ODDS Conference Hits the Phygital Nerve

Registration for the second Optical and Digital Document Security™ (ODDS) conference is now open with a programme that demonstrates the importance of this event in bringing together people involved in developing digital systems for identity and financial transactions with the more traditional security document community. The conference will be on 17-19 April 2023 in Prague, Czech Republic.

The first ODDS conference, in 2022, showed that there is a need for this event, the only one presenting the developments in and interface between the physical and digital worlds of financial transaction and personal identity security. 

The 2023 conference opens with a session which examines ‘phygital’ features. Paper and plastic currency and identity cards are still in everyday use, albeit they now often interact with a digital record, so this first session sets out innovative ways of making those links, which are becoming the key nerve in securing the protection of our financial transactions and proofs of identity.

The digital domain is becoming more prominent in our everyday transactions as we have to prove who we are for banking, for online purchases and even to use public transport. So the central sessions in the conference cover Protecting Identity in the Digital Age, with presentations from established and highly experienced security printers as well as research institutes and young companies. With identity theft on the increase, the information in these sessions gains added significance for everyone involved in identity security.

The physical security providers remain competitive and innovative, as the final two sessions on New Optical Techniques for Security show. Prevention of fraud and easy recognition of genuine items remains a key motivator behind some fascinating new approaches that will be described in these sessions. 

Many now established optical security features were first announced at the Optical Document Security™ conference – one of the ODDS predecessor conferences, with the other being Digital Document Security™. This continues at ODDS 2023, with exciting innovations from well-known companies such as OVD Kinegram and SICPA alongside those from recent start-ups including 4Plate and NanoBrick.

ODDS 2023 opens with a seminar on smartphones, given by Dr Alan Hodgson, a knowledgeable and respected authority and regular contributor to ID & Secure Document News™. He will look at how and why smartphones are becoming a dominant tool in identity and financial transaction management, while setting out their shortcomings as security devices. He will also ask what this means for those who don’t have a smartphone or where network coverage is weak. This will be an eye-opening and thought-provoking seminar for everyone developing smartphone ID or financial systems or features for smartphone validation.

And don’t miss the conference dinner and table-top exhibition on Tuesday evening, where you can see and handle some of the technologies you’ll hear about in the presentations.

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