ODS 2020 Review

Conference Review

The Optical Document Security (ODS) Conference, which took place in San Francisco from January 29-31 attracted 168 delegates from 24 countries and 114 different organisations with 7 table-top displays in the exhibition.

The conference was preceded by a joint morning session with Electronic Imaging’s Media Watermarking, Security & Forensic Conference and an afternoon short course on the new topic ‘The Detection and Techniques of Banknote and ID Counterfeiting’ presented by Interpol and the US Department of Homeland Security.

The ODS conference is specifically about optical science related to the security of documents. It is the forum where embryo technologies or technologies recently conceived or in their infancy are introduced, to be critically appraised by a technically-focused audience from government bodies, institutions or commercial organisations involved in secure documents. The hope of the presenters and delegates alike is that ‘next generation’ security technologies will emerge from the conference.

Technology updates

The conference also allows the industry to follow those technologies that develop past the concept stage though infancy to maturity, always focussing on the science behind the developments. Thus, some of the papers or exhibition displays feature technologies which were introduced at a previous conference – such updates can be as relevant and informative as new technologies. For example, at 2018’s ODS conference Luke Maguire of the Reserve Bank of Australia introduced caustic surfaces to produce projection images that can be authenticated using a smartphone. This was augmented at this year’s ODS with a paper from Sicpa’s Andrea Callegari on ‘Caustic-based Optical Security in the Banknote context’.

Surys (formerly Hologram Industries) introduced Plasmon technology at ODS in 2012 (Extraordinary transmission for an effective see-through DOVID). Two years later at ODS 2014, Surys presented ‘Plasmon Science for a Novel Metallic Glance with a Dramatic and Azimuthal Colour Shift’.
Whilst in 2016 Surys combined transmission and reflection with the introduction of the Plasmogram™. At this year’s ODS, Surys presented their Plasmogram optimised Reverso Product that incorporates optimised hybrid metal dielectric structures that present different reflective colours on the front and back of a polymer banknote, and a different colour in transmission whilst also each combining an angular colour shift.

Day one: human factors, novel materials and production

A wide range of technologies conveniently grouped into five sessions of similar topics were covered over two days. The first day of the conference opened with a session dedicated to Human Factors and Design, and a thought provoking keynote speech from conference chairman Ian Lancaster on ‘The Continuing Role of Human Senses in Authentication’ which emphasised that we should value the contribution of human senses in document authentication and educate the digital developers to recognise this value. This was followed by a paper on ‘Lab-based Perception Studies on Whole Notes’ from the Bank of Canada which including gaze tracking, and a final session paper from the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing which concluded that security feature technologies are maturing and diffusing at a rapid rate and that intaglio printing has become an effective deterrence to counterfeiting.

Session two focussed on Novel Materials and included a total of seven papers, showing the high level of invention and innovation in this field. The session began with a paper from Polytechnique Montréal introducing active electrochromic materials for potential use in transparent windows on banknotes and other important documents. This was followed by a presentation on Caustic based Optical Security for Banknotes from Sicpa, and a fascinating paper on ‘Laser-Nanostructuring of Plasmonic Nanoparticles’ from Opsec and Nottingham Trent University. The latter paper outlined how it is possible to control plasmonic nanoparticles using lasers to produce overt localised surface plasmon resonance colour switch effects that could be used for transparent window features.

A new photoactive embossable ink that produces optical security features was the theme in a paper from Annalisa Colombo from EPTAINKS. This was followed by the Surys paper presented by Soukainan Es-Saidi on the latest Plasmogram Reverso product as previously outlined, prior to two papers from OVD Kinegram on: ‘Achromatic and Monochromatic Effects based on Non-Holographic Microstructures’ which outlined diffractive watermark and circle movement effects together with directional white microstructures, and a paper by John Peters on ‘Transforming DOVIDS for the Digital World’ which concluded that DOVIDS need to be designed for both human and machine verification and that physical ID’s will remain the reliable root of trust for the future.

