSure.

The company, which is publicly traded on the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board, said taggants can be incorporated into any material, including the plastics commonly used in stickers affixed to car windows.

Taggants are active for the entire life of the document and only stop working when the document is destroyed. Taggants and CarSure readers are designed to withstand extreme weather conditions, it said.

CarSure ensures that motor vehicle documents cannot be counterfeited and subsequently ensures that all drivers pay necessary fees and take cars in for required safety inspections.

The new forensic-level reader offers governments and local authorities a simple solution to help improve public safety and adherence to regulation.

The product also addresses the issue of vehicle sticker theft. Registration tags and safety inspection tags are often required to be fixed on the outside of the vehicle so that they are easier to authenticate. However, placing these documents on the outside of a car makes them easy to steal. Incorporating taggant technology into car documents would allow more governments to issue documents that can be placed inside vehicles and help reduce sticker theft.

The company, which is SEC regulated, said taggant technology, incorporated into government documents can generate additional revenue. Taggant technology makes counterfeiting much less profitable and reduces the number of counterfeits on the market.

Government of Ukraine incorporated taggant technology into its tax stamps and collected an additional $200 million in tax revenue during the first year of the program.

“We are living in difficult times where governments are seeing their debt levels rise and seek additional ways to effectively collect tax revenues. CarSure offers a way to increase government tax revenues without raising taxes, said Tal Gilat, president and CEO.

CarSure also has uses in the private sector. Taggants can easily be incorporated into parking permits and insurance documents. The CarSure reader can be used by private companies that issue these documents or by the government bodies that regulate these services.

Document authentication is the process of determining if a document is genuine or counterfeit. This is done by incorporating security features into documents which are later verified by the document's user or an appropriate authority.

Any document can have security features incorporated into it, but the documents most likely to use technology for authentication purposes are sensitive documents such as banknotes, checks, identity cards, passports and tax stamps.

Documents are usually counterfeited for financial gain. Counterfeit documents hurt document issuers and many others. In the case of car safety inspections, a counterfeit inspection certificate robs the government of revenue and puts other drivers at risk.

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