A review of this year's headlines.

Dr Alan Hodgson, a consultant in technologies for secure documents, looks at the implications of the evolution of the Metaverse from the perspective of holography and 3D displays.

Holography News™ has been a keen follower of the formation and progress of the HoloCenter. With news of the center’s relocation and activities, Executive Director Linda Law brings us up to date on the art’s scene in the US and beyond.

It’s been three years since Stensborg A/S launched the HoloPrint® uniA6 DT, and now an improved version, the Desktop R2P NanoImprinter, is available for customers to order.

A team of scientists, from Heriot-Watt University and the University of Hong Kong have developed an optical metasurface to create colour-selective 3D polarisation structures.

Across the world, mints continue to recognise the eye-catching appeal of holograms for their commemorative coin programmes for the collectors’ market, says Dr Paul Dunn, chair of the IHMA.

In September’s edition of the IHMA patent newsletter more than 110 patents are listed, including Hungary’s ANY Security Printing Company’s disclosure of a security document with a UV-absorbing security element.

The Pepper’s Ghost optical illusion is produced by reflecting light off a semi-transparent surface and is often wrongly described as being holographic. A research group from Seoul is now redressing that mistake by using Denisyuk holography, alongside a Pepper’s ghost, to create an even more bewildering optical illusion.

The programme is set, the nominations for awards are in, the speakers are getting ready, all that’s needed now is for more participants to get online and register for The Holography Conference™ Online (THCO), which takes place 5-6 December!

In this tale of creation, destruction and hope, holographic artist Ed Wesly relates the story of how his installation of holographic tiles for a festival in Chicago was commissioned, installed and then quickly vandalised… and what he’s going to do about it.

The holography industry creates spectacular imagery for applications in art, science and technology. To do this, the industry has developed an intricate jigsaw of equipment, know-how and people.

Breit Technologies has reached an agreement with Inglese srl to distribute Breit's eco-friendly cast-and-cure films to printers and label companies throughout Italy.

During her time on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II's highly recognisable features were captured in several holograms and other heightened reality imagery – but does King Charles III share the same interest in the medium?

Holographic foils and lenticular lens sheets are established methods for introducing moving colour and dynamic effects to product labelling. But what happens when the label print run is too small to justify the start up costs of these methods?

The IHMA is made up of the world’s leading hologram suppliers and manufacturers. The companies that make up the association come in all shapes and sizes and are distributed across the globe, which Holography News® reflects in this series of member profiles.

There are four items to report in this round up of recent banknote issues using holographic, or other diffractive optically variable, features.

When considering the role that holography has played in the engineering, technology, art and commercial landscapes, which of the milestones in its development are worthy of celebrating?

Mobile authentication technology company Authentic Vision has announced the US market release of its Meta Anchor™ technology that, it claims, secures the link between physical products and digital value, services and experiences.

A revolution is currently in progress which promises to change the way in which holograms and other OVDs are delivered to packaging substrates.

The IHMA Patent Newsletter is a monthly review of patents issued in the fields of security, decorative and data storage holography, along with holographic techniques, processes and displays.

A little known, but curious, use of a hologram’s ability to reconstruct an image as if it were ‘floating’ in space, is for holographic rifle sights. So how does this relatively new type of aiming system work and what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Medical students at Addenbrooke’s Hospital are the first in the world to train on the latest in mixed-reality holographic patients.

The UV-printable TRILUMIC® holographic stripe first entered the banknote printing market three years ago. Now owners of the technology, Hueck Folien, wants to widen its appeal in thread format.

A technology talk given by a team of researchers from Stanford Computational Imaging Lab at SIGGRAPH 2022 reports on potential improvements to near-eye holographic displays.

The International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) is made up of the world’s leading hologram suppliers and manufacturers. Each month, Holography News will be profiling a different IHMA member.

Reconnaissance International is preparing for The Holography Conference™, which will be held online, taking place this year from 5-6 December.

