LaserCard Corporation (Nasdaq:LCRD), a leading provider of secure ID solutions, today announced innovations to its optical security media that aid document examiners in visually authenticating identity credentials when electronic card readers are not available. These advances in secure imaging put the possibility of credible forgeries even further beyond the reach of counterfeiters.

Ongoing enhancement of LaserCard’s optical security media is enabled by continuous internal software development efforts. The company’s flexible development environment and secure encoding technology allow the media to be purposed in progressively new and unique ways. The optical media not only securely stores digital data and enables confident visual authentication, but also supports the covert interleaving of visual and digital information to provide yet another forensic authentication method.

New and enhanced features in the most recently released developments include:

Higher resolution security artwork: Overt, covert and forensic user-defined security features are embedded into the optical media in the LaserCard controlled manufacturing process. These images are resolved at up to 25,000 dots per inch, well beyond the capability of current or conceived scanning, copying and printing technologies.
Higher contrast, higher resolution cardholder image laser etched onto the optical security media (Personalized Embedded HologramHDTM) to resist substitution or tampering of a credential’s printed or lasered facial image(s)
New personalized features which enhance the Personalized Embedded Hologram, including ghost image (a faint duplicate of the credential holder’s facial image) and continuously variable text, both of which enhance counterfeit resistance
Complex background images to lock the elements of the Personalized Embedded Hologram together, such as “watermark”, and “wallpaper”, which enhance visual authentication, prevent tampering and further deter counterfeiting
A new optical media card configuration which complies with International Civil Aviation Organization standards for travel cards.
These features provide credential examiners with a highly reliable means of visually authenticating a document and identifying its holder, especially when automatic readers are not available, which is the most common reality today despite the increasing specification of machine readable technologies.

“With these new features, one of the most secure card technologies in the world now delivers even greater value,” observed Bob Smith, general manager at LaserCard. “By taking visual security features to the next level, we are responding to the needs of real world document examination. And by combining visual and digital security in one technology, we provide a bridge between today’s reality of dependence on visual inspection and the automated environments planned for tomorrow.”

A white paper detailing the latest advances to LaserCard’s optical