Wavefront reconstruction photography

AUG 01, 1965

New interest has arisen in the wavefront reconstruction process of Gabor. With the aid of the laser, photographic imagery has been produced in which the image is, to all appearances, a three‐dimensional reconstruction of the original, complete with parallax and other visual effects.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3047589

Emmett Leith

Juris Upatnieks

Wavefront reconstruction, or holography, is a fascinating photographic process which is a major departure from conventional photography. In this process, discovered in 1947 by D. Gabor of Imperial College, London, the photosensitive device does not directly record an image of the subject; instead, the electromagnetic waves reflected or scattered from the subject are recorded as a standing wave pattern. The resulting photographic record is called a hologram (from the Greek word holos, meaning whole), a name given by Professor Gabor to indicate that the whole, or entirety, of the wave pattern is recorded.

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More about the Authors

Emmett Leith. Institute of Science and Technology, University of Michigan.

Juris Upatnieks. Institute of Science and Technology, University of Michigan.