Three-dimensional (3D) movies, which require viewers to wear stereoscopic glasses, have become very popular in recent years. However, the 3D effect produced by the glasses cannot provide perfect depth cues. Furthermore, it is not possible to move one's head and observe that objects appear different from different angles—a real-life effect known as motion parallax. Now, A*STAR researchers have developed a new way of generating high-resolution, full-color, 3D videos that uses holographic technology.
Holograms are considered to be truly 3D, because they allow the viewer to see different perspectives of a reconstructed 3D object from different angles and locations (see image). Like a photograph, a hologram contains information about the size, shape and color of an object. Where holograms differ from photographs is that they are created using lasers, which can produce the complex light interference patterns, including spatial data, required to re-create a complete 3D object.
However, generating high-resolution, moving holograms to replace current 3D imaging technology has proved difficult. To enhance the resolution of their holographic videos, Xuewu Xu and colleagues at the Data Storage Institute in Singapore used an array of spatial light modulators (SLMs).
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