Real-time three-dimensional object reconstruction by use of a phase-encoded digital hologram

A three-dimensional (3D) object reconstruction technique that uses only phase information of a phase-shifting digital hologram and a phase-only spatial-light modulator is proposed. It is well known that a digital hologram can store both amplitude and phase information of an optical electric field and can reconstruct the original 3D object in a computer. We demonstrate that it is possible to reconstruct optically 3D objects using only phase information of the optical field calculated from phase-shifting digital holograms. The use of phase-only information enables us to reduce the amount of data in the digital hologram and reconstruct optically the 3D objects using a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator without optical power loss. Numerical evaluation of the reconstructed 3D object is presented.     

Fast computation for generating CGH of a 3D object by employing connections between layers

An approximate method for generating computer-generated holograms (CGH) of a 3D object with six times faster speed than the conventional algorithm is presented. In the conventional algorithm, a 3D object is sliced into many layers and treated as a collection of self-illuminated point light source. The propagation process of a light ray from every point of an object to all the points on the hologram plane is simulated and interfered with by the reference beam to form a CGH. In our proposed method, under the assumption that the depth of a 3D object is much smaller than the recording distance, we just need to calculate the oblique distance between the first layer and the hologram plane, and then the oblique distances from the other layers to the hologram plane can be obtained from a simple relation, thus the computational time is much reduced. The CGH is optically reconstructed and the quality of the reconstructed image agrees well with that from the conventional algorithm.     

Generation of digital textured surface models from hologram recordings

Digital sensors and fast digital image processing facilitate the use of pulsed holography for 3D surface measurement of moving objects. The real image of a hologram is reconstructed optically. A sequence of high-resolution projection images of the real image with a varying distance to the hologram is recorded digitally. Focus detection in this image sequence by digital image processing yields the shape of the recorded object. The image intensity serves as a precise pixel-matching texture. An application of this concept is the generation of a textured 3D computer model of a facial surface from a portrait hologram.     

全息图再现象研究

通过分析全息图记录的干涉条纹图样，指出对于二维全息图，一束再现光将产生两个对称于全息图面的物象，两束对称于全息图面的再现光将产生位形相同的物象；三维全息图的再现，象的对称性不变，但原物象的对称再现象有一定的弥散，对称光再现时，等亮度再现象出现在全息图转动一个角度之后，实验上制作了具有清晰透射彩虹全息象的象面反射全息图。     

Secure three-dimensional data transmission and display

An optical three-dimensional (3D) display system interfaced with digital data transmission is proposed. In this system, an original 3D object is encrypted by use of a random phase mask and then the encrypted pattern is recorded as a digital hologram. The digital hologram key is also recorded for optical decryption. Both the encrypted digital hologram and the digital hologram key are transmitted to a receiver through a conventional communication data channel. At the receiver, the 3D scene is reconstructed and displayed optically in a retrieval system based on a joint-transform correlation. Experimental results are presented. We investigate the influence of quantization of the joint power spectrum in the optical correlator on the quality of the reconstructed image.     

Polarization imaging by use of digital holography

We present what we believe to be a new digital holographic imaging method that is able to determine simultaneously the distributions of intensity, phase, and polarization state at the surface of a specimen on the basis of a single image acquisition. Two reference waves with orthogonal polarization states interfere with the object wave to create a hologram that is recorded on a CCD camera. Two wave fronts, one for each perpendicular polarization state, are numerically reconstructed in intensity and phase. Combining the intensity and the phase distributions of these two wave fronts permits the determination of all the components of the Jones vector of the object-wave front. We show that this method can be used to image and measure the distribution of the polarization state at the surface of a specimen, and the obtained results indicate that precise quantitative measurements of the polarization state can be achieved. An application of the method to image the birefringence of a stressed polymethyl methacrylate sample is presented.     

360° reconstruction of a 3D object using cylindrical computer generated holography

Simulated reconstruction of a three-dimensional (3D) object in 360° from cylindrical hologram is proposed. The simulation is done using a fast calculation method, where wave propagation in spectral domain and in cylindrical coordinates is used to generate the cylindrical hologram of a 3D object. The same procedure is followed to reconstruct the object back. The reconstructions resembled the original object and could be seen from all 360°. The whole simulation process is done using open-source software.     

