Tag: holograms

Near field communication could play a role in reducing the effectiveness of falsified visas and passports.

A new partnership may soon mean that a combination of hologram and NFC technology could fight counterfeit government documents. The companies involved are Thinfilm, a printed electronics firm, and Holoptica, an authentication solutions provider.

The end product could potentially be a holographic NFC tagged chip used as an anti-counterfeiting solution.

This use of NFC technology in combination with holograms could create a government document that can’t be forged. Moreover, it could also be possible to invalidate a legitimate document in the case of theft.

The SpeedTap tag is produced by Thinfilm. It includes an NFC chip that would make it possible for consumers and government officials to connect to the certified digital replica of a document. This way, a single tap of an NFC-enabled smartphone could be all that is required to verify a document’s authenticity.

If this use of holograms and NFC technology works, it could save over $10 billion (US) each year.

The black market costs an estimated US$10 billion in forged and counterfeit passports, work permits and visas every year. Near field communication chips worked into these documents could mean that fraud would be much closer to being eliminated.

According to the Holoptica CEO, George Perkous, “Combining Thinfilm’s SpeedTap tags with Holoptica’s high-security SmartMark hologram creates a highly effective yet economical solution in the fight against counterfeiters.” He went on to say that the company is looking forward to seeing the outcome of the role played by the NFC tags in boosting document security on a global scale.

Thinfilm CEO Davor Sutija explained that “Document fraud costs governments and businesses billions of dollars each year and directly contributes to the growth of global terrorist activity.” He expressed that his company is glad to be working on the NFC technology and hologram solution as a part of a meaningful anti-counterfeiting strategy.

Sutija feels that this effort will contribute to making the world a safer place for everyone. It will help to minimize the risk of counterfeiting among important government documents in countries worldwide.

TruLife Optics from London, claims to have perfected a new technology for wearable HUDs.

The efforts of a London, England based company called TruLife Optics could bring a massive revolution to head mounted wearable technology that uses augmented reality in order to provide its display.

This is because the company has designed and created what it calls the ideal optical component for HUDs.

In TruLife’s opinion, the technology that it has developed provides a new and improved form of optical component for wearable tech that uses augmented reality and other types of heads up displays. The creation is both lightweight and small in size. Its use is relatively easy and it can display graphics in full color high resolution before the eyes of the wearer, without causing distortion or obstruction to his or her natural vision. It is also capable of creating three dimensional images.

The key to this technology’s improvement of augmented reality is in the use of holograms.

This particular optic employs two different holographic elements, instead of relying on a transparent screen or a jewel lens. It is also capable of bending light by 90 degrees in order to be able to transfer the image onto a main element that is completely transparent and that has been called a “waveguide”.

Therefore, when nothing is being displayed, the complete piece is entirely transparent. It remains that way even when images are being displayed, except in the areas in which the images, themselves, are visible.

There is one holographic display for each eye, which makes it possible for the images to be displayed three dimensionally. They are each about the size of a postage stamp. The full element is nearly 4 inches long, just over an inch wide, and only 0.03 inches in depth.

The technology was developed by TruLife through a partnership that it has maintained with the National Physical Laboratory located in Teddington. This technology is now available for purchase, at a price of £300 per optic. What this means is that companies that are designing their own HUD and augmented reality wearable technology will be able to integrate these optics into their own devices.