The company's latest generation of products is part of its Image Indicia technology suite. It is here that right and left brains converge at Escher, dovetailing advanced technology with artful essence. Riposte Dispatch software has the ability to produce stunningly beautiful stamps with all the advantages of traditional postage, yet steps into the future by adding anti-counterfeiting components and custom design features. Joshua R. Smith, MIT researcher and Escher's laboratory director, said nobody ever need lick a stamp again. We're always creating new technologies, but we try to preserve the traditional technology as well.
Some proposals throw the baby out with the bath water.
Creating intelligent documents is one way to ensure security, he said, noting that a company's mailing system can print customized stamps on just about any kind of paper, letterhead or envelope and still be able to tell the difference between one piece of paper and the next. The latter ability is linked to Escher's FiberFingerprint technology, a key component of on-line postal security. As Smith put it, each of the 500 sheets in a ream of white printer paper tend to look alike to the naked eye, but that is merely an illusion. Every square centimeter of every piece of paper has a unique, random pattern of hills and valleys. Our optical scanners can read the hills and valleys in each piece, the way they're positioned.