Why Did Holograms Go Out of Favor?

[lasergal]

I just bought a vintage hologram watch that the seller listed as "no longer being produced", and that reminded me of how popular holograms (as a novelty) were during the 1980s.

Back then, I had a catalog of hologram jewelry that I looked over many times and wished I could get...I still have a hologram pendant that belonged to my grandmother until she passed away...I had a hologram greeting card that I found at a Safeway store...in 1991, on a trip to Chicago, I visited their Museum of Holography, which was fascinating...I remember seeing a traveling exhibit on lasers and holograms at the science center...and there was a store in a mall not too far away that specialized in hologram jewelry and pictures.

While I know there are a lot of the lenticular 3-D pictures (often erroneously called holograms) and some are really nice, nothing can beat the clarity and dementionalness- if that's a word- of a genuine laser hologram. You just don't see them much anymore, and yet I can't imagine them ever losing their 'coolness factor'.

Any ideas? I'd sure like to see them being made again.

 

[Bacon]

I was a 90's kid and remember seeing them everywhere, I always like the t-rex ones at the science museum.
They are still all over official products with those stickers of authenticity. But those are not fun t all. They would be nice to see now-a-days.

This hologram is oodles of fun though

 

[zyxwv99]

I remember when holograms came in only one color, red. You could see them in science museums. The Edmund Scientific Catalog even had kits where you could make your own. In fact, they still do.

Hologram Kit - 3d laser holograms | Edmund Scientific

 

[Shadowsix]

I always like those holograms and am also surprised how much they seem to have gone to the wayside

url=http://www.scientificsonline.com/hologram-kit.html]Hologram Kit - 3d laser holograms | Edmund Scientific[/url]

When I can I'll have to get that kit! very cool!

 

[paul1598419]

Yeah. I used to make holograms back in the 80s and early 90s. Funny it was mentioned that all of them were red, because all of mine and many others I saw were all green. That was because the glass photo plates we used would shrink a little during the development process and the red laser light they were made with turned green because of this shift. I saw some awesome holograms back in those days. I especially remember a green hologram that had a forest scene in the back ground and a pair of binoculars coming out of the hologram. When you went up to the hologram and looked through the binoculars, you could see a nest full of baby birds that was only visible through the holographic binoculars.
Oh, I get it now. The red holograms were transmission holograms that use a laser light to see the hologram. I was into making reflection holograms that can be seen in ordinary incandescent light. Those were the green ones, and the reflection ones were red.

 

[XD001]

Holho, the hologram projector for tablets was never released, but I wish it was, so cool!

Edit: want, need, desire

 

[paul1598419]

Yeah, that Holoho is not really a hologram at all. It is three to four two dimensional photographs of the same object that is recreated in the device and gives an illusion of a three dimensional hologram, but since it lacks the object wave, is not itself a hologram. It is more like the stereopticon of the early 20th century that gave an illusion of three dimensions.

 

[XD001]

Yeah, that Holoho is not really a hologram at all. It is three to four two dimensional photographs of the same object that is recreated in the device and gives an illusion of a three dimensional hologram, but since it lacks the object wave, is not itself a hologram. It is more like the stereopticon of the early 20th century that gave an illusion of three dimensions.

Alright, thanks for clarifying, +rep for you

 

[lasergal]

I remember when holograms came in only one color, red. You could see them in science museums. The Edmund Scientific Catalog even had kits where you could make your own. In fact, they still do.

Hologram Kit - 3d laser holograms | Edmund Scientific

That's an awesome kit- but it looks like it's the type of hologram that can only be viewed by laser light. If it could be viewed in ordinary light and I had a proper place to set it up, I'd be sorely tempted to give it a try!

 

[paul1598419]

Yeah. That's exactly what it is. And, it's way over priced for what you get. That plastic "optical bench" is so flimsy that it would be a miracle if you actually got a usable hologram out of it. Especially considering the exposure time they say it takes. Ten to fifteen minutes is forever in holographic exposure times to keep even the air current from ruining your exposure. When I was making them, we used He-Ne lasers and the exposure time was up to maybe 3 seconds. And, the object wave and the reference wave were separate wave fronts. The object you were making your hologram from was behind the photographic glass plate, and the beam was split with a beam splitter and the reference beam hit the glass plate from the front and the reflected beam was reflected off the object from behind the glass plate. Of course you had to use a couple of biconcave lenses to expand the beams to wave fronts, and the distance that each beam traveled had to be closely measured to be the same distance. This made a high quality hologram that could be viewed in ordinary light. But, the image was green because the development of the photo plates caused the image to contract slightly making the image a slightly lower wavelength than the laser light.

 

[DrSid]

Indeed, word 'hologram' is used for anything optically weird. Projection sights also have nothing to do with holography. Basically no 3d display has, and no 'image in air' kinda of display either. Those are also usually 2D 'image in air'.
Why there are no holograms anymore ? I wonder that myself ..

 

[paul1598419]

DrSid, that is a badly damaged retina you have in your signature. Are you an ophthalmologist? I was just wondering who it was that received that awful damage. Needless to say, that patient has no central vision in that eye, but does he have any peripheral vision? Sorry, just very curious about that damage.

 

[DrSid]

DrSid, that is a badly damaged retina you have in your signature. Are you an ophthalmologist? I was just wondering who it was that received that awful damage. Needless to say, that patient has no central vision in that eye, but does he have any peripheral vision? Sorry, just very curious about that damage.

There is actually link to the thread about the case in the very same signature :beer: Scary reading though ..