[Book chapter for “Holography- The First 50 Years ”. Draft: 2003.] Interactive holographic displays: the first 10 years

Abstract

This chapter reviews the first ten years of interactive electro-holographic displays- from its first instance in 1990 through innovations in computational approaches and optical modulation schemes. The enormous bandwidths required to image three-dimensional (3-D) holographic images interactively are examined, along with descriptions of techniques used to overcome the limitations placed upon fringe computation and optical modulation. Included are the techniques of diffraction-specific fringe computation, computa-tional stereograms, and bipolar fringe computation, as well the scanned acousto-optic modulation technique used in early display systems. Nearly a century passed between the invention of still photography in the nineteenth century and the subse-quent invention of interactive two-dimensional imaging, such as computer-generated graphics and multimedia and video games. Three-dimensional (3-D) holographic imaging became interactive in les