The IHMA Patent Newsletter is a monthly review of patents issued in the fields of security, decorative and data storage holography, along with holographic techniques, processes and displays.

In January of this year, Holography News® reported on the launch of LASINK™ Helios from secure identity services company IDEMIA. The company has now added LASINK™ 3D to the family of technologies aimed at protecting the portrait on an ID document from fraud.

The return of in-person conferences after a break of two years has seen a slew of new optical features launched for banknote authentication.

The almost unlimited access to high-quality printing services, as well as to sophisticated graphics software, has increased the quality of document forgery in recent years to the point where it is becoming more difficult for border control officers to tell the difference between real and fake secure documents.

Editor Francis Tuffy provides an update on the creation of the holographic sculptures of his daughters by Dr Ioana Pioaru.

Australian company Caps & Closures, which designs and manufactures plastic packaging, has launched the ID-Shield holographic labelling and decoration system. According to Caps & Closures, the labelling solution is fully integrated into the packaging as it is manufactured, with no added materials, adhesives, inks or printing processes.

Cambridge (UK) – based VividQ has announced the launch of its latest technology, unveiled for the first time at the recent SID Display Week Conference in San Jose, California.

For royalists and fans of pageantry around the globe, the Golden Jubilee celebrations for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II promised the perfect occasion for pomp, circumstance and (surprisingly) – holography.

For a technology that has seen its own fair share of change since its commercial inception in the 1980s, holography has established itself as a vital part of several industry sectors; most prominently in security print, brand protection, testing and monitoring, head-up displays and most recently as an enabler of virtual and augmented realities.

Developer of authentication and security technology Advast Suisse has added holographic cold foils to its product portfolio designed for use in security applications.

Colorado-based Lumenco Inc has developed micro-optics technologies for three primary markets: light management, currency anti-counterfeiting and brand identity – which is handled through its subsidiary, NanoPixel®.

In this month's classified section: ITW Specialty Films – R&D Holographer Optical Engineer, and IHMA Member – Photoresist Plates.

The prestigious Regional Banknote and ID Document of the Year Awards form part of the industry’s High Security Printing™ EMEA conference. Several of the recent award winners use holograms or other DOVIDs as their primary first level security feature.

The International Hologram Manufacturers Association is made up of the world’s leading hologram suppliers and manufacturers and as a benefit of membership they receive a range of services. Two examples are the Patent Newsletter and the Tender Alert Service.

The holography industry creates spectacular imagery for applications in art, science and technology. To do this, the industry has developed an intricate jigsaw of equipment, know-how and people.

Whilst travel restrictions, due to the pandemic, have prevented many face- to-face sales activities in the holography industry, many companies have continued their research programmes behind closed doors. One such company is IQ Structures, which has continued to innovate its range of eye- catching optically variable features.

Tracking down and responding to tenders is the life blood of sales departments in companies of all sizes. Getting hold of tender documents as quickly as possible after their publication can often be the difference between putting together a winning proposal and regretting you didn’t get the tender documents a few days earlier.

Holography scientists, technologists and artists alike are often guilty of bemoaning the (mis)use of the term ‘holography’ to describe augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) displays such as HoloLens. But is there a case to say that depictions of holograms on film, TV and other ‘flat’ media have actually foreseen, and perhaps motivated, developments in 3D imaging techniques?

Shriram Veritech Solutions was founded in 1992 and is a part of the Shriram Group of companies, one of the largest industrial houses in India. Over the years, Shriram Veritech has built a range of products over the years including holograms, labels and stamping foils to decorate and protect products.

Subscription service ESPN+ has streamed what they claim to be the world’s first tennis match featuring a real person versus a virtual player. In the match streamed on 7 May, John McEnroe faced off against his younger self – represented by a virtual player powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

In conventional holography, the polarization of the reference and object beams are arranged to be co-linear to achieve the maximum contrast of the interference fringes formed and record the greatest amounts of amplitude and phase information from the original object wave.

