Wider perspective

Last week Visa announced a new card with enhanced security features that will, it claimed, make counterfeiting more difficult. Underpinning its design is a holographic metallic strip that, while being easy for readers to recognise, is also much harder to reproduce.

Although this should not be considered a panacea to fraud or counterfeiting, it is a demonstration of the increasing use of holograms, which until now have perhaps been perceived as best suited to produce an exclusive sticker collection or a sophisticated finish to the latest bestseller.

A new branch of hologram technology has the potential to offer solutions across a broad spectrum — from biosensors in the eye that can read glucose levels to smart labels that tell you when your meat has gone off and devices that can read alcohol and pathogen levels.

One of the most interesting advances is the work of Prof Christopher Lowe, director of the Institute of Biotechnology at Cambridge University, who has developed the concept of smart holograms.