Coaxial holographic encoding based on pure phase modulation

We describe a simple technique for coaxial holographic image recording and reconstruction, employing a spatial light modulator (SLM) modified in pure phase mode. In the image encoding system, both the reference beam in the outside part and the signal beam in the inside part are displayed by an SLM based on the twisted nematic LCD. For a binary image, the part with amplitude of "1" is modulated with random phase, while the part with amplitude of "0" is modulated with constant phase. After blocking the dc component of the spatial frequencies, a Fourier transform (FT) hologram is recorded with a uniform intensity distribution. The amplitude image is reconstructed by illuminating the reference beam onto the hologram, which is much simpler than existing phase modulated FT holography techniques. The technique of coaxial holographic image encoding and recovering with pure phase modulation is demonstrated theoretically and experimentally in this paper. As the holograms are recorded without the high-intensity dc component, the storage density with volume medium may be increased with the increase of dynamic range. Such a simple modulation method will have potential applications in areas such as holographic encryption and high-density disk storage systems.     

Computer-generated holograms of a real three-dimensional object based on stereoscopic video images

A novel method of using stereoscopic video images to synthesize the computer-generated hologram (CGH) patterns of a real 3D object is proposed. Stereoscopic video images of a real 3D object are captured by a 3D camera system. Disparity maps between the captured stereo image pairs are estimated and from these estimated maps the depth data for each pixel of the object can be extracted on a frame basis. By using these depth data and original color images, hologram patterns of a real object can be computationally generated. In experiments, stereoscopic video images of a real 3D object, a wooden rhinoceros doll, are captured by using the Wasol 3D adapter system and its depth data are extracted from them. Then, CGH patterns of 1280 pixels x 1024 pixels are generated with these depth-annotated images of the wooden rhinoceros doll, and the CGH patterns are experimentally displayed via a holographic display system.     

Automatic threshold technique for holographic particle field characterization

The 3D distribution of a particle field by digital holography is obtained by 3D numerical reconstruction of a 2D hologram. The proper identification of particles from the background during numerical reconstruction influences the overall effectiveness of the technique. The selection of a suitable threshold value to segment particles from the background of reconstructed images during 3D holographic reconstruction process is a critical issue, which influences the accuracy of particle size and number density of reconstructed particles. The object particle field parameters, such as depth of sample volume and density of object particles, influence the optimal threshold value. The present study proposes a novel technique for the determination of the optimal threshold value of a reconstructed image. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is demonstrated using both simulated and experimental data. The proposed technique is robust to variation in optical properties of particle and background, depth of sample volume, and number density of object particle field. The particle diameter obtained from the proposed threshold technique is within 5% of that obtained from the particle size analyzer. There is a maximum ten times increase in reconstruction effectiveness by using the proposed automatic threshold technique in comparison with the fixed manual threshold technique.     

Analytical design for computer-generated Fourier holograms of shaded multi-polygonal three-dimensional objects

We report here on design and computer simulation of computer-generated holograms for three dimensional (3D) imaging and display. Angular spectrum of general polygon patches was calculated in closed analytical form that includes angular dependence of the intensity and linear gradient of phase at each polygon. Special attention was paid to reduction of the dynamic range in the amplitude transmittance of the hologram by proper random choices of slopes and initial phases of each polygon. Numerical computer simulation results proved that our polygon-patched design demonstrates halftones of object shades and shows expected sharp focusing of different parts of the reconstructed 3D images in their different cross-sections.     

Shot-noise influence on the reconstructed phase image signal-to-noise ratio in digital holographic microscopy

In digital holographic microscopy, shot noise is an intrinsic part of the recording process with the digital camera. We present a study based on simulations and real measurements describing the shot-noise influence in the quality of the reconstructed phase images. Different configurations of the reference wave and the object wave intensities will be discussed, illustrating the detection limit and the coherent amplification of the object wave. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) calculation of the reconstructed phase images based on the decision statistical theory is derived from a model for image quality estimation proposed by Wagner and Brown [Phys. Med. Biol. 30, 489 (1985)]. It will be shown that a phase image with a SNR above 10 can be obtained with a mean intensity lower than 10 photons per pixel and per hologram coming from the observed object. Experimental measurements on a glass-chrome probe will be presented to illustrate the main results of the simulations.     

Quantitative phase microscopy using dual-plane in-line digital holography

We present detailed theoretical evaluation and thorough experimental investigation of quantitative phase imaging using our previously demonstrated dual-plane in-line digital holographic microscopy technique [Opt. Lett. 35, 3426 (2010)]. This evaluation is based on the recording of two interferograms at slightly different planes and numerically reconstructing the object information. The zero-order diffracted wave is eliminated by using the method of subtraction of average intensity of the entire hologram, and the twin-image diffracted wave is removed by Fourier domain processing of the two recorded holograms. Experiments are performed using controlled amplitude and phase objects and human muscle cells to demonstrate the potential of this technique.     

