The International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA), which 20 years ago launched the Hologram Image Register (HIR) – often described as the ‘jewel in the crown’ for the trade body – has recently expanded the register to incorporate all optically v variable security images. The result is the Security Image Register (SIR), the only database of its kind for the security community, which safeguards copyright and helps deter attempt to copy security images, inadvertently or otherwise.

US-based Crane NXT, whose subsidiaries include Crane Currency, Crane Authentication and Crane Payment Innovations, has announced it has signed a definitive agreement with Investcorp Technology Partners to acquire OpSec Security for $270 million in cash, subject to customary adjustments.

Uflex is India’s largest multinational working in flexible packaging materials. It is a global polymer science company with a turnover of $1.7 billion, and is one of India’s leading providers of holographic solutions used in brand protection, brand enhancement and anti-counterfeiting across a range of industries.

The optics and optoelectronics giant ZEISS has launched its Multifunctional Smart Glass technology showcasing the equipment and processes for mass production.

The Hologram Image Register (HIR), established by the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) to help safeguard hologram copyright and underpin the use of holograms in authentication and security printing, has been extended and relaunched as the Security Image Register (SIR).

Enforcing alcohol and tobacco duty payments using tax stamps is a major source of revenue for governments across the world. The process to make the stamps can often be time consuming and limited to printing firms with specialist equipment. But that could be about to change!

Holographic displays project 3D images that appear to float in space, without needing special glasses to view. This makes them useful for applications like education, entertainment, and medicine, but current holographic displays suffer from limitations in viewing angle, image sharpness and depth of field.

The Reserve Bank of Fiji has released a commemorative banknote to celebrate the Chinese Lunar Year of the Dragon. The date of issue – the eighth day of the eighth month – is an auspicious one, the number 8 being the luckiest in Chinese culture, symbolising wealth and good fortune.

In the inaugural column of ‘Then and Now’ in June’s edition of Holography News®, which looked at the birth of automotive production model heads-up displays, I dropped in a tantalising snippet from the May 1988 edition of HN that chronicled the beginning of what has since become the single largest commercial application for holography of all time.

On 13 June 2023, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (EU) provisionally agreed on rules to digitise the Schengen visa procedure.