The History and Development of Holography

We see the world is three-dimensional and colorful, it is because the light emitted by each of the objects accepted by the human eye, light intensity, fired, and distance, the colors are different. From the wave optics point of view, due to the different specific lightwave emitted by the respective objects of the main features of the light depends on the amplitude (intensity) of the light waves, the phase (with physiognomy shape) and wavelength (color). If you can get the scene light waves completely characterized, will be able to see realistic three-dimensional image of the scene, this is holography. Hologram was born until now has made ??great progress in the past 60 years, has been widely used in modern scientific research and industrial production.

Hologram Basic

The first hologram was made in 1947 by Dennis Gabor, a Hungarian-born scientist who was working at the Imperial College of London. Gabor was attempting to refine the design of an electron microscope. He devised a new technique, which he decided to test with a filtered light beam before trying it with an electron beam. Gabor made a transmission hologram by carefully filtering his light source, but the process did not become practical until technology provided a way to produce coherent light-light that consists of a single frequency and a single wavelength. Hologram production took off with the invention of the laser in 1960, as a laser generates light that is of a single color (frequency) and produces waves that travel in phase with one another. In 1962, using a laser to replicate Gabor's holography experiment, Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks of the University of Michigan produced a transmission hologram of a toy train and a bird. The image was clear and three-dimensional, but it could only be viewed by illuminating it with a laser. That same year Uri N. Denisyuk of the Soviet Union produced a reflection hologram that could be viewed with light from an ordinary bulb. A further advance came in 1968 when Stephen A. Benton created the first transmission hologram that could be viewed in ordinary light. This led to the development of embossed holograms, making it possible to mass produce holograms for common use. Nearly a quarter century after he had made the first hologram, Gabor was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for this achievement in 1971. The following year, Lloyd Cross made the first recording of a moving hologram by imprinting sequential frames from ordinary moving picture film onto holographic film.

The hologram is based upon Nobel Prize winner Dennis Gabor's theory concerning interference patterns. Gabor theorized in 1947 that each crest of the wave pattern contains the whole information of its original source, and that this information could be stored on film and reproduced. This is why it is called a hologram.

Holography is the only visual recording and playback process that can record our three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional recording medium and playback the original object or scene, to the unaided eyes, as a three dimensional image. The image demonstrates complete parallax and depth-of-field. The image floats in space either behind, in front of, or straddling the recording medium.

Holography is the only visual recording and playback process that can record our three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional recording medium and playback the original object or scene, to the unaided eyes, as a three dimensional image. The image demonstrates complete parallax and depth-of-field. The image floats in space either behind, in front of, or straddling the recording medium.

History of Hologram

Holography dates from 1947 , when British (native of Hungary) scientist Dennis Gabor developed the theory of holography while working to improve the resolution of an electron microscope.Gabor coined the term hologram from the Greek words holos, meaning "whole," and gramma, meaning "message". Further development in the field was stymied during the next decade because light sources available at the time were not truly "coherent" (monochromatic or one-color, from a single point, and of a single wavelength)

This barrier was overcome in 1960 by Russian scientists N. Bassov and A. Prokhorov and American scientist Charles Towns with the invention of the laser, whose pure, intense light was ideal for making holograms.

In that year the pulsed-ruby laser was developed by Dr. T.H. Maimam . This laser system (unlike the continuous wave laser normally used in holography) emits a very powerful burst of light that lasts only a few nanoseconds (a billionth of a second). It effectively freezes movement and makes it possible to produce holograms of high-speed events, such as a bullet in flight, and of living subjects. The first hologram of a person was made in 1967 , paving the way for a specialized application of holography: pulsed holographic portraiture.

In 1962 Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks of the University of Michigan recognized from their work in side-reading radar that holography could be used as a 3-D visual medium. In 1962 they read Gabor's paper and "simply out of curiosity" decided to duplicate Gabor's technique using the laser and an "off-axis" technique borrowed from their work in the development of side-reading radar. The result was the first laser transmission hologram of 3-D objects (a toy train and bird). These transmission holograms produced images with clarity and realistic depth but required laser light to view the holographic image.

In 1972 Lloyd Cross developed the integral hologram by combining white-light transmission holography with conventional cinematography to produce moving 3-dimensional images. Sequential frames of 2-D motion-picture footage of a rotating subject are recorded on holographic film. When viewed, the composite images are synthesized by the human brain as a 3-D image.

In 70's Victor Komar and his colleagues at the All-Union Cinema and Photographic Research Institute (NIFKI) in Russia, developed a prototype for a projected holographic movie. Images were recorded with a pulsed holographic camera. The developed film was projected onto a holographic screen that focused the dimensional image out to several points in the audience.

Holographic artists have greatly increased their technical knowledge of the discipline and now contribute to the technology as well as the creative process. The art form has become international, with major exhibitions being held throughout the world.