Hylemetry

The term Hylemetry is the composition of the two greek words Hyle andMetros. For Aristotle the term ὕλη (hyle) meant nonliving matter ; therefore, the hylemetric authentication may identify the procedure for the identification of an inanimate object.

The term Hylemetry was invented by G. Schirripa Spagnolo in 2008 . It was used for the first time in international context in the 2010 reffering to the usage of Hylemetry for banknote authentication by G. Schirripa Spagnolo, L. Cozzella and C. Simonetti .

Since the biometric identification has given excellent results, it comes naturally to apply similar criteria to uniquely identify “nonliving matter”, as for instance the banknotes. The hylemetric approach is based, as for biometry, in the identification of a unique random characteristic, used to create a template, which can uniquely identifying the object. In theory, every random and irreproducible characteristic could be used in hylemetric identification. However, a valid feature also needs the following properties:

• uniqueness, which indicates that no two objects should be the same in terms of the characteristic,
• permanence, which means that the characteristic should be invariant with time,
• collectability, which indicates that the characteristic can be measured quantitatively,
• non-invasive, which indicates that the characteristics can be measured without modifying anything.

A typical example, used also in references, are the security metallic fibers distribution inside banknotes, Them, as can be viewed in Imgage 1, are put inside paper pulp during banknote paper making off, so their distribution and number is absolutely random. It is possible creating an Hylemetric Template, which uniquely identifies a particular banknote starting from the analysis of fibers distribution. This apporach is also valid for every nonliving matters, asfer having identified one or more correct characteristics.

See also

• Biometrics
• Biostatistics