After its use as a means of holoporting actors, singers and sports people to remote venues, the Proto Epic is now being trialled to deliver witness testimonies.

OpSec has announced that it will list on the NASDAQ stock exchange by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) –Investcorp Europe Acquisition Corp I. The SPAC is an arm of OpSec’s current owners – the private equity firm Investcorp Technology Partners.

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Tianjin University have come up with a new light-field sensor which, they say, can create 3D images with an angular resolution as fine as 0.0018° — and can even extend into X-ray frequencies.

Meta Materials Inc. (previously Nanotech Security Corp) has been a pioneer in banknote OVD (Optically Variable Device) technology for the past decade with innovations in micro-, nano- and now plasmonic structures. The company has also developed in-house secure foil production so that it can offer banknote stripes direct to customers.

A membership organisation on the scale of the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA), representing most of the world’s leading hologram companies, needs the backing of an active secretariat to deliver its range of member services, support its planned expansion and forge new industry collaborations.

Structural colours, surfaces structured to control the interference of light, featured strongly in the ‘New Optical Techniques for Security’ section of ODDS 2023, Prague (17–19 April).

As editor of Holography News®, I have followed, with some admiration, the activities of renowned Czech Republic optical innovators IQ Structures. So, as I made my plans to attend the ODDS Conference in Prague it made sense that I should try and visit their facilities to find out more about the company.

Back in September 2021, Holography News® reported that printing had started of the newly designed 10,000 yen note which contained an intriguing moving portrait of Eiichi Shibusawa. Now, for the first time, The Bank of Japan (BoJ) has displayed the series of three new banknotes, and all of them contain a holographic portrait.

ChatGPT is an artificial-intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022. It’s come under some negative scrutiny recently and is currently banned in Italy pending a data protection investigation.

Holopresence video calls are becoming a vital lynchpin in the growing remote work environment. To develop this business tool even further, Google has been working on Project Starline, a line of video call booths that presents the participants as realistic 3D holograms.

Almost a year to the day since the inaugural Optical & Digital Document Security™ (ODDS) Conference in Vienna (Austria), 172 delegates from 94 global organisations along with representatives from government, research institutes and academia gathered (17-19 April) in Prague – the Czech Republic’s stunning capital city – to share recent technical developments in the fields of optical and digital document security.

Established in 1993, the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) has evolved into a global voice on authentication and security devices. Now, five former chairs – and one general secretary – reflect on 30 years of holography growth while offering a glimpse of an exciting future for the technology.

PxE Holographic Imaging, which develops holographic imaging cameras, has secured $5.4 million seed funding led by KDT – Koch Disruptive Technologies (the technology investment arm of Koch Industries) – and M Ventures, the venture investment arm of the science and technology company Merck KGaA.

The service and hospitality industry is struggling to overcome the bottleneck of staff shortages that has severely limited its bounce back from COVID restrictions. One innovative hotel operator, BWH Hotel Group, is planning to use holographic technology to lend a hand.

The work of most holographers involves recording or calculating the light reflected from a reflective/absorbent surface or from the internal volume contained within a partially transmissive surface.

Idvac Ltd, UK, a specialist in advanced vacuum and thin film technology, has been investigating the properties of its recent development of white metallised coating with high reflection.

Holoxica, one of the pioneers of commercial light field display technologies, has entered liquidation due to cashflow challenges – with bosses saying it could not continue without significant investment even though its tech had attracted international interest.

Posy Jackson (as everyone knew her) was an extraordinary human being with a huge heart and a supremely generous soul.

The prestigious Regional Banknote and ID Document of the Year Awards form part of the industry’s High Security Printing™ EMEA conference. This year’s event was held on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, with the awards presented at a special ceremony in the stunning grounds of the W Hotel, during the conference dinner on 8 March 2023.

IQ Structures, a research and manufacturing organisation focused on nanotechnology engineering and based out of a nuclear reactor site in Řež near Prague, has launched IQ Mint, a technology solution for anti-counterfeit protection and the visual enhancement of precious metal objects such as coins, medals and investment bars.