Full-color hologram

A system for making color matrix holograms, comprising:

• means for generating upon a high-resolution recording medium a first light-diffractive pattern reconstructing an object scene when said diffractive pattern is illuminated by a first color of light, said light-diffractive pattern substantially corresponding to a hologram bearing an image vertically focused substantially upon said medium and horizontally focused elsewhere than substantially upon said medium;
• means for limiting the generation of said diffractive pattern on said medium to a first group of small areas distributed on said medium;
• means for generating upon said medium a second light-diffractive pattern reconstructing an object scene when said second diffractive pattern is illuminated by a second color of light, said second light diffractive pattern substantially corresponding to a hologram bearing an image vertically focused substantially upon said medium and horizontally focused elsewhere than substantially upon said medium;
• and
• means for limiting the generation of said second diffractive pattern on said medium to a second group of small areas distributed on said medium.

A method for producing multicolor holograms, comprising:

• creating an original color matrix hologram comprising at least a first group and a second group of small areas of a recording medium, each of said groups bearing diffractive patterns substantially corresponding to a spatially sampled hologram recorded in a predetermined color and bearing an image with horizontal parallax, substantially no vertical parallax, and a finite degree of vertical diffuseness;
• wherein said second group of small areas of said recording medium is substantially non-overlapping with said first group of small areas and is distributed on said surface;
• and
• replicating said original color matrix hologram onto a substrate in registration with matched color-selective means imposed upon the same substrate such that said matched color-selective means substantially prevents color cross-talk among color components of the hologram during reconstruction while permitting reconstruction of each of said groups in the corresponding colors.

A method of making a multicolor hologram, comprising:

• recording a series of incoherent perspective views of a scene, said views being located along a horizontal line in a predetermined position relative to said scene;
• constructing a first hologram on a first recording medium from said series of views by projecting with coherent light said views sequentially into an optical system which vertically disperses said coherent light from a focal plane, said first hologram being further constructed by recording downstream from said optical system the interference between said coherent light and a reference beam which is coherent with respect to said coherent light, said first hologram constructed such that, upon illumination with a reconstruction beam, said views are reconstructed in superposition to constitute a three-dimensional image of said scene;
• limiting the recording of said first hologram such that groups of small, substantially non-overlapping areas on said first recording medium bear interference patterns corresponding primarily to predetermined color components of said scene;
• reconstructing a three-dimensional image of said scene by illuminating said first hologram with a reconstruction beam of coherent light and providing means to limit the reconstruction of each of said groups of said small areas primarily to the corresponding colors of said reconstruction beam;
• constructing a second hologram on a second recording medium by recording the interference beween the reconstruction of said scene and a second reference beam coherent with respect to said reconstruction beam;
• and
• limiting the recording of said second hologram such that groups of small areas on said second medium bear interference patterns corresponding primarily to the predetermined color components of said scene.