80% Digital + 20% Analogue = 100% Novel for H010

At the Optical and Digital Document Security™ conference, in September, George Hall, Chief Commercial Officer of UK company H010 (pronounced ‘holo’ but note the two zeroes and the figure ‘1’), presented this start-up company’s novel hologram/QR code security label.

Simple in concept but a challenge to achieve, the label consists of a surface relief holographic image of two interspersed QR codes.

At first sight, the hologram shows a classic 2D code as a black and white pattern of tiny squares or dots (Fig 1).

Fig 1 – H010 hologram QR label.

Then, as the hologram is tilted or rotated, two different patterns are revealed in separate holographic channels – each of which is a QR code (middle picture of Fig 2). These codes are specific to each origination. The hologram label also carries an overprinted unique alphanumeric code.

Of course, QR codes are not, in themselves secure, but they are increasingly used for product tracking and tracing, which does require at least a minimum level of security. H010’s label is the latest attempt to enhance the codes, and therefore their value in brand protection, by making them secure. Like all holograms, they cannot easily be scanned or otherwise copied, and even if this image were to be copied, it is extremely unlikely that the two codes could be separated for scanning.