20 Years of commercial holography

Interview
© Keesing Reference Systems B.V.
20 Years of Commercial Holography
20 Years of commercial holography
An interview with Ian Lancaster
Ian Lancaster, general secretary of the International Hologram Manufacturers Association, is
stepping down after more than 20 years of service. Ian gives his insight into the recent history
of the holography industry, and where the industry is heading.
Why was the IHMA put together in the first place?
There was significant growth in holography through
the late 1980s, particularly after MasterCard first used
a hologram for security in 1983. The market was growing
rapidly and many new companies were set up to meet
this growing demand, especially in the USA and
Western Europe, while in Japan Dai Nippon and Toppan
– two large print and print equipment companies – had
both set up holography operations. By the early 1990s,
there was an established if still young holography
industry, so it was logical to start thinking about an
industry association.
Wasy D’Cruz, then CEO of American Bank Note
Holographics – one of the biggest companies – was
very keen on the idea and wrote a call for action in
Holography News®. Around the same time Steve
McGrew, the founder of Light Impressions, identified
the need for a register of security holograms because
it was so easy for a company to make a hologram to a
customer’s design without knowing that it was a
counterfeit of one in use on the other side of the world.
At the second Holo-pack•Holo-print® conference in
Geneva in November 1991, Lew Kontnik and I (Lew was
my partner in Reconnaissance Holographics, as we then
were) convened a meeting of around 20 companies,
which agreed to establish a Working Group to look in to
setting up an industry association. That group reported
back a year later, when the vote was taken to establish
the International Hologram Manufacturers Association.
Is there any one key development within holography
since then that stands out?
For the IHMA and holography, the biggest thing was
the launch of the euro banknotes with holograms as
protection in 2002. There had been holograms on
banknotes before this, but this was recognised as a
very thoroughly researched banknote concept and
design, which the IHMA played a small part in. With an
initial requirement of around 15 billion holograms, this
was not only the largest order for holograms to date,
but it was a tremendous vote of confidence in security
holograms, encouraging other central banks to use
holograms.
In the other key security document market, the intro­
duction of transparent surface relief (SR) holograms
through the use of demetallising and high refractive
index (HRI) coatings meant that holograms could be
used for the security laminate on ID documents –
which has become a very important market. These
developments have allowed the invention of new
optical and design techniques, but those innovations
in material science have been key.
From a different perspective, another significant
development has been the rapid growth of the
hologram industry in China and India. From practically
none when the IHMA was established, India now has
more IHMA members than anywhere other than
Western Europe, while China produces more holo­
graphic material than anywhere else.
What have been the other successes and achievements
of the IHMA over the last 20 years?
Introducing a Code of Practice for members was one of
the first things the Association did. Over the years,
we’ve improved the process of making members aware
of and committed to this Code, which they must pledge
to abide by. This has made a significant contribution
to the business ethics of the industry. The Association
has also got better at vetting membership applicants.
There have been times when an application has been
refused, telling the applicant to improve their business
practices and reapply, which they have done.
Ian Lancaster is a
holography specialist
and consultant with
considerable experience
in the field of anticounterfeiting, security
and authentication. He
has served as General
Secretary to the Interna­
tional Hologram Manu­
facturers Association
since its foundation in
1994, and was recently
appointed Chairman of
the new CEN Workshop
on Protocols for Detecting
Counterfeits. Prior to
founding Reconnaissance
International, which
offers consultancy
services, he established
Third Dimension Ltd, a
company that manu­
factures holograms. Ian
has served as Executive
Director of the Museum of
Holography in New York.
The Association has also helped to improve the
understanding and respect for intellectual property
rights (IPR) in the industry, through its Guides on
Hologram Patents and Copyright.
Saving the best till last, the IHMA’s Hologram Image
Register (HIR) has also helped enormously in preventing
members from inadvertently infringing another
company’s IP. The IHMA established the HIR in 1994 to
meet the concerns first expressed by Steve McGrew,
and it has done its job well. Unfortunately, it can’t
‘police’ the activities of non-members, but for members
it has proved its worth, contributing to the detection of
copied holograms and even to the apprehension and
prosecution of the criminals behind them.
