The digital transformation is changing both the environment and the conditions for authenticating documents. Trained document examiners at the borders generally have less time to inspect travel documents and some others are required to detect evidence of document fraud based on images or videos captured remotely. Simultaneously, providers of mobile onboarding software solutions are challenged with the opportunity to use artificial intelligence, where machines and mobile devices equipped with software algorithms capture images and perform template matching to confirm authenticity.
It is with these trends in mind that OVD Kinegram has introduced the KINEGRAM® PCI with Full Data Protection (FDP) as an example of the next generation for data page protection in polycarbonate documents. As depicted in the generic “Bee Design” shown below, the ability to integrate the embedded Kinegram elements over a larger area in perfect optical harmony with other features such as the pre-printed patterns and images, leads to an overall document design which is intuitive and self-explanatory and hence suitable for quick and reliable human inspection. The FDP solution is suitable for both ID3 format passport data pages and ID1 format identity cards or driver’s licenses.
The optically brilliant metallized image of a bee can be seen collecting nectar from a flower in the background print design. The wings of the bee, depicted by fine metallic lines, flap as the document is tilted indicative of perfect registration between the metal and diffractive structures which is characteristic of the KINEGRAM ZERO.ZERO® technology.
Another bee which overlaps the laser-etched primary photo is prepared as a transparent image with a virtual 3D effect. The body of the bee appears to protrude from the surface. Running a finger of the image confirms that it is completely flat and non-tactile.
While this Kinegram design is ideal for human inspection, the individual security features of the Kinegram are designed to be amenable to computer vision and optical machine authentication using desk-top document readers and mobile phones.
Polycarbonate-based documents, ID-1 cards and ID-3 datapages, are the gold standard among ID and travel documents. In combination with a carefully crafted document design and cleverly integrated, sophisticated security features, they are highly resistant to counterfeiting and tampering.
This and their long lifetime make them an ideal solution for both the bearer of the document as well as the issuing governmental institution. DOVIDs, in particular the KINEGRAM security element – which was the first DOVID ever to be embedded – have played a vital role since the polycarbonate success story started more than 20 years ago.
Mostly embedded in the polycarbonate-based documents to protect the photo information, DOVIDs are in fact becoming a key requirement in secure document design. The story started off with transparent patches covering a part of the photograph, which according to ICAO recommendations is the single most important feature to be protected in a travel document. In an evolutionary development, additional technologies, such as metallized structures with perfect registration or very high resolution as well as the inclusion of printed colors have been integrated systematically in order to keep making the counterfeiter’s life more difficult.
If we consider laminates for ID-3 paper-based passport datapages with their impressive, easy to remember imagery and animations, a natural further evolution is an equivalent full-face protection for polycarbonate-based datapages.
In 2019, OVD Kinegram launched its new full-data protection (FDP) solution that, on an ID-3 polycarbonate datapage, demonstrated various benefits:
A visual impression similar to that exhibited by thin KINEGRAM laminates for paper-based datapages with large design elements which allow protection of, not only the photo, but also other personalized information
Excellent integration of the visual security feature(s) with the print design of the document
Improved inter-layer bonding to maintain a robust, manipulation resistant polycarbonate body, since the embedded KINEGRAM foil is present only in regions which exhibit the visual effects.
The polycarbonate FDP solution can function as a platform that can integrate various KINEGRAM technologies in order to fulfil all requirements for a state-of-the-art document. Besides providing first line visual security for protecting the bearer’s identity (the traditional and obviously still most important function of the KINEGRAM), the FDP solution is designed to be both perfectly compatible with optical machine authentication (OMA), as well as suitable for optical phone authentication (OPA).
At the SDW conference on September 22nd, 2021 in London, OVD Kinegram will provide more news and information on the polycarbonate FDP solution, including a new design that will demonstrate cutting-edge security technology for polycarbonate-based documents.
