Holographic Element-Based Effective Perspective Image Segmentation and Mosaicking Holographic Stereogram Printing

Space-efficient optical computing with an integrated chip diffractive neural network

Large-scale, highly integrated and low-power-consuming hardware is becoming progressively more important for realizing optical neural networks (ONNs) capable of advanced optical computing. Traditional experimental implementations need N² units such as Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) for an input dimension N to realize typical computing operations (convolutions and matrix multiplication), resulting in limited scalability and consuming excessive power. Here, we propose the integrated diffractive optical network for implementing parallel Fourier transforms, convolution operations and application-specific optical computing using two ultracompact diffractive cells (Fourier transform operation) and only N MZIs. The footprint and energy consumption scales linearly with the input data dimension, instead of the quadratic scaling in the traditional ONN framework. A ~10-fold reduction in both footprint and energy consumption, as well as equal high accuracy with previous MZI-based ONNs was experimentally achieved for computations performed on the MNIST and Fashion-MNIST datasets. The integrated diffractive optical network (IDNN) chip demonstrates a promising avenue towards scalable and low-power-consumption optical computational chips for optical-artificial-intelligence.

Here, we propose the integrated diffractive optical network for implementing parallel Fourier transforms, convolution operations and application-specific optical computing with reduced footprint and energy consumption.

Simplified digital content generation based on an inverse-directed propagation algorithm for holographic stereogram printing

Holographic stereogram (HS) printing requires extensive memory capacity and long computation time during perspective acquisition and implementation of the pixel re-arrangement algorithm. Hogels contain very weak depth information of the object. We propose a HS printing system that uses simplified digital content generation based on the inverse-directed propagation (IDP) algorithm for hogel generation. Specifically, the IDP algorithm generates an array of hogels using a simple process that acquires the full three-dimensional (3D) information of the object, including parallax, depth, color, and shading, via a computer-generated integral imaging technique. This technique requires a short computation time and is capable of accounting for occlusion and accommodation effects of the object points via the IDP algorithm. Parallel computing is utilized to produce a high-resolution hologram based on the properties of independent hogels. To demonstrate the proposed approach, optical experiments are conducted in which the natural 3D visualizations of real and virtual objects are printed on holographic material. Experimental results demonstrate the simplified computation involved in content generation using the proposed IDP-based HS printing system and the improved image quality of the holograms.

Efficient Hogel-Based Hologram Synthesis Method for Holographic Stereogram Printing

With the development of the holographic printer, printing synthetic hologram requires smaller holographic element (hogel) size to improve spatial resolution of the reconstruction. On the contrary, a larger hogel size affords higher angular resolution, but it leads to a lower lateral resolution and there exists a trade-off problem. In this paper, a hologram synthesis method based on three-dimensional (3D) rendering of computer-generated holographic stereogram (HS) is proposed to limit the spatial-angular trade-off problem. The perspectives of the 3D scene are captured by re-centering the camera method and transformed into parallax-related images by a proposed pixel re-arrangement algorithm for holographic printing. Unlike the conventional approaches, the proposed algorithm not only improves the angular resolution of the reconstruction while maintaining the hogel size fixed, but also keeps the spatial resolution without degradation. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by numerical simulation and an optical experiment.

Centered-camera-based effective perspective images' segmentation and mosaicking method for full-parallax holographic stereogram printing

The centered-camera-based effective perspective images' segmentation and mosaicking (CCEPISM) method is proposed to improve the previous EPISM-based printing of full-parallax holographic stereograms. The idea of pixel mapping from target camera images to centered camera images is analyzed, and backward pixel mapping as well as forward pixel mapping are modeled and formulated to transform the perspective images captured by different camera strategies. The principle of the proposed CCEPISM is introduced in detail along with its specific implementation. The experimental results validate the proposed method and demonstrate that CCEPISM is an effective method for printing full-parallax holographic stereograms, and the quality of optical reconstruction is the same as that of EPISM-based holographic stereograms. The whole 3D scene is captured by a centered camera image, and the pixel waste caused by simple camera capture and the number of sampled perspective images is reduced significantly.

Scaling of Three-Dimensional Computer-Generated Holograms with Layer-Based Shifted Fresnel Diffraction

Holographic three-dimensional (3D) displays can reconstruct a whole wavefront of a 3D scene and provide rich depth information for the human eyes. Computer-generated holographic techniques offer an efficient way for reconstructing holograms without complicated interference recording systems. In this work, we present a technique for generating 3D computer-generated holograms (CGHs) with scalable samplings, by using layer-based diffraction calculations. The 3D scene is partitioned into multiple layers according to its depth image. Shifted Fresnel diffraction is used for calculating the wave diffractions from the partitioned layers to the CGH plane with adjustable sampling rates, while maintaining the depth information. The algorithm provides an effective method for scaling 3D CGHs without an optical zoom module in the holographic display system. Experiments have been performed, demonstrating that the proposed method can reconstruct quality 3D images at different scale factors.