Real image holographic stereograms

A holographic printer for recording a holographic stereogram, the printer comprising:

• a holographic recording medium;
• a laser source of coherent light;
• a beamsplitter for splitting said laser light into an object beam and a reference beam;
• object beam projection means for projecting a series of views of an object with said object beam, said views being predistorted for alcove viewing;
• an image screen adapted to receive and diffuse said projected views from said object beam projection means to expose said recording medium with a predistorted image of said object;
• reference beam converging means for projecting said reference beam onto said recording medium to create an overlapping exposure with said object image, the reference beam converging means further including means for converging said reference beam at a distance equivalent to an intended illumination distance for said stereogram;
• and
• an aperture-defining means for sequentially exposing thin vertical slits of said holographic recording medium with images from said image screen to produce a series of views corresponding to expected viewpoints of an audience, the image screen and aperture-defining means cooperating to diffuse and define sub-hologram views on said holographic recording medium to form a stereogram of narrow vertical images, such that upon illumination of said stereogram in an alcove display format, a viewer moving through a viewing zone sees a progression of views as though moving around said object.