New Medium Enterprises, developer of the red lased-based HD-VMD disc format and Optikey Inc, an emerging leader in the anti-counterfeit industry, have reached an understanding to jointly release an unforgeable technology for addressing the growing piracy problem in the entertainment industry.

The entertainment, gaming and software industries have invested several millions of dollars in conventional digital solutions to address the financial losses created by global piracy. Optikey says it approaches this challenge with a unique analog optical system validated by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST).

Initial engineering assessments and evaluations are producing results that indicate the HD-VMD formats and the Optikey submicron structures are highly compatible and a fully integrated system architecture will meet all established design goals.

According to the company, the advantages of the Optikey technology reside in the fact that it is an analog submicron three dimensional optical structure that cannot be forged. Authentication can be accomplished with or without a connection to a central data-base. The system is non-obsolescent, that is, improvements in computer processing have no effect.

A company statement claims the Optikey/HD-VMD system architecture will prevent the unauthorized reproduction of protected content on HD-VMD discs or any system that has the proprietary technology. "Optikey doesn't rely on digital encryption, however, it has been proven that when added to encryption systems as a pass/fail portal, it provides an unbreakable layer of protection for the digital domain. The submicron analog Optikey structures provide precise threshold measurements to be matched with either a reference structure or discrete optical signatures. The Optikey/HD-VMD system will be compatible with existing legacy formats."

The companies will hold a joint press conference at Media Tech - Long Beach on 16 May to elaborate on the technology and the details of the transaction.

Story filed 07.05.07