LAMCID, a new Joint Lab with HID Global
Our website features a high impact scientific article published by our Functional Materials and Surfaces team, titled «Anti-Counterfeiting White Light Printed Image Multiplexing by Fast Nanosecond Laser Processing». The article is the last in a series of collaborations between the Laboratoire Hubert Curien and HID Global CID, a company specialised in the development and manufacture of ID documents. The collaboration between the 2 entities has led to a new joint venture with the creation of LAMCID - LAsers, Materials and Colors for citizen Identify Documents - a Joint Lab (LabCom) that was officially inaugurated on 9th June 2022.
This is the 2nd initiative of the sort by the Laboratoire Hubert Curien, after the creation of the “LabH6” joint lab in 2018 by the MOPERE team with the company iXblue, designer and manufacturer of photonic devices. Working around the theme of special optical fibres in harsh environments for the nuclear, space & health sectors, LabH6's research and experiments have resulted in, among other achievements, the development of the fibre-optic dosimeter that was tested by Thomas Pesquet during its ESA ALPHA Mission. The renewal of the LabH6 contract this year attests the success of this collaboration.
The Laboratoire Hubert Curien's knowledge and know-how in various disciplines (laser- matter interaction, plasmonics, sol-gel, materials' appearance, science of colour, secure images, machine learning, laser micronanostructuring) will be combined with HID's industrial expertise in identity documents manufacturing to be applied to various projects.
The team’s objective is to further develop and broaden the innovative techniques so far jointly developed within the general framework of laser inscription of images on polycarbonate substrates. With the support of our Image Science and Computer Vision team, the group will develop the necessary tools, methodologies, software and know-how for further securing the authenticity of ID documents in ways that could revolutionize the ID cards and passports systems. In particular, methods of multiplexed images printing implemented inside polycarbonate cards will be explored. Another aspect of this future joint work involves the non-multiplexed laser inscription of colour images within cards, in order to
create extremely realistic rendered colours in different modes of observation and illumination such as reflection or transmission. This work will help creating images with special visual effects, for the inscription of portraits onto ID cards for example.
Specific equipment and premises will also be shared, thanks to the installation of HID Global CID's French R&D offices on our Manufacture site, within the Centre des Savoirs pour l’Innovation Building. This move will significantly shorten the experimentation process through direct interaction between both teams, allowing them to work on materials and products as close as possible to the final product, and by following manufacturing processes similar to those used in the HID production plants. The collaboration between the Laboratoire Hubert Curien and HID, initiated in 2016, has already generated several papers published in highly ranked journals, whilst 3 patents have been granted. It has so far supported 2 PhD theses and a post-doctoral project, leading to the recruitment at HID of Nipun Sharma and Nicolas Dalloz, both from the Laboratoire Hubert Curien. One PhD and one post-doctoral contracts have also been granted for the upcoming academic year.
With these already productive activities, we can look forward to a prosperous future for LAMCID. We wish the team the best of luck in their endeavour!
© Université Jean Monnet
They are talking about it: