A microdot is a text or image shrunk to prevent detection by unintended recipients. Microdots are normally circular around one millimetre in diameter. The name comes from the fact that the microdots have often been about the size and shape of a typographical dot, such as a period or the tittle of a lowercase i or j. It is, fundamentally, a steganographic approach to message protection.
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History
In 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, Paris was under siege and messages were sent by carrier pigeon. A Parisian photographer named Dagron used a photographic shrinking technique to permit each pigeon to carry a high volume of messages, pigeons having quite restricted payload capacity.[1] However, the images were not as small as modern microdots.[2] An actual microdot technique was used for steganographic purposes in Germany between World War I and World War II. It was also later used by many countries to pass messages through insecure postal channels. Later microdot techniques used film with aniline dye, rather than silver halide layers, as this was even harder for counter-espionage agents to find. A Professor Zapp in Germany is claimed to have been the inventor of the technique, and a WWII spy kit for microdot production was sometimes called a Zapp outfit. However, Emanuel Goldberg is also alleged to have been the inventor of the modern technique [3], under which hypothesis Professor Zapp's connection would be a fiction. Like much in the history of espionage and subversion, there is controversy. After the Berlin Wall was put up, special cameras were used to generate microdots which were then adhered to letters and sent via normal means. Owing to the extremely small size of microdots, these messages often went unnoticed by inspectors and information could then be read by the intended recipient using a microscope. British mail censors sometimes referred to microdots as 'duff' since they were distributed here and there throughout letters rather like raisins in the British steamed suet pudding called spotted dick (or "plum duff"). Microdot is also a slang term used as recently as the late 1980s for a small white pill containing mescalin, a hallucinogen found in mescal buttons from the peyote cactus.
Modern usage
Microdot Identification
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Microdot identification is a process where tiny laser discs etched with the vehicle's VIN number are sprayed onto the car's major mechanical parts and under body areas. The technology was developed in Australia in 2001. Since then, several car manufacturers began using microdot identification, although world-wide takeup of this product is less than 1%. About 10,000 identifying numbers are sprayed on with a clear adhesive that shines under ultraviolet light[7] and cannot be seen by the human eye. This process, while quick and cost effective, deters car thieves who would have otherwise been able to rebirth vehicles as well as sell stolen vehicle parts as legitimate ones [8]
List of currently known manufacturers utilising microdot technology
The following manufacturers use microdots in some of their vehicles, in some territories.
- Audi
- Avis in South Africa
- BMW in Australia
- Ford Performance Vehicles in Australia
- Holden Special Vehicles in Australia
- Isuzu in Asia
- MINI
- Mitsubishi Ralliart
- Porsche
- Subaru
- Techmashimport in Russia
- Toyota
- Nissan
- VW in Taiwan
Popular Culture
- A microdot was depicted in the motion picture Mission Impossible 3. In the movie, the microdot was hidden at the back of postage stamp and contained a magnetically stored video file.
- In Superman #655 (Vol. 1, Sep. 2006), Clark Kent uses various microdots implanted throughout a suspense novel to read not only the novel but also numerous other works on various topics. The microdots were used here to further explore Superman's newly-enhanced mental capabilities.
- In You Only Live Twice, Tiger tells James Bond that his men found a microdot on a captured SPECTRE photograph, which he enlarges for Bond.
See also
References
- White, William. The Microdot: History and Application. Williamstown, NJ: Phillips Publications, 1992.
- ^ Kipper, Gregory. Investigator's Guide to Steganography. Boca Raton: Auerbach Publications, 2003.
- ^ Hayhurst, J.D. The Pigeon Post into Paris 1870-1871. Privately published, 1970.
- ^ Buckland, Michael. Emanuel Goldberg and His Knowledge Machine: Information, Invention, and Political Forces (New Directions in Information Management). Libraries Unlimited, 2006.
- ^ http://www.wonko.net/microdots.html
- ^ http://www.wonko.net/microdots.html
- ^ http://www.wonko.net/microdots.html
- ^ 100 Years of Australian Biotechnology Innovation - DataDot Technology
- ^ http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/27/1080330982083.html?from=storyrhs Auto theft drops as car makers fight back
