ODDS Continues Big Debate – The Transition from Physical to Digital

The programme for the third Optical and Digital Document Security™ (ODDS) conference is now available.

The conference will continue the debate around physical, digital and virtual security documents, notably in relation to the transition from physical identity and fiduciary documents to digital records and transactions, and against a backdrop of rapid advances in game-changing technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing.

ODDS 2024 will feature two half-day seminars, 30 papers, and a panel discussion, presented by a range of organisations active in the optical and digital security field. These include security document producers, younger, specialist companies establishing their role, academic and other research organisations, and start-ups.

The first seminar will be presented by Franziska Granc, Senior Project Manager at Nimbus Technologieberatung, on the topic of ‘European Wonder Wallet: essential information for ID and document providers’. She will describe how the EU is working towards a first-of-its-kind framework for a EU Digital Identity Wallet and how this digital wallet ties in with the goals and challenges of the revised eIDAS regulation for electronic identification, authentication and trust services.

The second seminar explains the game-changing developments of quantum computing and AI, and considers what these might mean for digital and optical document security. The seminar has three parts: Dr Volker Lohweg of the Institute Industrial IT of the Technische Hochschule OWL will give an overview of AI, Dr Anke Ginter of Bundesdruckerei will then explain quantum computing, and Ian Lancaster, ODDS Programme Director, will pull all this together and consider the implications for optical and digital document security.

The following day, the conference opens with a keynote speech from Jordan Brough of the US Homeland Security Investigations Forensic Laboratory, who will explore how AI could be used to create convincing fakes, and what government issuers should be doing to fortify their credentials against AI-enabled fraud.

Other topics covered during the conference include:

• ‘Artefactometry by artificial intelligence for marked objects’, by Zbigniew Sagan of Advanced Track & Trace. He describes how complex physical objects can be distinguished using characteristics similar to human biometrics. This industrial practice is addressed through a new deep learning-based method called artefactometry.

• ‘Optical variable devices on secure documents – where next?’, by Francis Tuffy of Reconnaissance International. This paper uses historical and current sources to review the development of optical variable devices and consider their future as a means of protecting documents.

• ‘Protecting IDs in the quantum computing era’, by Alexander Winnen of Veridos. This paper explains the concrete steps needed to secure travel documents and their infrastructure, in the face of threats from quantum computing.

• ‘What will passports look like in 20 years?’, by Renaud Laffont-Leenhart of Thales. In 20 years, will we still use actual documents as passports? If so what could they look like? How will AI change the way we design and verify documents? Will they still be designed primarily for human inspection?

• ‘Security challenges of mobile IDs’, by Frank Schmalz of Veridos. He describes how cryptographic security, as used in mobile IDs, can only be verified by a computing device. However, some smartphone apps with ‘mobile ID’ functionality are attempting to address this issue with ‘special effects’.

• ‘Micro-optics in the fourth dimension’, by Axel Lundvall of Rolling Optics. In addition to the three spatial dimensions, micro-optics offers the possibility of incorporating a fourth, time-dimension component into an artwork, based on people’s attention and perception of overt micro-optical security features.

• ‘A computer-generated holography solution’, by Leehwan Hwang of Kwangoon University, South Korea. This paper introduces a method for merging computer-generated hologram encryption with a comprehensive system for document encryption, printing, and smartphone verification.

The conference will be accompanied by a table-top exhibition, offering delegates a ‘show, tell and handle’ experience to complement the ‘tell’ experience in the presentations.

ODDS will be held on 8-10 April 2024 in Lisbon, Portugal. To reserve your table-top and register for the conference, visit https://opticaldigitalsecurity.com. Early bird rates are valid until 29 February, so don’t delay!