Introduction to Computer Holography

Book excerpt: This book covers basic- to expert-level applications in computer holography, a strong candidate for the ultimate 3D display technology. The computer holography developed in the course of the past decade represents the basis of wave optics. Accordingly, the book presents the basic theory of wave optics and practical techniques for handling wave fields by means of the fast Fourier transform. Numerical techniques based on polygons, as well as mask-based techniques, are also presented for calculating the optical fields of virtual 3D models with occlusion processing. The book subsequently describes simulation techniques for very large-scale optical fields, and addresses the basics and concrete applications of simulation, offering a valuable resource for readers who need to employ it in the context of developing optical devices. To aid in comprehension, the main content is complemented by numerous examples of optical fields and photographs of reconstructed 3D images.