Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!samsung!olivea!mintaka!ai-lab!life!tmb From: tmb@ai.mit.edu (Thomas M. Breuel) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Digital Holography Message-ID: Date: 9 May 91 23:07:09 GMT References: <1991May7.215514.6676@csl.dl.nec.com> <261@rins.ryukoku.ac.jp> <1991May9.153446.21742@leland.Stanford.EDU> Sender: news@ai.mit.edu Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab Lines: 21 In-reply-to: rick@pangea.Stanford.EDU's message of 9 May 91 15:34:46 GMT In article <1991May9.153446.21742@leland.Stanford.EDU> rick@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Rick Ottolini) writes: IMHO digital holography will be THE 3-D graphics technique of the future. Current rendering techniques SIMULATE 3-D through the using of lighting models, shape [perspective, stereo], and motion [fly-thru animation, virtual reality animation]. Holography seeks to compute actual light waves themselves. I envision "Princess Lea" displays, floating images like that of the help message in Star Wars I. This avoids the sensory sheaths the VR people are using. Digital holography will probably eventually have its place. However, holography is still bound by the laws of optics. If something comes in between you and the holographic screen, the screen cannot project beyond the obstacle. Likewise, the appearance of an object floating in front of a hologram is only maintained if you are looking at the hologram; you cannot have an object float "above", say, a table if you are looking at it "from the side". The requirements of virtual reality go further, and it remains to be seen whether any practical solutions can be found that do not require the user to wear goggles.