Hardware Podcasts

124. Authenticating Seeds To 5X Crop Yields

The Next Byte Podcast · 30 May 2023 · 18m

What this episode covers

Hosts Daniel and Forbode discuss research from MIT professors Anantha Chandrakasan, Benedetto Marelli, and graduate student Sarav Majhi on using unclonable silk-based labels to authenticate seeds and combat counterfeiting. The episode details how these tiny, biodegradable tags use random silk nanoparticle patterns to generate 2^128 unique identifiers, allowing farmers to verify seed authenticity via smartphone cameras. The hosts analyze the severe impact of counterfeit seeds on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa, where yields can drop by up to 80%, and compare this physical unclonable function (PUF) approach to traditional RFID and luxury goods authentication methods.

Most relevant to

makers and hobbyists

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
MIT, Wevolver
Tools
RFID
Also
Anantha Chandrakasan, Benedetto Marelli, Sarav Majhi

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