New holographic technology

Current methods of holographic photography might turn redundant in a few years time if the researchers at a Tokyo institute manage to fine tune their latest holographic image creation technique.
Current technology warrants the use of lasers and darkrooms for the production of holographic images because it is required to shoot the subject separately with red, green and blue laser beams before all the images can be "superimposed" to give that holographic effect.

The new technology is based on integral photography. This procedure in creating the hologram includes taking pictures of the subjects in normal lighting conditions. A video camera is used for this purpose. This camera has a "fly-eye" lens composed of a number of micro lenses. The same fly-eye lens is used to display 3D images.

A computer decodes the images shot by the camera and processes them into a 3D image with separate processing units for RGB colors. Each of these units can be processed separately and then merged together again and synthesized. The result is a real-time live holographic video.

The technique is limited only to small images right now - however, it is expected that the technology will evolve over the next couple of years to display larger holographic images.