How does a Hologram actually work? | Sci Guide (Ep 3) | Head Squeeze

How Holograms Work

In this video, the speaker explains how holograms work and their potential use in creating 3D movies.

The Basics of Making a Photograph

• Light bounces off an object and hits a photographic plate.

• The intensity of the light is encoded on the plate.

• However, one property of light that is missed is called phase, which is related to the distance traveled by light from the object.

Making a Hologram

• A laser beam is split into two: one as a reference beam and another to bounce off an object.

• The reference beam is reflected into a photographic plate to create an interference pattern between the two beams.

• This allows capturing the phase of light that was previously missed in photographs.

• When you shine your original laser or an identical one onto the plate, it recreates the light that originally bounced off of the object.

Applying Holograms to Movies

• Current 3D movies don't give you full 3D experience because they lack parallax.

• MIT scientists have been able to recreate Princess Leia's scene but only at 15 frames per second compared to normal movies' 24 frames per second.

• Creating convincing holographic movies still has technical limitations but could be possible in future.