3M rolls out overt document security technology

3M has introduced a new overt security feature that makes multiple images seemingly ‘float’ in the same space when a document is tilted. 

The security feature, called 3M Laser Engraved Floating Image, is pitched as a way for border agents and police officers to quickly verify a document’s authenticity. Tilting a document incorporating the feature will cause the page to cycle between images, such as the owner’s signature, birthdate and ID number.

If a counterfeiter were to amend any of the information printed on the document, the floating image would remain unchanged, revealing the tampering to any official. The method is also designed to be hard to counterfeit.

3M creates the effect by embossing microlenses into the surface of polycarbonate cards. Then, when a user tilts the document, these microlenses make it appear that a series of images are floating above and below the document.

Multiple and changeable laser images (MLI, CLI) achieve a similar effect, but 3M claims its approach has the edge over these technologies. The claimed advantages include the fact that images appear to float above and below the document, and their movement is ‘dramatic and obvious.’