2023 – The Year of Holography and...

Since it was first published in 1987, Holography News® has charted the course of holography’s progress, from a laboratory-based optical technique for recording, storing, and replaying wavefronts, to a term that means a whole lot more. While still being a technology in its own right, it has worked its way into the public consciousness as an auxiliary technology in a whole raft of new applications.

And, as these headlines from 2023 demonstrate, holography is still a significant anti-counterfeit device in the banknote industry and a key weapon in the armoury for brand protection. But it is just as likely to be found in news items in phrases such as ‘holography and smartphones’, or ‘holograms and immersive reality’, or indeed ‘holograms and evanescent waves’.

So, rather than resist the expanded use of the term ‘holography’, maybe 2024 will be the year to embrace it!

January

Holography features at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023 – one of the featured technologies at CES 2023, Las Vegas (5-8 January) was the Proto M, a real-time holopresence technology that transmits users to virtual presentations and meetings. It comes from the Los Angeles tech firm Proto, which has already proven its technology in several high- profile demonstrations.

February

Diffractive versus reflective waveguides – two companies involved in the race for lightweight, energy-efficient waveguides for smart glasses, pitched the superiority of their optical approach over the competition. Lumus claimed its reflective approach resulted in smaller, lighter augmented reality eyeglasses with high-resolution image quality, outdoor- compatible brightness, and seamless Rx (prescription lens) integration. WaveOptics, meanwhile, used diffractive waveguides, which typically inject light from the micro- projector perpendicular to the waveguide.

March

DOVID recognised in ‘Best New Banknote’ award – this year’s ‘Best New Banknote’ award went to the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates for the 1,000 dirham banknote. The main security feature is a partially metallised KINEGRAM COLORS® foil stripe from KURZ depicting an astronaut. A separate window features a portrait of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. In addition, the numeral is printed with SICPA’s SPARK Flow® DIMENSION, which changes colour from gold to green.

April

The IHMA: driving 30 years of hologram growth – established in 1993, the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) celebrated its role of promoting holographic technologies across the world. To capture the moment, five former chairs – and one general secretary – reflected on 30 years of holography growth while offering a glimpse of an exciting future for the technology.

May

Holograms on Japan’s new banknotes – May’s edition led with the news that printing had started of the newly designed 10,000 yen note which contained an intriguing moving portrait of Eiichi Shibusawa. Further, the Bank of Japan displayed a series of three new banknotes, all of them containing holographic portraits.

June

IN Groupe acquires Portals Technology business in Italy – IN Groupe, formerly known as Imprimerie Nationale and owner of SURYS, announced that it had signed an agreement with UK-based Portals for the sale of the papermaker’s security components business in Bollate, Italy.

July

End of the road for Schengen visa sticker DOVID – the European Parliament and Council of the European Union provisionally agreed on rules to digitise the Schengen visa procedure. As well as digitising the visa application process, the new rules will also digitise the visa vignette itself, ending the use of one of the longest running DOVIDs in travel document history.

August

12th Display Holography Symposium – in a review of this event, held in Seoul, South Korea (26 June-1 July), Ian Lancaster highlighted Zeiss’ project for ‘the industrialisation of micro-optical and holographic projects’, authored by Stanislovas (Stas) Zacharovas and Christoph Erler. This project aimed to establish a production chain for photopolymer volume holograms, starting with both analogue and digital origination, through replication machines for free- space, edge-lit and waveguide holograms, all in cleanrooms and capable of producing at least 100,000 copies of each master (or sub-master) annually.

September

Holographic technology helps find needle in a haystack – researchers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) invent an augmented reality headset using holographic principles to allow humans to ‘see’ through opaque surfaces. The invention, dubbed ‘X-AR’, combines wireless sensing with computer vision and a floating holographic sphere to enable users to see hidden items.

October

SAFEGUARD® polymer shines spotlight on the Caribbean – in a report of the High Security Printing™ Latin America conference in the Bahamas, Gareth Evans of De La Rue – supplier of the SAFEGUARD substrate – explained that the smoothness of the polymer surface resulted in the specular rather than diffuse interaction of light, making holograms appear sharper and more legible on banknotes.

November

Illumetry unveils its new holographic display device – display hardware company Illumetry, unveils its ‘Illumetry EOS’ device – the company’s newest product in its line-up of holographic displays, built on its MotionParallax3D principle. According to the company, the Illumetry EOS features a 65-inch diagonal display that shows virtual objects as holograms viewable from any angle.

December

PicoMaster: innovation gets its just reward – the Raith Laser Systems’ PicoMaster-H and PicoMaster XF-H systems won the IHMA 2023 award for ‘Best Innovation in Holographic Technology’. The systems are capable of producing computer-generated holograms, diffractive patterns, Fresnel lenses, Fresnel ‘bas-relief’ images, achromatic images, micro-mirror and micro-lens arrays for holographic applications.