Part 7 Holographic Cinema: A New World

Terms to know:

Holographic Cinema-Can be broken down into two terms: holographic and cinema. Cinema we all know simply refers to a series of still images or a film. A hologram is a three-dimensional image that is made by interference of light beams from things like a laser.

Cohesive-when a light wave stays "in phase" or when the waves line up with each other perfectly.

Parallax-the apparent displacement of perspectives when an object is viewed from different angles.

Integral Photography-Many ordinary photographs from many perspectives are combined to make a holographic form. And because it is ordinary photographs, any traditional light source works.

Kinoform-A computer-controlled laser interference system used to create the pattern in which a laser’s light would scatter when it hits a simulated object. It takes this pattern and puts it on the film.

This part starts out by the author describing their experience with the first successful holographic motion picture in 1969 in Southern California. With holograms we are able to really see into our imaginations and morph it with the real world that surrounds us. Gene Youngblood makes the prediction back in the 1970s that holographic cinema and television would be common by the year 2000. However so far only televisions have become so common. Holographic films are still in their beginning stages and continue to be expanded upon.

Wave-Front Reconstruction: Lensless Photography

With holography we have no optical image being formed. What we do have is a diffraction pattern of light waves bouncing off an object being captured via photosensitive surfaces. By reconstructing these diffraction patterns we are able to build this three-dimensional object. This process was discovered by Dr. Dennis Gabor back in 1947. Light is made up of both intensity and frequency and photography only takes intensity into account. However Gabor figured out that by capturing both the intensity and frequency he could rebuild these objects. He needed cohesive light waves in order to make an ideal hologram. There wasn't any kind of light source back in his time to do such things but he tried it with a mercury arc lamp. The images were poor in quality though. They were called holograms from the Greek root holos meaning whole because he was recording the whole image of an object.

In 1960 Dr. Theodore Maiman created the laser and recreated Dr. Gabor's experiment using a prism to divide the laser beam into two beams: a reference beam and a subject beam. The subject beam light up the object that was to be turned into a hologram. The reference beam interfered with it to create the pattern that was recorded onto a photographic plate. When you wanted to recreate the object you put another laser where the reference beam was and shoot it at the film. It forms an image that is identical to the original object. 

No special glass or lenses are required to see the hologram produced; unlike in "3D movies" 3D movies are really just a stereoscopic illusion. The difference between this and real 3D is parallax. In a holograph, different areas become visible of the original object based on what angle you are viewing it from. The major restriction that was prominent in the 70's was the frame size of photographic surface. They were only about one to two feet square. You couldn't entertain a large audience comfortably.

Dr. Alex Jacobson: Holography in Motion

Dr. Jacobson and his colleague Victor Evtuhov were the first to be able to create a holographic movie. Anything that moved before had been artificially animated with a series of still images that were moved slightly. Everything was standard compared to normal film stock however the holograph required very high resolution. This slowed down the film or you would get a fuzzy image. After months and thoughts of dollars in equipment, Jacobson made a 30 second film of tropical fish that was visible through a 70mm aperture. 

Limitations of Holographic Cinema

            There are three types of lasers that are used when it comes to holographic cinema. There is the helium-neon laser, the argon laser, and the ruby laser. When it comes to creating human holograms it is necessary to use a pulsed laser. Helium-neon is strictly a continuous wave and the argon laser doesn’t emit light quick enough to a motion hologram. That leaves us with only the ruby laser which gives us a red hologram that is very grainy. Dr. Ralph Wuerker believed that full color holograms would be possible if the government was willing to support research with all the money in Fort Knox. He developed a special hologram camera he called the “holocamera”. He suggested that holograms could be made with two lasers of different colors to mix and create different colors through color mixing theory.

            Dr. Jacobson believed that color and graininess were second level problems and that the main issue would be illumination. In order to light a room sized scene you would need about 5 million watts. For several years companies worked to create white-light holograms with normal light sources. Another idea that they had was integral photography, however this would be extremely tedious and not practical for making a movie. Jacobson and Wuerker insisted that lasers must be used but they needed to wait until there were advancements in lasers so you could get a larger energy output.

Projecting Holographic Movies

            Youngblood believed that the popular misconception of holographic projections being interactive would one day become possible since holograms aren’t made with lenses and creates a virtual image. All that would be needed for this is an optical system that reverses the holographic process. It is a system that uses lenses and mirrors to create the object in full color floating in space. This was used in ancient Egypt and Japan. In Japan they would project people onto a puppet theatre. The only difference would be replacing the person with a strip of holographic film.

            Wuerker also talks about the issue of controlling the focus of an audience. With photography you are able to control what the focus is on. While with holographic cinema the view has their option of what to look at. The films are dependent on reality in the sense that the lens is the viewer’s eyes. He also talks about instead of using film strips for holographic films to use cube holograms instead. With a cube you can have tons of information within it to project but you still couldn’t just make cuts and tricks like in movies or TV due to holography’s dependence on actuality.

The Kinoform: Computer-Generated Holographic Movies

Dr. Lou Lesem developed the kinoform at IBM in Houston so that “reality” was no longer an issue when it came to recording holographic films. Jacobson believes once this system is perfected we will be able to create as abstract films as we want to. The ability to create things that aren’t normally perceivable like sound waves would also become possible. It adds a whole other experience to watching these films. The most likely mode for watching movies or TV would be individualized frames. “The difference between the window frame and the movie frame is that you can get your face up so close that the frame disappears and all you’re seeing is the illusionistic world on the other side. You’re in it.”

Technoanarchy: The Open Empire

          Youngblood goes on to talk about how we can no longer talk about art without also talking about science and technology. The communication of humanity is going to a point where all information will be available instantly at the individual level. Computers, videos, and laser technologies are beginning to change our perception of reality on the conceptual level.

            With all these great transformations happening there often becomes a feeling of paranoia that clouds the new consciousness. Technology keeps man human. The effectiveness of our political leadership enslaves us while the effective deployment of technology frees us. He believes that we cannot truly understand human nature until there is no separation between the man and the system. Limitations in language end up creating limitations for our world. Technology allows us to create new language and thus a new world. Art allows us to think as individuals. With expanding art and technology of expanded cinema we are able to create heaven right here on Earth.