Hologram Industry News

Toronto, Canada, November 20, 2008; Technical excellence and innovative applications were the overarching themes of this year’s International Hologram Manufacturers Association’s (IHMA) Excellence in Holography Awards, which were presented at the conference dinner of the annual holography conference Holopack•Holo-print® in Toronto on Wednesday November 19.

The Brian Monaghan Award for Business Achievement was made to Umendra Kumar (Ukay) Gupta, the founder and CEO of Holostik India, the country’s first, largest and most diverse hologram producer. He is also one of the founders of the Hologram Manufacturers’ Association of India (HoMAI), serving as its first and current President. According to the IHMA, the Indian hologram industry owes much to his vision and energy and probably wouldn’t exist in its current vigorous form without his contribution.

The ‘Best New Holographic Product Award’ went to Liechtenstein’s U-NICA Global Security Solutions for its intraGRAM™ injection mould-embedded hologram.

Hologram Industries picked up the ‘Best New Holographic Technique Award’ for HOLO ID®, a new technique for reproducing an individual’s photo or other unique images as a photopolymer hologram on ID cards.

The ‘Best Industrial Award’ went to Sitech (Spatial Imaging Technology) for its new Fastrack™ system. A development of its Lightgate computerised origination system, , Fastrack enables dot matrix holograms to be mastered in a fraction of the time previously required, making it practical to originate very large masters and bringing the production of digital holograms in line with the fast-turnaround requirements of the print industry.

German hot stamping specialist Leonhard Kurz, together with design and origination partners OVD Kinegram, scooped the ‘Best Authentication and Security Award’ for their innovative Kinegram recolor® feature. This has been developed for use as a laminate in conjunction with a window or aperture in the banknote substrate, and provides fundamentally different, and unexpected, effects depending on whether the note is viewed from the front or reverse of the note.

A promotional hologram used by Imperial Tobacco to distinguish its Lambert & Butler brand from others won the ‘Best Promotion Award’. API Holographics and its sister company API Laminates created the new eye-catching hologram, featuring a ‘starburst’ visual effect, to ensure the Lambert & Butler brand stands out at the point-of-sale.

A holographic packaging concept developed by US firm Vacumet Corporation to ensure boxes of Hasbro’s Trivial Pursuit 25th Anniversary Edition stood out on retailers’ shelves in the crowded toys and games market was also highly commended.

A creative and production team from Toppan Printing, Hitachi Ltd and Hitachi Chemical Co Ltd walked off with the ‘Best Packaging Award’ for their innovative RFID Crystagram label. This is the world’s first combination of hologram and contactless integrated-circuit (IC) chip, and uses the aluminium of the metallised hologram as the antenna for the RFID. One facet of the hologram is that it can be demetallised, providing an intricate, customised design without any detriment to the antenna function. In addition, the Crystagram can have covert image elements, so creating a product authentication feature which combines overt, covert and traceability functions.

Organised by the IHMA, the 16th annual Excellence in Holography Awards - sponsored by industry newsletter Holography News® - recognise outstanding industry success and achievement.

The awards go to those organisations that have introduced the most innovative or commercially viable hologram product or technique over the year.

Delegates from the worldwide holography community attended this year’s presentations at the Holopack•Holo-print® conference. A display of products from the winners and runners-up was also on show at the conference, signalling the breadth and depth of the technology’s applications and commercial span.

Presenting the awards, IHMA chairman Philip Hudson said: “We have seen a record level of entries for this year’s awards.

“Innovation and quality were again to the fore and congratulations to the winners for their outstanding contribution to the holographic industry over the past year.

“They have demonstrated the highest technical expertise to design and deliver extremely effective, eye-catching and cost effective holographic solutions.”

The winners and companies that were highly commended each received as their award a handsome desk trophy in holographic glass, designed, produced and sponsored by Canadian-based creative holographic specialists Hspace.

The full list of this year’s awards and commendations for outstanding projects follows. For additional information on the projects and photos, please visit the website for the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (www.ihma.org).

LIST OF AWARDS AND COMMENDATIONS

BRIAN MONAGHAN AWARD FOR BUSINESS INNOVATION
Award: Umendra Kumar Gupta, Holostik India

SECURITY/AUTHENTICATION
Award: Leonard Kurz and OVD Kinegram for the Kinegram recolor® feature for currency
Commended: Optaglio and SFDI Czech Republic for the Czech Republic Road Tax Stamp 2009

PACKAGING
Award: Toppan Printing, Hitachi Ltd and Hitachi Chemical Co Ltd for the RFID Crystagram
Commended: Holography Industry JSC and the Smolensk Gemological Certification Center for their Certified Diamond Blister Pack ,

PROMOTION/ILLUSTRATION
Award: API Holographics, API Laminates and Imperial Tobacco for Lambert & Butler cigarette packs
Commended: Vacumet Corporation and Hasbro for the 25th anniversary edition of Trivial Pursuit

INDUSTRIAL
Award: Sitech for the Fastrack dot matrix origination system

NEW HOLOGRAPHIC PRODUCT
Award: U-NICA Global Security Solutions for the injection-moulded IntroGram
Commended: Optaglio for OVDot holographic microparticles

NEW HOLOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUE
Award: Hologram Industries and Hologram Industries Research for HoloID

About IHMA: The International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) - www.ihma.org - is made up of 90 of the world’s leading hologram companies. IHMA members are the leading producers and converters of holograms for banknote security, anti-counterfeiting, brand protection, packaging, graphics and other commercial applications around the world. IHMA member companies actively cooperate to maintain the highest professional, security and quality standards.