Anyone who has been involved with holography for any length of time will have had periods of frustration with the technology. But the story of a Japanese man who literally fell out of love with his hologram wife is taking things to extremes.

The phenomena of structural colour – when different wavelengths of light are selectively reflected from a substance, with the remaining wavelengths transmitted or absorbed – is gaining increased attention in the security print industry as an environmentally benign method of creating colour without resorting to dyes or other chemicals.

The International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) Patent Newsletter is a monthly review of patents issued in the fields of security, decorative and data storage holography, along with holographic techniques, processes and displays.

Meta Materials Inc, a developer of high-performance functional materials and nanocomposites, announced it has acquired Plasma App Ltd (PAL), in a stock for stock transaction valued at $20 million.

After the initial wave of commercial applications of holography in the early 1980s the holographic industry, at least for transfer films and labels, was spread across four distinct areas of competence: origination, mass-production, converting and application & finishing.

Experts, government representatives, technologists and commentators gathered in Austria’s stunning capital city of Vienna (11-13 April) to share recent technical developments in the fields of optical and digital document security.

Previously, Holography News® has reported on the differing approaches that companies are following to manufacture wearable virtual reality and augmented reality headsets as entry devices to access the Metaverse – the network creating a virtual 3D world.

Researchers have developed a new method to display holographic images using ‘holobricks’ that can be stacked together to generate large-scale holograms. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Disney Research, have developed a holobrick proof-of-concept, which can tile holograms together to form a large seamless 3D image.

Holograms have been used, for some time, to aid medical and nursing students in learning medical procedures and studying anatomical structures. And now, tech giant Cisco has redeployed its Webex platform to further the use of holograms for medical applications.

The use of the term ‘holography’ to describe phenomena other than wavefront reconstruction is now well established in the media. Often, the purpose of using the term is to convey a sense of futuristic heightened reality, which can be frustrating to holography purists but could also be seen as praise if you believe the idiom ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’.

West Midlands Police (UK) have released information on what to do if you think you have come across a fake banknote, after a video was posted online showing a counterfeit £20 on which the hologram stripe had been simulated by a sticker.

The holography industry creates spectacular imagery for applications in art, science and technology. To do this, the industry has developed an intricate jigsaw of equipment, know-how and people.

The International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) Patent Newsletter is a monthly review of patents issued in the fields of security, decorative and data storage holography, along with holographic techniques, processes and displays.

Disposable vape brand Geek Bar has launched new packaging aimed at combatting counterfeit products. The launch follows a spate of incidents in which non-compliant vapes have been found for sale throughout the UK.

LEONHARD KURZ, originator and manufacturer of security DOVIDs, has released its 2021 sustainability report, its first since joining the UN Global Compact Network last year. The report – titled 'Communication on Progress' – covers developments in the implementation of the ten principles of the UN Global Compact.

Holography News® was saddened to learn of the passing of Ken Harris in Bellinzona, Switzerland on 18 January 2022. People who worked with Ken characterise him as a fascinating man; one of those rare people who combined a high level of creative ability with impressive technical skills.

Quantum effects, at a macroscopic level, are generally drowned out by mechanical and thermal vibrations that immerse our everyday experience. In the past few decades, scientists and engineers have been paying more attention to harnessing the quantum properties of matter at a subatomic level to help develop technologies such as quantum communications, quantum computing and quantum imaging.

The first time I encountered Dr Ioana Pioaru’s work with holographic sculptures was during my visit to Geola’s research labs in the UK for an interview with Prof David Brotherton-Ratcliffe – founder of the Geola Group. Ioana is artist-in-residence at the research facility and her studio is on the second floor above Geola’s OptoLab.

Holographyx has announced that it has recently been granted US Patent # 11,052,020 B2 for its Holo-Blister® product, along with European Patent # EP 3532005 for the development of a cost-effective method to apply holograms to the back of blister packs using conventional heat-seal blister packaging equipment.

