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Wired has an interesting story about the growing problem of fake holograms...
Fake holograms also undermine anti-counterfeiting practices erected by memorabilia and coin collecting groups, in which valuable collectibles -- like comic books, coins and baseball cards -- are sealed in bags with numbered holograms that a potential buyer can verify with special hologram reading-gear.The biggest problem, Allen and others say, is that almost anyone can get a hologram printing machine now, often for less than $10,000, or simply order duplicates of a master hologram from dozens of hologram-making companies throughout the world.
Wired News: Fake Holograms a 3-D Crime Wave - Link.
I can care less about the counterfeiting, getting a home hologram machine for under $10k sounds awesome.
Pictured here fake hologram - Trademark Management Inc & Wired. Read the article and spot the differences with the real/fake ones.
Rob in the comments has an excellent point with all this --
No doubt it will become cool to have a "fake" hologram, and so manufacturers of "real" holograms will start to make them look "fake" for street cred, at which point china will produce fake "real" fake holograms etc, etc, until the whole idea of holgrams on baseball caps eats itself.Memo to western culture: any "collectible" that needs a hologram to prove its collectability, isn't collectable.
Related:
There have been people doiing this with all sorts of things for years. There was a spate of duff pound notes a few years ago, and the holograms were just bits of silver foil cut out and stuck on. They didn't look real if you looked at them, but then most people don't actually *look* at the security around them. Which is why you get "security theatre" at airports, and obviously fake items in circulation.
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A lot of the genuine security devices are just etched foil not real holograms so would be a lot easer to copy.
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Interesting. I've often considered that it would be incredibly easy to make your own holo-foils if you had the proper setup. Lasers and optics are completely affordable so someone should do a "make your own holograms" soon. I know how to make a pseudo-hologram in plastic, maybe I oughta share it soon.
*begin grammar nazi*
It's actually "I couldn't care less" which means you don't have the ability to care any less about the subject; the "I could" or "I can" means you actually care about it and that you are capable of caring less but aren't for some reason.
*end grammar nazi*
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No doubt it will become cool to have a "fake" hologram, and so manufacturers of "real" holograms will start to make them look "fake" for street cred, at which point china will produce fake "real" fake holograms etc, etc, until the whole idea of holgrams on baseball caps eats itself.
Memo to western culture: any "collectible" that needs a hologram to prove its collectability, isn't collectable.
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rob, excellent. i'm going to add this to the post.
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This sort of story that always reminds me of the line "Stars on Thars" from The Sneetches. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sneetches_and_Other_Stories
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