A light spatial modulator typically used with computer holography for modulating incident laser light with respect to two factors of three characteristic factors of a light wave, that is, the amplitude, the phase and the direction of polarization, said modulator consisting of two component modulator means tandemly disposed with respect to the incident light, each for one factor of the light wave to be modulated and each component modulator means including a plate of ferroelectric crystal such as gadolinium molybdate, the polarization of which is changed by application of a voltage.
In a display section, a plurality of pixels of minimum display units to display a hologram phase distribution are arranged to thereby construct a cell to display one pixel of a 2-dimensional image, and cells are further two-dimensionally arranged to thereby construct a display image plane. 2-dimensional image data and hologram phase distribution data from an input section are given to a display data forming section. Corresponding 2-dimensional image data and a hologram phase distribution are displayed in a display region of a display section, thereby producing hologram data for allowing a solid image to be recognized by the optical wave front conversion. A display control section executes a display control for allowing the 2-dimensional image data and hologram data from the display data forming section to be displayed in the display section. The 2-dimensional image data and hologram data are commonly managed and produced by the same data format of the cell unit including the image kind, display region, and display data in the region.
A method and apparatus for modulating a light beam in an optical processing system is described. Preferably, an electrically-controlled polarizer unit and/or an analyzer unit are utilized in combination with a spatial light modulator and a controller. Preferably, the spatial light modulator comprises a pixelated birefringent medium such as a liquid crystal video display. The combination of the electrically controlled polarizer unit and analyzer unit make it simple and fast to reconfigure the modulation described by the Jones matrix of the spatial light modulator. A particular optical processing objective is provided to the controller. The controller performs calculations and supplies control signals to the polarizer unit, the analyzer unit, and the spatial light modulator in order to obtain the optical processing objective.
The spatial light modulator utilizes a modified liquid crystal television for modulating a laser beam so as to produce a transformed hologram image on a film plate which is identical with the video information being fed into the liquid crystal TV. Once a image film has been produced the film is developed and placed back in the system so that the system will now act as a comparator and tracking device. With the reference beam blocked and a new video input fed into the liquid crystal TV the system now will have an output only when the scene on the TV is identical to the scene recorded on the film. Indicator means give a signal output from this comparison that is identical.
Rays or planes of light in space are addressed, according to this invention, by purely electrical commands and without the need for mechanically moving parts.
An image forming device for forming optically inputted two-dimensional images. A light valve, including a bistable electrooptic medium and a photoconductive material, acts as an image recording device which records an image inputted from an image inputting device. When the light valve is irradiated by the light from the image inputting device, the electrooptic medium makes a state transition by photoelectric converting action of the photoconductive material. The state of the electrooptic medium is dependent on the threshold voltage across the light valve and on the threshold intensity of the input light. The recorded image can be outputted to film or any type of visual display apparatus. The image inputting device can be a modulated scanned light beam, as from a laser.
