Holograms

A hologram is a physical recording of an interference pattern which uses diffraction to reproduce a three-dimensional light field, resulting in an image which retains the depth, parallax, and other properties of the original scene.[1] Holography is the science and practice of making holograms. A hologram is a photographic recording of a light field, rather than an image formed by a lens. The holographic medium, i.e., the object produced by a holographic process (which itself may be referred to as a hologram) is usually unintelligible when viewed under diffuse ambient light. It is an encoding of the light field as an interference pattern of variations in the opacity, density, or surface profile of the photographic medium. When suitably lit, the interference pattern diffracts the light into an accurate reproduction of the original light field, and the objects that were in it exhibit visual depth cues such as parallax and perspective that change realistically with the relative position of the observer. That is, the view of the image from different angles represents the subject viewed from similar angles. In this sense, holograms do not simply produce the illusion of depth but are truly three-dimensional images.

In its pure form, holography requires the use of laser light for illuminating the subject and for viewing the finished hologram. A microscopic level of detail throughout the recorded scene can be reproduced. In common practice, however, major image quality compromises are made to eliminate the need for laser illumination to view the hologram, and in some cases, to make it. Holographic portraiture often resorts to a non-holographic intermediate imaging procedure, to avoid the hazardous high-powered pulsed lasers otherwise needed to optically "freeze" moving subjects as perfectly as the extremely motion-intolerant holographic recording process requires. Holograms can now also be entirely computer-generated to show objects or scenes that never existed.

Holography is distinct from lenticular and other earlier autostereoscopic 3D display technologies, which can produce superficially similar results but are based on conventional lens imaging. Images requiring the aid of special glasses or other intermediate optics, stage illusions such as Pepper's Ghost and other unusual, baffling, or seemingly magical images are often incorrectly called holograms.

It was invented by Dennis Gabor in 1948.

Scientists Project Holograms Into The Brain To Create Experiences

One day soon you may be filling your lungs with crisp ocean air, your arms bathed in warm light as the sun sets over softly lapping waters and you may wonder, is this real? Or are scientists projecting holograms into my brain to create a vivid sensory experience that isn’t actually happening? A group of researchers at University of California, Berkeley are in the early stages of testing their ability to create, edit and scrub sensory experiences from your brain, both real-time and stored experiences: memories.

Using light to make us see what isn’t there.

Different sensory experiences show up in brain imaging as patterns of neurons firing in sequence. Neuroscientists are trying to reverse-engineer experiences by stimulating the neurons to excite the same neural patterns. At present, the steps to accomplish this are a little invasive. Scientists genetically modify neurons with photosensitive proteins so they can gingerly manipulate neurons using light. The process is known as optogenetics. Also, a metal head plate gets surgically implanted over the targeted area.

Then there’s the challenge of finding a way to bull's-eye each individual, microscopic cell body without exciting neighboring neurons. Enter computer generated holography (CGH) to create three-dimensional floating light shapes. The diffracted light-forms are projected into the brain, sailing through a gossamer layer of brain tissue at the surface of the cortex and triggering just the right pattern and rhythm of neural activity to generate specific sensations and perceptions. The holograms can stimulate, edit and suppress patterns of neurons that correlate with the brain activity of actual experiences.

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"The major advance is the ability to control neurons precisely in space and time," says Nicolas Pégard, one of the first authors of a paper in Nature Neuroscience today. "In other words, to shoot the very specific sets of neurons you want to activate and do it at the characteristic scale and the speed at which they normally work."

Development of the device required imagination and a confluence of emergent technologies. "This is the culmination of technologies that researchers have been working on for a while, but have been impossible to put together," says another of the first authors, Alan Mardinly. "We solved numerous technical problems at the same time to bring it all together and finally realize the potential of this technology."

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The team published a paper last year in the journal Nature Communications, dubbing their holographic brain modulator The 3D-SHOT: a three-dimensional scanless holographic optogenetics with temporal focusing.

What The 3D Shot could do for us.

The therapeutic potential for the device is exciting. From helping to restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, to reinstating sensation in patients with peripheral nerve damage and helping amputees control prosthetic limbs.

"This has great potential for neural prostheses, since it has the precision needed for the brain to interpret the pattern of activation,” says Mardinly. “If you can read and write the language of the brain, you can speak to it in its own language and it can interpret the message much better." Mardinly is already thinking beyond therapeutic uses, towards augmenting human experience: "This is one of the first steps in a long road to develop a technology that could be a virtual brain implant with additional senses or enhanced senses."

Early stages.

We’re still a ways off before you can plan your next staycation at a 3D Shot themed resort and spa. As of now, the researchers are testing a prototype in the visual, touch and motor areas of mice brains.

The mice are showing similar patterns of neural response correlating to sensory stimuli. The next step is training the mice so scientists can observe behavior changes that correspond to the stimulation. Studying behavioral cues is the best measure of success because you can’t ask a mouse if it’s experiencing the ripe, mushroomy taste of Limburger cheese as you flash holograms into its cortex.

The researchers plan to scale-up the device’s capacity to interpret and create from a broader terrain of brain matter while scaling-down the device to make it portable enough to slip inside a backpack.

They’re also working towards capturing neural patterns inside the brain with the goal of reproducing sensory experience and playing it back through holography.

Feel and hear holograms now. we have gone so far in the technology now, it's almost scary letting it run on A.I and advancing near the speed of light. watch this video below and it will make you think whats next.