Binary representation of interference patterns for phase-shifting digital hologram

Phase-shifting digital holograms can completely record the complex (amplitude and phase) wavefront information, containing three-dimensional object shape and relative position. In this study, we examine a binary representation for a phase-shifting digital hologram and apply it to three-dimensional object recognition and reconstruction. For this purpose, we derive an optimal threshold and quantized value for the binary representation of the interference patterns. The recognition results indicate that even with only one bit to represent the digital hologram, there is still enough information for us to recognize the three-dimensional objects. By using the proposed algorithms, one can easily implement the overall recognition process in real-time applications.     

Quantization noise and its reduction in lensless Fourier digital holography

Digital holography is an imaging technique that enables recovery of topographic 3D information about an object under investigation. In digital holography, an interference pattern is recorded on a digital camera. Therefore, quantization of the recorded hologram is an integral part of the imaging process. We study the influence of quantization error in the recorded holograms on the fidelity of both the intensity and phase of the reconstructed image. We limit our analysis to the case of lensless Fourier off-axis digital holograms. We derive a theoretical model to predict the effect of quantization noise and we validate this model using experimental results. Based on this, we also show how the resultant noise in the reconstructed image, as well as the speckle that is inherent in digital holography, can be conveniently suppressed by standard speckle reduction techniques. We show that high-quality images can be obtained from binary holograms when speckle reduction is performed.     

In-line hologram reconstruction using Hartley transform

In reconstruction of in-line recorded holograms, zero-order and conjugate images appear on the same physical location as the object image. Here we propose a method, new to our knowledge, to separate the object image from the others by using two quadrature phase-shifted holograms. The method uses the Hartley transform and a phase retrieval type of algorithm on the difference hologram.     

Quantization index modulation-based image watermarking using digital holography

We propose a blind watermarking method where the watermark is a hologram itself. In the proposed approach, the quantized phase of the hologram is embedded into the wavelet-transformed host image using quantization index modulation. In the detection stage, wavelet transform of the watermarked image followed by a minimum distance decoder is used. The proposed method is blind since it requires only information about the quantizers and the parameters of the hologram recording process. The robustness of the proposed technique is tested against several attacks such as filtering, compression, occlusion, and cropping. Moreover, we discuss the effect of quantization of the hologram on the reconstruction quality.     

Three-dimensional Linear Transfer by Means of Holographic Depth Selection

The 3D (three-dimensional) refractive index structure of weakly scattering objects can be made visible, without computation, by means of special holographic imaging methods, by which a 3D transfer process is performed. The refractive index may be complex, i.e. the object may weakly absorb. On certain assumptions, the transfer process is linear, and the complex amplitude distribution in the image plane represents the complex refractive index structure in a section through the object resolved three-dimensionally. By shifting the object, any section perpendicular to the axis can be adjusted. The properties of this 3D imaging process are described.     

Design and fabrication of computer-generated beam-shaping holograms

For the design of computer-generated holograms reconstructing certain intensity patterns with phase freedom, we use an object-oriented approach. The given intensity pattern is decomposed into elementary objects for which appropriate phase-only hologram functions can be constructed. The total hologram function is found by the subsequent superposition of its constituents, with a relative amplitude and phase weighting for each of them. Thus, the degrees of freedom are dramatically reduced compared with those of sampling approaches. The design algorithm allows us to compensate on the one hand for the intensity and phase distribution of the impinging laser beam and on the other hand for the shape of the hologram aperture. We report on the computer-aided design of such holograms, as well as their fabrication through the use of laser lithography and reactive ion etching. Optical reconstructions are shown.     

Spherical nonlinear correlations for global invariant three-dimensional object recognition

We define a nonlinear filtering based on correlations on unit spheres to obtain both rotation- and scale-invariant three-dimensional (3D) object detection. Tridimensionality is expressed in terms of range images. The phase Fourier transform (PhFT) of a range image provides information about the orientations of the 3D object surfaces. When the object is sequentially rotated, the amplitudes of the different PhFTs form a unit radius sphere. On the other hand, a scale change is equivalent to a multiplication of the amplitude of the PhFT by a constant factor. The effect of both rotation and scale changes for 3D objects means a change in the intensity of the unit radius sphere. We define a 3D filtering based on nonlinear operations between spherical correlations to achieve both scale- and rotation-invariant 3D object recognition.