App-enabled device spots fake luxury handbags

A New York-based startup has unveiled recently a gadget that identifies luxury handbag counterfeits with 98 percent precision.

Luxury handbags have been among the favorite targets of counterfeiters in recent years and their methods are increasing in sophistication that it takes a certain human expertise to spot fakes. This is the challenge New York-based startup Entrupy is trying to address.

The company said it has developed an app-enabled device that can detect with 98 percent accuracy imitation luxury handbags for 11 brands, including Chanel, Gucci and Louis Vuitton.

Using a handheld microscope camera and a computer vision software, the gadget can magnify objects up to 260 times, making features invisible to the human eye become more prominent. These include misshapen stamp marks, tiny gaps in leather grain and paint overruns.

Entrupy has collaborated with Facebook's artificial intelligence research team director and Yann LeCun and an angel investor to help the project push through.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Vidyuth Srinivasan, Entrupy's co-founder said that the company does not have a relationship with the fashion labels as "these brands prefer not to acknowledge there is a second-hand market for their products".

But with the booming of high-end fashion e-commerce, retailers are searching for ways to ensure their customers are keep coming back.

The device can be leased for an initial fee of $299 with monthly plans starting from $99. Entrupy said it currently has about 160 business clients.