The biannual Optical Security and Counterfeit Deterrence conference, which took place in San Francisco January 20-22, had an attendance of almost 250 delegates - 30 more delegates than the previous ODS - and is emerging a s strong fixture in the security events calendar.

18 national, state and reserve banks sent delegates, demonstrating the heightened level of interest in a quality event dealing with the technology of serious security print features.

Optical Document Security focuses on technical and scientific developments in optical security for value documents and products. It offers a platform to researchers, developers, manufacturers and users of security to present their findings, new work and new techniques on a technical and scientific level. Some of the most significant developments in banknote and identity document security and production technology in recent years have been first described in public at these conferences and this latest conference was no exception to this tradition.

Papers in the first session, chaired by Sara Church of the Federal Reserve Board (USA), covered currency printing from the Netherlands Bank, KBA-Giori, Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences and Austrian Banknote Printing Works.

Stephen Simske and Jason Aronhoff of Hewlett Packard Labs spoke about methods to optimize tracking barcodes for use in mobile scanning applications.

Tsuyoshi Uematsu of the National Printing Bureau of Japan presented a thought provoking account of a novel class of pigments designated as Elasticoluminescent.

3M announced its new, multicolored, three dimensional floating image security feature, while Andre Arsenault of Opalux Inc updated delegates on the new opal-like features being developed for document and brand protection.

Nigel Abraham of OpSec Security Group gave a lively presentation of Coherent Diffractive Imaging (cdi). Robert Vranken of Validus Technologies introduced printed security labels using optically active liquid crystals.

For identification documents, highlights of the programme included presentations from Jan van den Berg of Sagem Identification BV describing their system for laser engraving 3D portraits into polycarbonate ID substrates, and Garth Zambory of JDSU Authentications Solutions Group on the company's recently launched and award winning Holofuse.

The next Optical Document Security conference will take place January 2012 in San Francisco.