The Practical Holography conference is part of the SPIE Photonics West event in San Francisco. It is an international event in the field of holographic applications and recording materials. The conference provides a venue for all aspects of holography.

Idvac Ltd is a private company, based in Manchester Science Park, England, that was founded in 2004 to develop new processes and products for holographic, packaging and solar window films. The company is now developing the use of liquid crystals for packaging and security applications.

Anyone looking for a whistle stop literary tour of the milestones that map out the history of holography are fortunate, as two articles have appeared this month that chart the course of the technology – from before Gabor’s invention to future applications in the Metaverse.

Nanotech Security Corporation, now owned by Meta Materials Inc, is perhaps best known for designing, originating, recombining, and mass-producing nanotechnology-based films for securing documents of value against counterfeiting and tampering.

In its predictions for continued growth for holography in 2022, the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) pointed to new applications for holography in medical imaging.

Researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) have created 3D digital holograms, by developing a polarisation image sensor with no additional polarisation filter.

Editor Francis Tuffy explores holographic principles used to model scientific theory.

iProov, provider of online biometric face authentication, has announced the publication of its newly granted iProov 9th US patent.

Reconnaissance International, publisher of Holography News®, is pleased to announce the launch of a new sister publication, Authentication & Brand News™, with immediate effect, replacing Authentication News®.

Established in 1993, the HIR was one of the first projects undertaken by the IHMA and has been referred to as the association’s ‘Crown Jewels’. The number of registrations on the register has now passed the incredible figure of 10,000.

Following last month’s commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the launch of the euro (ES1) – this month Holography News® explores the evolution of diffractive security features as used on the 2nd series (Europa ES2).

Reconnaissance International, publisher of Holography News® (HN), is pleased to announce that with effect HN has now moved to a new online platform, incorporating a regular newsfeed service alongside the monthly newsletter.

Foil and thin film technology company KURZ has been a pioneer in the use of diffractive optical anti-counterfeit features on banknotes since its earliest developments on the French franc, the Australian dollar and the Austrian shilling.

A topic that continuously grates on some within the holography community is the corruption of the term ‘hologram’ to apply to any display or image that heightens the sense of solidity or depth. For that group of holographers, there is some guidance and perhaps reassurance from a new research paper from the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, China.

Many technologies and features with their roots in commercial printing have made, and continue to make, a substantial contribution to secure document production. However, these technologies have for the most part been concerned with producing visual colours, perceived by the unaided eye as conventional colour printing.

IDEMIA has launched a new security feature, based on optically variable elements, that combines colour personalisation and DOVID technologies to secure secondary portraits.

On 1 January 2002, the first series (ES1) of euro notes became a reality for some 300 million Europeans. The lower-value denominations contained a holographic stripe while the higher value notes carried a DOVID patch.

An urban myth circulating in Christchurch, New Zealand about polymer banknotes has led to genuine notes being refused and damaged. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has urged the public to look for a hologram featuring a fern and a map of New Zealand to tell real from fake notes.

Iridescence and holography are two techniques used in security printing to display colour shifting phenomena that depend on the angle of viewing or illumination of a surface. Colour shifting phenomena also occur naturally in nature, such as the iridescent shimmer of a butterfly’s wings due to the precise structure and arrangement of the microscopic scales on its wings.

COVID threats and increased illicit trade and counterfeiting are among the factors set to drive hologram growth in 2022, particularly for authentication.

At the opening of its new digital mastering and replication facility, Ceres Holographics and Covestro confirmed that the two companies have deepened their collaboration around Ceres’ HoloFlekt® films for automotive display solutions.

A new paper published in ‘Light: Science & Application’ reviews the recent accomplishments made in the field of holographic 3D displays, while an article in Forbes illustrates how heightened reality images and video will swell the demand for digital storage capacity and bandwidth.