3D Holograms Invade the Fourth Dimension [Holograms]

Holography has just gained a fourth dimension, bringing the possibility of Star Wars-style holographic telepresence into the $64000 world.

Ever since Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks made the first laser holograms in 1963, holography has been the future of three-dimensional imaging . Once created, a hologram can also be illuminated to create a pattern of light waves that replicates the light reflected by the original object, generating a 3D image without the desire for special glasses.

As such, holography seems a really perfect medium for three-dimensional telepresence, like the famous ” hologram” of Princess Leia within the first Star Wars movie. During its 2008 presidential election night coverage, CNN’s coverage used what looked to be holographic technology, with anchor Wolf Blitzer talking face-to-face with a virtual 3D correspondent, Jessica Yellin – but the impressive visuals were added to the camera feed instead of being projected live onto the studio floor .

By election night 2020 the pair could possibly have that face-to-face conversation, though, in step with Nasser Peyghambarian at the University of Arizona in Tuscon. With colleagues and researchers at the Nitto Denko Technical Corporation in Oceanside, California, Peyghambarian has devised a holographic system which can handle near-real-time motion.

Plastic pictures

The secret’s a posh new plastic material the researchers have developed, which changes its refractive index when illuminated by laser light. Such photorefractive materials were studied for years, but it really is the fastest and most sensitive known, in a position to record and display an additional holographic image every 2 seconds.

” They’ve taken it to a new level in sensitivity and area,” says Joe Perry of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, who was not involved with the work.

To demonstrate its potential for telepresence applications, Peyghambarian and co-workers photographed an object from 16 different angles with conventional video cameras. Computers then converted the video images into the form needed to make a hologram, and sent that information to a ” receiver” a ways away using standard Ethernet communication protocols. The receiver features a laser that interpreted the image data to ” write” 100 holographic stripes into the 10-centimetre-square chunk of plastic over a period of 2 seconds. Next, a red, green and blue LEDs illuminated the plastic, recreating the phase, direction and amplitude of light waves reflected off the original object and forming a colour 3D holographic replica.

Rather like a rewritable DVD, writing a new hologram into the plastic erases the old one, allowing the researchers to create holographic video, albeit at a really low ” frame rate” .

Better to come

The holographic images aren’t detailed, but they’ve true depth (see video). Larger images and better colour and backbone can be needed for commercial systems, though. The time resolution would ideally be improved from 0.5 frames per second (fps) to 30 fps for telecommunication, but many potential applications in medical and industrial imaging could use the lower rates already achieved, said Peyghambarian.

An image like Princess Leia ” isn’t any longer science fiction, it can be something you could do today” , he said at a press conference. However, he added that commercial applications are a minimum of seven to 10 years away.

New Scientist reports, explores and interprets the consequences of human endeavour set inside the context of society and culture, providing comprehensive coverage of science and technology news.

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This post is tagged: election night coverage, Georgia Institute of Technology, oceanside california, photorefractive materials, telepresence applications