Robot autonomous navigation

Autonomous vehicle navigation is a very popular research area in the vision and control field. Based on Prof. Dickmanns' philosophy, we implement a navigation algorithm on thc small robot. The robot can rely on its eyes (the camera mounted on thc top of the robot) and control its wheels to walk through the sub-basement hallways of Caltech Moore Lab building. The speed we achieve is robot's mechanical maximum speed 0.5 m/s

Pixel size limit in holographic memories

The bandwidth of holographic recording in LiNbO3 (Fe doped) in the 90° geometry is studied theoretically and experimentally. The wide holographic bandwidth of LiNbO3 makes it possible to record submicrometer pixels and reconstruct them by phase conjugation in a holographic memory system. This approach reduces the system cost and increases the system storage density. We demonstrate the recording and the phase-conjugate reconstruction of various pixel sizes down to 1 μm × 1 μm . The signal–noise ratio and the bit-error rate are examined

Volume Holographic Hyperspectral Imaging

A volume hologram has two degenerate Bragg-phase-matching dimensions and provides the capability of volume holographic imaging. We demonstrate two volume holographic imaging architectures and investigate their imaging resolution, aberration, and sensitivity. The first architecture uses the hologram directly as an objective imaging element where strong aberration is observed and confirmed by simulation. The second architecture uses an imaging lens and a transmission geometry hologram to achieve linear two-dimensional optical sectioning and imaging of a four-dimensional (spatial plus spectral dimensions) object hyperspace. Multiplexed holograms can achieve simultaneously three-dimensional imaging of an object without a scanning mechanism

Folded shift multiplexing

Shift multiplexing is a holographic recording method that uses a spherical reference wave. We extend the principle to a thin slab of holographic material that acts as a waveguide. Total internal reflection folds the reference spherical beam in one dimension. We demonstrate that the shift selectivity with the folded spherical beam is independent of the slab thickness but depends instead on the numerical aperture of the coupled spherical wave. A shift selectivity of 0.5 µm has been achieved with a 1-mm-thick LiNbO3 crystal and 50 high-definition data pages are recorded with this method

Diffraction from deformed volume holograms: perturbation theory approach

We derive the response of a volume grating to arbitrary small deformations, using a perturbative approach. This result is of interest for two applications: (a) when a deformation is undesirable and one seeks to minimize the diffracted field's sensitivity to it and (b) when the deformation itself is the quantity of interest and the diffracted field is used as a probe into the deformed volume where the hologram was originally recorded. We show that our result is consistent with previous derivations motivated by the phenomenon of shrinkage in photopolymer holographic materials. We also present the analysis of the grating's response to deformation due to a point indenter and present experimental results consistent with theory

Read/write holographic memory versus silicon storage

This paper compares the read/write holographic memory with silicon storage on issues of cost, density, size and speed. With a photorefractive crystal on top of a silicon interface, the holographic memory is of cost efficiency, volume compactness and fast data accessing. Key challenges to implement the competitive holographic memory are discussed

Imaging using volume holograms

We present an overview of imaging systems that incorporate a volume hologram as one of the optical field processing elements in the system. We refer to these systems as volume holographic imaging (VHI) systems. The volume hologram is recorded just once, and the recording parameters depend on the functional requirements of the imaging system. The recording step offers great flexibility in designing application-specific imaging systems. We discuss how a VHI system can be configured for diverse imaging applications ranging from surface profilometry to real-time hyperspectral microscopy, and summarize recent developments in this field