BMW of North America is marketing the X6 as an entirely new class of vehicle. BMW is trying to catch people’s attention in a revolutionary way by utilizing hologram technology developed by the Dutch advertising firm, viZoo, a ten-foot long light-controlled area, the system will display a three-dimensional, interactive image of the X6 at four different locations in New York between April 21st and May 16th. The system is manipulated through a touch-screen mounted outside the display and allows participants to view the X6 from a variety of angles, check out the interior and get a run-down on the vehicle’s stats.
[Sources: BMW]

According to the Orange Future of Football report for 2008. The Premier League will be playing games in space sometime soon, so it seems we can’t even speculate wildly enough to keep up with the changes to the global game. Fans will be able to live in and around football grounds as the ultimate display of loyalty, an honour previously reserved for groundsmen.

http://www.orange.co.uk/sport/football/pics/3395_1.htm?

University of Arizona optical scientists have broken a technological barrier by making three-dimensional holographic displays that can be erased and rewritten in a matter of minutes. A 3-D holographic image that can be updated and viewed without special glasses may soon find its way from a UA optics lab to operating rooms and battlefield command centers.

The holographic displays – which are viewed without special eyewear – are the first updatable three-dimensional displays with memory ever to be developed, making them ideal tools for medical, industrial and military applications that require “situational awareness.”

And what the entertainment and advertising industries could do with a lifelike image apparently appearing in thin air is anyone’s guess.
The unique component in this holographic system — a 4-inch-square glass-and-polymer display surface — is its ability to change, to be updated, rewritten, says Savas Tay, the lead scientist on this invention.
That holographic bird on your credit card can’t turn into something else every few minutes, but Tay’s display can take an image rendered in three dimensions — initially photographed or computer-generated — and display it on the display surface, followed by another and another.
The technology will be said. “Imagine that when you walk into the supermarket or department store, you could see a large, dynamic, three-dimensional product display,” he said. It would be an attention-grabber.
And no one yet knows where the advertising and entertainment industries will go with possible applications, Peyghambarian said. “Imagine that when you walk into the supermarket or department store, you could see a large, dynamic, three-dimensional product display,” he said.

“This is a new type of device, nothing like the tiny hologram of a dove on your credit card,” UA optical sciences professor Nasser Peyghambarian said. “The hologram on your credit card is printed permanently. You cannot erase the image and replace it with an entirely new three-dimensional picture.”

“Holography has been around for decades, but holographic displays are really one of the first practical applications of the technique,” UA optical scientist Savas Tay said.

Dynamic hologram displays could be made into devices that help surgeons track progress during lengthy and complex brain surgeries, show airline or fighter pilots any hazards within their entire surrounding airspace, or give emergency response teams nearly real-time views of fast-changing flood or traffic problems, for example.

And no one yet knows where the advertising and entertainment industries will go with possible applications, Peyghambarian

“Three-dimensional imaging techniques are already commonly used in medicine, for example, in MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) or CAT scan (Computerized Axial Tomography) techniques,” Tay said. “However, the huge amount of data that is created in three dimensions is still being displayed on two-dimensional devices, either on a computer screen or on a piece of paper. A great amount of data is lost by displaying it this way. So I think when we develop larger, full-color 3D holograms, every hospital in the world will want one.”

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/uoa-uo020508.php

CONTACTS:
Nasser Peyghambarian (520-621-4649; nnp@u.arizona.edu) Savas Tay (520-245-9722; savas.tay@gmail.com)
It updates 3-D images; may aid doctors
By Dan Sorenson
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.11.2008
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The Water Horse Water Hologram - Worlwide companies are using hologram technology to promote their films. Earlier in past films like Harry Potter etc were successfully promote by companies.

Columbia TriStar created this super-cool water-hologram to promote the release of The Water Horse. The hologram illusion uses a water screen created by a exact light projected on a carefully sprayed water jet to create a giant pseudo-3-D Loch Ness “Water Horse” monster in Tokyo Bay. Disney pioneered this technique years ago with their “Fantasmic” show at Disneyland. They now even use the effect on their Pirates of the Carribean and Indiana Jones rides.
Sources: http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/01/26/cool-stuff-holographic-water-monster-invades-japan/

Bergisch Gladbach, 16.01.2008 - Ten years after the first HoloProTM screen was developed and produced in Bergisch Gladbach, the time has now come for HoloProTM4. Pronova present their latest new HoloProTM4 at the Integrated Systems Europe Fair in Amsterdam. The new generation of holographic projection screens was created in the course of many years of research and development cooperation between pronova and the Cologne Technical College (Fachhochschule Köln). “The reduction of holographic optical elements to a diameter of 0.2 mm brings us into dimensions that are smaller than pixels on a computer monitor”, explains Martin Kischkoweit-Lopin, CEO of G+B pronova GmbH. The impressive result of this miniaturisation is an unprecedented richness of detail and a considerable improvement in colour neutrality, homogeneity and brilliance of projection quality. The number of HOEs was also exponentiated: in HoloProTM4, according to pronova, there are more than 200 times as many HOEs as in previous versions.