Production was the topic of the final session of day one and opened with a paper form KBA NotaSys on ‘Micro-Optic Noise: Causes, Quantification and Solutions’. The paper concluded noise in micro-optics results from three main areas : design, configuration and manufacture, with configuration being the easiest to quantify. This was followed by a joint paper from inIT-Institute Industrial IT and KBA NotaSys on ‘Intaglio Style Transfer – Partially Automating the Intaglio Image Creation’ that utilised Convolutional Neural Networks to encode RGB (red, green,and blue) and greyscale images to synthesise intaglio images. Mary Kombolias from the US Government Publishing Office and National Institute of Standards and Technology then presented a paper on ‘Resonant Cavity Dielectric Spectroscopy for Quality assurance Evaluations of Secure Documents’ which proved that the technique can be used to provide information on composition (fiber types and colorants), and the relative age for printing and writing grades of paper. The last paper of day one was presented by Elisabeth Limbacher from Orell Füssli on ‘Market Developments: When Technology meets Artisanship’.

Day two : smartphones, examination and authentication

Day two began with a session on Optical Security Interaction with Smartphones and included six papers. Charles Gale from Pulsetech Security opened the session with a paper titled ‘A multi-layer Denisyuk Hologram for Authentication by Smartphone’ which outlined a new type of photopolymer authentication security marker that can incorporate multiple data sets and be read by a smartphone. Following on was a paper from CSEM on ‘Transparent DOVIDs Optimised for Readability With any Smartphone’ which built on CSEM’s paper presented at ODS 2018, and highlighted that high transparency / invisible security DOVIDS can be produced, and read with a smartphone operating system without the need to develop a dedicated app. This was followed by a paper from Fraunhofer SIT on ‘Securing Physical Documents with Digital Signatures’ that outlined a fingerprint technology that utilises public key infrastructure (PKI) and an eight colour machine readable JAB Code that can be read offline.

Paper four from the University of Utah and Oblate Optics focussed on ‘Ultra-flat Micro- and Nano-Optical Security Features’ and presented a new completely flat micro-lens that is up to 5 times thinner and cheaper to manufacture than conventional hemispherical micro-lenses. This was followed by the penultimate paper of the session presented by Zhicheng Ye on ‘Flexibly Tuneable Smartphone Recognisable Plasmonic Colours’ from China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The paper outlined how the intrinsic polarisation character of plasmonic structural colours can be utilised to produce plasmonic tags that can be read by a smartphone. The final smartphone session paper from Bulgarian based Demax on ‘Nano-optical Variable Device for Easy Recognition and Smartphone Verification’ outlined the development of an electron beam originated security device that can incorporate a unique nano-optical high security code that can be read by a smartphone without the use of additional equipment attached to the smartphone.

The last session of the conference was dedicated to Examination and Authentication and included five papers. Elisabeth Schulz from the European Central Bank opened the session with a paper on ‘Emulated Security Holograms on Euro Banknotes – A Technology’ which outlined the holograms of the Europa series have not been successfully attacked. This was followed by a paper from the University of Birmingham (UK) on ‘3D Micro-Optics Enable Fast Banknote Authentication by Non-expert Users’ which reported on a perception study on Crane Currency’s 3D micro-optic Motion Surface security feature. The study concluded that 3D signals are rapidly available to the brain (within 100 milliseconds) and are rapidly processed even under very low light levels.

‘High-entropy Multi-dimensional OVD Characterisation Facilitating Multimodal Authentication’ was presented by Swedish based gonioLabs and concluded that high-entropy OVD characterisation facilitates authentication. The penultimate paper from Regula on ‘Analysis of Currency and Documents with Counterfeit OVIDS’ built on the presentation delivered at ODS 2016 on the Regular 2303.01 desktop reader. This latest presentation analysed a series of counterfeit currency holograms using the desktop reader and was able to detect the counterfeits holograms with a high probability and quantitatively.

The final paper of the conference was presented by Volker Lohweg from the InIT-Institute Industrial IT on ‘Creating a Self-Authentication System for Smart Banknotes’. This fascinating paper outlined the definition of a smart banknote and the use of chemicals, in this case spiropyrans, to act as a clock in a banknote life cycle to assist as a memory or ageing marker.

Gallery

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