::Applications of holography

Holographic Art--Holography museums, advertising, postage stamps, jewelry...

Security from Forgery--Credit cards, tickets...

Optical Devices--Holographic lenses, diffraction gratings... These are holograms in which the "object" is a mirror or a lens. A flat mirror as an object produces a diffraction grating. A lensor a concave mirror as the object produce a hologram that behaves like a lens! These HOLOGRAPHIC LENSES are lighter than traditional lenses and mirrors and they can be designed to perform more specialized functions such as making the panel instruments of a car visible in the windshield for enhanced safety.

Supermarket scanners read the bar codes on merchandise for the store's computer by using a holographic lens system to direct laser light onto the product labels during checkout.

Holography is used to depict the shock wave made by air foils to locate the areas of highest stress. These holograms are used to improve the design of aircraft wings and turbine blades.

A holographic lens is used in an aircraft "heads-up display" to allow a fighter pilot to see critical cockpit instruments while looking straight ahead through the windscreen. Similar systems are being researched by several automobile manufactures.

Holographic Interferometry--A very precise technique for measuring changes in the dimensions of an object. Useful in industrial stress analysis, quality controll.

Pattern Recognition--Using electro-optical devices with computers to interpret what is "seen" by a machine. Peace-time and military application of lasers and holographic optical devices.

Medical Applications--Combining CAT scans into a 3-dimensional image, A multiplex. Ultraound holography...

Scientists at Polaroid Corp. have developed a holographic reflector that promises to make color LCDs whiter and brighter. The secret lies in a transmission hologram that sits behind an LCD and reflects ambient light to produce a white background.

Independent projects at IBM and at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have demonstrated the use of holograms to locate and retrieve information without knowing its address in a storage medium, but by knowing some of its content.

Sony Electronics uses a hologram in its digital cameras. A Sony-exclusive laser focusing system achieves accurate focus on subjects with little contrast in dark conditions. It projects a visible Class 1 laser hologram pattern directly onto the subject so the camera can detect the contrast between the edge of the laser pattern and the subject itself.

Other--Holographic computer memory storage, holographic microscopy, holographic radar, etc.