Technology Research

Holography

A Brief History

Not just a plot device used in science fiction, holography has been around for some time. Beginning with the work of physicist Dennis Garbor, who—in 1971 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “for [the] invention and development of the holographic method”.

How it Works

One of the methods that was made famous in 2012 during the Indio music festival Coachella, was the Tupac hologram. Although not a true three-dimensional hologram, through optical illusion, it was able to create a believable holographic projection using a technique known as “Pepper’s Ghost.

Shining part of the light beam directly into the recording medium can make true 3D holography. and the other part onto the object in such a way that some of the scattered light falls onto the recording medium. When the two laser beams reach the recording medium, their light waves intersect and interfere with each other. It is this interference pattern that is imprinted on the recording medium. The pattern itself is seemingly random, as it represents the way in which the scene's light interfered with the original light source — but not the original light source itself. The interference pattern can be considered an encoded version of the scene, requiring a particular key — the original light source — in order to view its contents.

This missing key is provided later by shining a laser, identical to the one used to record the hologram, onto the developed film. When this beam illuminates the hologram, it is diffracted by the hologram's surface pattern. This produces a light field identical to the one originally produced by the scene and scattered onto the hologram.

To make a hologram, the following are required:

• a suitable object or set of objects

• Part of the laser beam to be directed so that it illuminates the object (the object beam) and another part so that it illuminates the recording medium directly (the reference beam), enabling the reference beam and the light which is scattered from the object onto the recording medium to form an interference pattern

• a recording medium which converts this interference pattern into an optical element which modifies either the amplitude or the phase of an incident light beam according to the intensity of the interference pattern.

• a laser beam that produces coherent light with one wavelength

• an environment which provides sufficient mechanical and thermal stability that the interference pattern is stable during the time in which the interference pattern is record

(INFORMATION TAKEN FROM WIKIPEDIA)

Applications

Holographic Data Storage

Holographic Security

Art

STORY PITCH

Two siblings are having coffee, and having a conversation in a park under a tree branch. They’re having a talking something pretty insignificant, like who would win in fight: An orangutan or a human being armed with the baseball bat. The conversation turns into a pretty heated argument and they start throwing petty insults at one another. It gets so heated that eventually one sibling throws their half empty drink at the other. It goes right through them.

The two sit there in silence for a few seconds, when the thrower of the coffee says “I miss you”. The other reiterates the same mark, and disappear. It was only a hologram. The remaining sibling sits for a while, smiles solemnly. Picking up the thrown coffee, the sibling walks off. Last shot is of the empty park bench. Cue sad music. 

The end.