Method for producing a synthetic hologram

A method for directing a recording device to produce a synthetic hologram comprised of a plurality of quantized hologram spots in a modulating medium, said quantized hologram spots representing points on a wavefront defined by a plurality of geometrical points in space, said method comprising:

• selecting a point of said wavefront to be represented in said modulating medium;
• arbitrarily selecting positions for a number of quantized hologram spots allocated for the selected point of said wavefront to be represented in said hologram;
• determining the number of hologram spots for the selected point to be proportional to the wave amplitude at the point;
• adjusting the arbitrarily selected position of each of said hologram spots such that the length of the radius vector from the selected point to the center of the spot in its adjusted position satisfies the equation:
• r.sub.oi = n.lambda. + (.phi. - .phi..sub.R) (.lambda./2.pi.)
• in which
• r.sub.oi is the radius vector length
• n is an integer
• .phi. is the phase at the geometrical point,
• .phi..sub.R is the phase of the reference wave at the center of said hologram spot, and
• .lambda. is the wavelength;
• and
• driving said recording device to expose said modulating medium according to the determined number of hologram spots and the adjusted positions thereof.