Holographic three-dimensional telepresence using large-area photorefractive polymer

Holographic telepresence demonstrated A practical method of producing truly three-dimensional images that do not require the viewer to wear special eyewear would have many potential applications - in telemedicine, mapping and entertainment, for instance. True 3D holographic displays have so far lacked the capability of updating images with sufficient speed to convey movement. Now, a team working at the University of Arizona's College of Optical Sciences and Nitto Denko Technical Corporation in Oceanside, California, has developed a system that updates images at close to real-time. In a proof-of-concept experiment, they adapt an established technique based on holographic stereographic recording and a novel photorefractive polymeric material as the recording medium to produce a holographic display that can refresh its images every two seconds. Multicoloured and full parallax display are possible in this system - as is 3D 'telepresence', in which data describing holographic images from one location are transmitted to another location where the images are 'printed' with the quasi-real time dynamic holographic display. Holographic displays can produce truly three-dimensional (3D) images, but have so far been unable to update images fast enough. These authors have adapted a previous technique, based on holographic stereographic recording with a photorefractive polymeric material as the recording medium, to produce a quasi-real-time holographic display that can refresh its images every two seconds, and use it to demonstrate the possibility of 3D telepresence. Improvements could bring applications in telemedicine, prototyping, advertising, updatable 3D maps and entertainment. Holography is a technique that is used to display objects or scenes in three dimensions. Such three-dimensional (3D) images, or holograms, can be seen with the unassisted eye and are very similar to how humans see the actual environment surrounding them. The concept of 3D telepresence, a real-time dynamic hologram depicting a scene occurring in a different location, has attracted considerable public interest since it was depicted in the original Star Wars film in 1977. However, the lack of sufficient computational power to produce realistic computer-generated holograms 1 and the absence of large-area and dynamically updatable holographic recording media 2 have prevented realization of the concept. Here we use a holographic stereographic technique 3 and a photorefractive polymer material as th