A new patent application from Lenovo suggests that the Chinese technology giant can use the # block system as part of the system to verify the authenticity of documents.
In a statement published by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Thursday, Lenovo describes a system that uses digital signatures encoded in documents that can be processed by computers and other devices to verify the legitimacy of the document. USPTO records indicate that the application was first submitted in August 2016.
The processing system decodes the signature and translates it into a digital "map" of the document, which can then be compared to a physical copy. The statement says that the digital signature is a "chain of security blocks" with a series of digital signatures representing the blocks in the "security chain".
Lenovo explains that "security block" refers to a distributed database that supports an ever-growing list of data records that are protected from forgery and change. " Further in the patent it is said that each block contains "information about a physical document at different times".
Lenovo writes about its product:
Using a security lock, each user of the system can confirm that he has the current genuine physical document, even if there are several paper copies. If there are any counterfeits, they will be displayed in the lockbox otherwise. In order to verify a paper copy, the user of the electronic device must use a snapshot of the printed code on the physical document.
Lenovo claims that the advantage of the product is that all parties that have copies of a particular document can provide "the reliability of the information viewed at any time, excluding the possibility of a significant change in the text of the document after it is written."
This is not Lenovo's first experiment with the blockbuster. Last year, Forbes reported that IBM began working with the company to jointly create a system of billing based on the blockbuster. At that time, it was suggested that this arrangement should be aimed at making the billing and transaction processes more traceable and transparent.