Keesing Journal of Documents & Identity February 2016
37
© Keesing Reference Systems B.V.
Interview
20 Years of Commercial Holography
What challenges have you faced in the role?
Perhaps the biggest challenge is the one that the IHMA
is focused on now – reaching out to Chinese hologram
producers, to encourage them to become involved in
the international industry and to help them better
understand IPR and the damage that can be done if
they don’t undertake due diligence on their customers.
Looking back over the past two decades, another big
challenge for the IHMA has been to defend the repu­
tation of holograms as a security feature. It’s not an
accident that holograms are the single most-used
add-on security feature on banknotes, passports, tax
stamps and products; holograms are easy to recognise,
they’re eye-catching and effective. But there’s been a
lot of criticism of holograms – they’re easy to copy,
they were good when there was only a handful of
producers, track and trace is more effective, and so on.
Frankly, most of this is just competitor envy. Holograms
can be copied, but a well-designed security hologram,
as part of a properly conceived anti-counterfeiting
programme, is extremely difficult to copy accurately.
This has been proved time and time again. A counterfeit
hologram may fool a lay-person; it may even fool, say,
a bank clerk or supermarket checkout clerk, but it
won’t fool a trained and equipped examiner. There
have been numerous occasions when a customer has
contacted the IHMA in panic because their hologram
has been copied and every time without fail we’ve
been able to show how easy it is to detect the copy by
comparing it with a genuine hologram. Usually just by
eye, very occasionally using a simple loupe magnifier.
The IHMA has tried to make sure that customers
understand the difference between using a hologram
to prevent copies and using it to detect copies, and to
continue to promote the efficacy of holograms as a
security feature.
How do you see the holography industry now
compared to 20 years ago?
It’s more professional, bigger, geographically more
spread and more diverse. It’s indicative of that diversity
that Reconnaissance (which provides the Secretariat
to the IHMA) has changed the name of the annual
holography event that it runs. From 1990 to 2012 this
was called Holo-pack•Holo-print®, reflecting the
dominance of holography for packaging and printing.
In 2013 the name changed to simply The Holography
Conference™ to better reflect and serve the industry,
which is now so diverse, including holographic optical
elements, display holograms, light-control films,
mapping and visualisation, nano-optics and more. It’s
an exciting time for this industry!
What challenges does the industry face in the future?
The failure of display holograms to make real impact
on the market has allowed other 3D imaging systems
to claim that they are holographic. There have been
huge advances in display holograms, to give us true 3D,
full parallax and full colour holograms, which I believe
are the ultimate 3D imaging method. However, lighting
remains a problem and is the big hold-back factor. It
will be a challenge for the industry to maintain the
presence and momentum it gained in the 2000’s in
the key secured document market. That’s the decade
when the majority of banknotes, passports and ID cards
had security holograms and when holographic optical
elements (HOEs) began to be used in significant
numbers on display screens and in vehicular
instrumentation and lighting.
Where do you see the industry heading? And what will
be the key technologies?
I’d love to see holography established as the 3D
imaging medium used for advertising, illustration and
so on. But it’ll only happen if holograms can break free
of the need for a bright light set at a specific position.
That apart, security holography and holographic
packaging is here to stay. HOEs and nano-optical
devices will become a big part of the industry, for
lighting control, electro-optical devices, solar energy,
visual displays and monitors and more. With Microsoft
now involved in HOE-based vision systems, and Google
exploring holography, who knows what they might
achieve? But there are also significant innovations in
holography coming from small companies or research
institutions, not just big companies.
We have to start thinking of holograms as a means to
capture, store and control light, not just as an imaging
medium. Thinking that way opens up so much for
holography’s future.
Issued on behalf of the IHMA by MHW PR Ltd. For further
details contact James Dunbar on +44 (0) 191 233 1300
or email james@mhwpr.co.uk
Keesing Journal of Documents & Identity February 2016
39