HoloPro™ is the patented solution for living projections on glass. HoloPro™ stands for “holographic projection screen“.

Sources: www.pronovagmbh.de

Architect Sandro Graf von Einsiedel of Cologne, Germany, turned what could have been the banal, industrial chimneys of an inner city electricity plant into huge and vivid laminated glass ’sails’ that project multi-colored holographic images. They have now become a landmark in the city, reinforcing the corporate identity of his client in a spectacular way.

Von Einsiedel explained to LGN: “The three ventilation chimneys of the Transformer Station are made from triangular and square laminated glass panes of 1.2m x 0.9m. These panes consist of two lites of glass laminated together with a sheet of holographic film in between, held in place by slim aluminum fittings which are fixed to the outer side of a steel construction. The decorative, holographic display is entirely appropriate to the business park, dedicated to a new media such as electronic publishing, where the power station is located”.

All the colors of the rainbow

One side of the installation shows a stylized picture of an electricity bulb and the other side shows the letters GEW, the company logo of Cologne’s Gas Electricity and Waterworks municipality Architect von Einsiedel explained: “The holographic film, manufactured using a combination of computer technology and laser guns, reflects natural and artificial light and splits it up into all the colors of the rainbow. By designing pixels of 5 x 5cm with different angles of reflection, differently colored pictures are produced due either to the varying positions of the sun as it moves across the sky or as the spectator’s angle of vision moves.

Laminated glass offers protection and stability
“
Technical Director at laminator Glaswerke Arnold Werk II, in Merkendorf, Germany, Christian Irmscher, told LGN: “We used laminated glass since there was no other product that could provide 100% protection of the holographic film, offer optimal viewing of the hologram and keep the application waterproof. In addition, the lamination process gave the holographic film an even and stable layout; as a result, the film cannot slide out of place. The glass panels are kept in place with a metal construction. The 5mm annealed + 2mm PVB + 5mm annealed laminated glass solution has performed extremely well and there have been no problems whatsoever since its 1996 installation.”

Groundbreaking work with HOEs

Professor Helmut Muller of ILB at Cologne’s Polytechnic, who produced the holographic films and supervised the process of glass lamination, commented: “Our holographic displays are incorporated within laminated glass which protects the film, makes it easy to handle and – apart from regular window cleaning – keeps the holographic optical element (HOE) maintenance-free. The holographic display is also UV-stable, which is important for outdoor applications.As Architect von Einsiedel summed up: “The outdoor use of sensitive holographic film in such large panels is a world premiere and was made possible only through the protection offered by laminated glass.”
Sources: http://www.dupont.com/safetyglass/lgn/stories/1007.html

In 1982 Hershey Corp was the first company to use hologram as a device for promotion of their chocolate confectionary.� Since then hologram are used by companies for the promotion due to its eye catching, dramatic and attention grabbing features. Earlier in this year Diesel done a holographic fashion show in Italy, US President Al Gore appeared as a hologram in Tokyo to promote his Live-earth concert. The All-Ireland Hurling championship also used the hologram to raise the profile of the game and engage hurling fans.

Now David Beckham appeared live on stage at the Adidas Press Launch for the London Olympics 2012 in the form of a hologram, as Adidas unveiled its £100 million sponsorship deal with London 2012.
Source: http://www.eyeliner3d.com/david_beckham_hologram_adidas_olympics_2012.html
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The hologram offers a perfect platform to bring this year’s Guinness Hurling campaign to life.� Guinness the company behind the promotion of All-Ireland Hurling Championship has unveiled a highly innovative hologram technology in order to raise the profile of the game and engage hurling fans.According to Pamela Selby, Brand Manager for Guinness “Hologram is eye catching, dramatic and attention grabbing and is sure to capture the imagination of public”.
Sources: http://www.barkeeper.ie/News_Item.asp?News_ID=959

A St. Petersburg museum dedicated to last year’s Group of Eight summit in the city lets visitors watch from behind a glass wall as a computer-generated hologram of Putin enters a room, takes a book on the history the Baltic Fleet from a cabinet, ruffles through its pages, looks out the window, and then walks out, Vedomosti reported.� As the virtual Putin leaves the hologram of his pet Labrador Connie, which sits on the carpet through the whole show, disappears into thin air. A holographic projection of a framed painting of a birch forest then appears as if it were suspended in the middle off the room. Visitors have to spend� 600 rubles for hanging out with the president.
Source: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/08/14/014.html