2022 Review

For attendees only – password was provided by our event team.

The Holography Conference Online 2022

Blazed grating

The final presentation in the first session, from John Winchcombe of Reconnaissance International, took on the topical issue of ‘Sustainability in the Holography Industry’. Since spearheading the Sustainability Forum in Edinburgh (Scotland), John has become something of an expert in sustainability in the security print industry. His assessment of various holography companies’ efforts to implement effective strategies concluded with a clarion for help with the IHMA Sustainability Working Group, which he is setting up and will lead.

Protection and Prevention – High Security Features in Action

After a short break, session 2 took a journey around new developments in the use of holography to protect documents of value and authenticate products.

In his paper ‘The Enduring Relevance of Holograms as a Security Device’ Mark Deakes, Head of Technology Research at De La Rue Authentication, used the statistic that the market for fake goods was worth more than Ireland’s economy to illustrate the problem of illicit trade that has only accelerated since the rise of eCommerce during the pandemic.

He offered a solution that included layered brand protection, combining security (holograms) and digital solutions to create trust networks, reduce illicit trade and benefit end-consumers.

In an attempt to answer why holograms are so enduringly successful, he pointed to their inherent versatility across five vectors as described by De La Rue’s Chief Scientist Dr Brian Holmes: graphical versatility, variety of optically variable effects, application and product type, reflective and transmissive and finally, cost.

In conclusion, Mark made the point that secure holographic technology continues to innovate, evolve, adapt and develop new engaging innovative features that help to reduce the impact of illicit trade.

The second presentation came from Thomas Poreaux of IDEMIA (France) and was titled ‘Overcoming ID Document Fraud with a Revolutionary Approach of Holograms’. A bold claim indeed, but one that Thomas was able to substantiate.

Holograms are widely used to secure identity documents, and as the bearer’s photo is the most commonly attacked feature, holograms are placed on the corner of the primary portrait covering only a small part of the picture. Consequently, they do not guarantee protection against forgery. Additionally, few experts can really verify the authenticity of a hologram as sometimes the effects are too complex to interpret.

To overcome this, IDEMIA developed LASINK™ Helios – a polychromatic colour portrait integrated in a DOVID, protecting the secondary portrait. The feature combines colour personalisation with diffractive technologies, to effectively protect ID documents. For the secondary portrait, it strengthens security by preventing fraudsters from attempting alteration to the primary portrait.

The third presentation in the session: ‘Jump – a Design Concept’ from Christoph Gebauer of G+D Currency (Germany) looked at how through the integrated design of features, technical complexity and easy recognition can combine to give maximum security.

The JUMP concept has been developed with security ink supplier SICPA as a means of synchronising the visual effects of the technologies of both companies – diffractive and micro-mirror patches, threads and stripes from Louisenthal and SPARK® optically variable ink features from SICPA – into a holistic, attractive and ultimately intuitive designs for banknotes.

The fourth presentation from Natalie Vast of SURYS (France), titled ‘Moov™ Series: A dynamic and Unique Visual Experience for High-End Security’ explained how central banks and banknote designers are taking advantage of the range of attributes of the Moov technology – which combines (insert a brief description) to integrate visual features across a full series of banknotes.

Security and Beyond – New Technologies and Applications

Day two of the conference started with a session that explored the realms of holography outside of high security printing.

Anton Goncharsky from Computer Holography Centre , got the day off to a flying start with his paper ‘A New Holographic Principle –3D Zero Order Imaging’. He proposed a method to compute and synthesise a nano optical element to produce a 3D image that can be easily observed with white light illumination. The 3D image has full parallax when the optical element is tilted and even when it is rotated through 360 degrees. Additionally, unlike rainbow holograms, the colour of the 3D image does not depend on the viewing angle, so that the 3D image formed behaves like a real 3D object.

The presentation recounted the design and production of the two 2022 commemorative banknotes for the Beijing 24th Olympic Winter Games. Focusing on the security stripes, the paper described how the various optical effects (ColorTrace®, ColorDance®and Moire amplification) allowed the stripes to give shimmering vitality to the snow, lanterns and the Great Wall depicted on the notes.

Glenn Wood, from Fresnel Innovations, followed on with his paper on ‘Holographic Cold Foil – Expanding the Frontier for Wide Web Print Enhancement’. Glenn took the audience through the reasons why some powerful brands have rejected hot stamped holograms for high volume applications before introducing cold foil as a serious alternative.

The process is fast and can be applied inline with wide web offset printers but currently the only way to apply registered holographic images with cold foil is with narrow web flexo printing, aimed at the label industry.

The presentation went on to describe recent work conducted at Fresnel Innovations to create a holographic cold foil which incorporates print and metal in register with the holographic image.

The final paper in the third session came from Francis Tuffy, Editor of Holography News, who told the very personal story of working with Dr Ioana Pioaru, Prof David Brotherton-Ratcliffe (Geola) and Tal Stokes (De Montford, UK) to produce holographic sculptures of his daughters, which now hang in pride of place in his home.

Continuing Developments for a Brighter Future

The final session of the conference took into consideration a range of different topics that hinted at the prospects for the hologram industry.

2022 Basketball Hall of Fame Yearbook

There was a futuristic feel to Alan Hodgson’s paper ‘The Metaverse as a Business Driver’. Alan, who is a consultant in printing and imaging, examined the implications of the evolution of the metaverse from a perspective of holography and 3D displays.

To help do this, he defined the metaverse as a virtual space that looks and feels like a 3D graphical representation of the real world. While accepting that, at this point in time, we have to recognise that the concept is still developing he argued that large amounts of money are currently changing hands as companies vie for position – and that here is where the opportunities could lie for holography and the 3D imaging communities.

The final paper in the conference came from Phillipe Gentet from Hologram Forum with the title ‘CHIMERA™ – the Third Generation of Digital Holographic Printing System’.

The CHIMERA™ project is a joint venture between Ultimate Holography (Yves Gentet) in France, and Kwangwoon University (Seung-Hyun Lee, Philippe Gentet) in Korea to create the third generation of digital holographic printing systems. Paying tribute to the background to his research, Phillipe explained that in 1998 Zebra Imaging Inc. proposed the first commercial generation of large-format full-colour holographic printers and that the second generation was developed by Geola (Lithuania) and XYZ Imaging Inc. (Canada) and then later by Yves Gentet (Bordeaux, France).

Phillipe brought the paper, and the conference, to a close by encouraging the participants to attend the 12th International Symposium on Display Holography (ISDH) in the Sofitel Ambassador Seoul, Korea, from 26 June to 1 July 2023.

The Holography Conference Online has now become an annual fixture, and the next one will be held in November or December 2023.