Visualization of hologram reconstruction

Synthetic holography simulates both the optical recording and reconstruction by computer. In this paper we describe several visualization methods for synthetic reconstruction of holograms. Such reconstructions are used in combination with computer generated holograms for verification purposes and also for the exploration of optically recorded holograms. To visualize a reconstruction we calculate the emitted wave field for several planes in different distances to the hologram by applying wave propagation operators. The planes are combined to a volumetric data set. This data set can be expressed as a complex valued function of three independent variables. An appropriate visualization technique is volume rendering of the function values. Opacity and intensity of the generated voxels are proportionally weighted to the intensity of the given data set. This representation approaches the underlying physical process. Another method is iso surface generation for the intensities of the function values which leads to approximations of focal points of the object coded in the hologram. Applications of our methods are given and examples are discussed.