tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/hologram-19021/articlesHologram – The Conversation2024-01-16T13:40:18Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2162442024-01-16T13:40:18Z2024-01-16T13:40:18ZYour fingerprint is actually 3D − research into holograms could improve forensic fingerprint analysis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565336/original/file-20231212-25-54j3sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C17%2C2895%2C2056&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fingerprints have been used as unique identifiers for decades. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BabeRuthAuction/02eed90749c4440d91a7a4e4ea305c6b/photo?Query=fingerprint&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=949&currentItemNo=18">AP Photo/Patrick Semansky</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When you use your fingerprint to unlock your smartphone, your phone is looking at a two-dimensional pattern to determine whether it’s the correct fingerprint before it unlocks for you. But the imprint your finger leaves on the surface of the button is actually a 3D structure called a fingermark. </p>
<p>Fingermarks are made up of tiny ridges of oil from your skin. Each ridge is only a few microns tall, or a few hundredths of the thickness of human hair.</p>
<p>Biometric identifiers record fingermarks only as 2D pictures, and although these carry a lot of information, there’s a lot missing. A 2D fingerprint neglects the depth of the fingermark, including pores and scars buried in the ridges of fingers that are difficult to see.</p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/engineering/electrical_and_computer/banerjee_partha.php">educator and scientist</a> who studies holography, a field of research that focuses on how to display 3D information. My lab has created a way to map and visualize fingermarks in three dimensions from any perspective on a computer – <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-surprising-ways-holograms-are-revolutionising-the-world-77886">using digital holography</a>.</p>
<h2>Fingermark types</h2>
<p>Scientists categorize fingermarks as either patent, plastic or latent, depending on how visible they are when left on a surface.</p>
<p>Patent fingermarks are the most visible type – bloody fingerprints at crime scenes are one example. Plastic fingermarks are found on soft surfaces, such as clay, Play-Doh or chocolate bars. The human eye can see both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1201/b12882">patent and plastic fingermarks quite easily</a>.</p>
<p>The least visible are latent fingermarks. These are usually found on hard surfaces such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1201/b12882">glass, metals, woods and plastics</a>. To make them out, a fingerprint examiner has to use physical or chemical methods such as dusting with powder, creating chemical reactions with appropriate reagents or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s41935-017-0009-7">cyanoacrylate fuming</a>. </p>
<p>Cyanoacrylate makes super glue in <a href="https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/fingerprint-sourcebook">its liquid form</a>, but as a gas it can make latent fingermarks visible. Researchers develop the prints by letting cyanoacrylate vapor molecules react with components in the latent fingerprint residue.</p>
<p>The geometric details on fingermarks are categorized into three levels. Level 1 encompasses <a href="https://www.forensicsciencesimplified.org/prints/principles.html">visible ridge patterns</a>, so loops, whorls and arches. Level 2 refers to <a href="https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/fingerprint-sourcebook">minutiae or small details</a>, such as bifurcations, endings, eyes and hooks. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565337/original/file-20231212-15-ry9tua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three fingerprint ridge patterns shown in black and white. The ridges on the left look like a hill, the center looks like a hill with a loop on top, and on the right the ridges form a circle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565337/original/file-20231212-15-ry9tua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565337/original/file-20231212-15-ry9tua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565337/original/file-20231212-15-ry9tua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565337/original/file-20231212-15-ry9tua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565337/original/file-20231212-15-ry9tua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565337/original/file-20231212-15-ry9tua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565337/original/file-20231212-15-ry9tua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Fingerprints have visible ridge structures, such as arches (left), whorls (middle) and loops (right), but at the microscopic level they have much finer patterns and structures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%8B%D0%B5_%D1%83%D0%B7%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%8B.jpg">ValeriyPolunovskiy/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Finally, Level 3 features, such as pores, scars and creases, are too small for the human eye to resolve. This is where <a href="https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.56.3.034117">optical techniques</a> like holography come in handy, since optical wavelengths are in the order of microns, small enough to make out small details on an object.</p>
<h2>Developing fingermark holograms</h2>
<p>Since fingermarks are usually collected as 2D pictures, and holograms display 3D information, my team wanted to develop a technique that can show all the 3D topological characteristics of a fingermark.</p>
<p>To do this, we’ve been collaborating with <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wC7o_VAAAAAJ&hl=en">Akhlesh Lakhtakia’s group</a> at Penn State. They developed a specialized technique that deposits a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.56.3.034117">nanoscale columnar thin film</a> layer, called a CTF, on top of the fingermark to develop and preserve it. </p>
<p>Columnar thin films are dense pillars of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.56.3.034117">glassy material</a> that uniformly cover the fingermark, like a dense growth of identical trees in a forest. Just as the tops of these trees would reflect the topology of the ground, the tops of these columnar thin films <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2023.171541">replicate the 3D structure</a> of the fingermarks on which they are deposited. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558698/original/file-20231109-15-x4lbc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing a blue shirt and green vest, as well as a blue glove, holds a clear petri dish upright, which has three small red squares with fingermarks on them inside." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558698/original/file-20231109-15-x4lbc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558698/original/file-20231109-15-x4lbc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558698/original/file-20231109-15-x4lbc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558698/original/file-20231109-15-x4lbc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558698/original/file-20231109-15-x4lbc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558698/original/file-20231109-15-x4lbc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558698/original/file-20231109-15-x4lbc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Samples collected using CTF film.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Banerjee Lab</span></span>
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<p><a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/hologram.htm">To make a hologram</a> of something like a 3D fingermark, researchers split light from a laser into two parts. One part, called the reference wave, shines directly on a digital camera. The other wave shines on the object, in this case the fingermark. </p>
<p>If the object is reflective, the reflected light is also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.56.3.034117">directed to the digital camera</a> and <a href="https://spie.org/publications/book/2190843?SSO=1">superimposed on the reference wave</a>.</p>
<p>The superposition of waves – both from the reference and the object – creates an interference pattern, which is called a hologram. In digital holography, this hologram, which is a 2D picture, is recorded in the digital camera. Researchers then import the hologram to a computer, where they can use the physical laws of wave propagation to figure out where the light waves from the laser bounced off different parts of the object. </p>
<p>This process allows them <a href="https://spie.org/publications/book/2190843?SSO=1">to reconstruct the object</a> as a 3D picture.</p>
<p>So, the reconstructed hologram has <a href="https://www.biblio.com/book/principles-applied-optics-banerjee-partha-p/d/1473721348">all the 3D details of the object</a>, and you can now visualize the 3D object on a laptop <a href="https://spie.org/publications/book/2190843?SSO=1">from any perspective</a>. </p>
<h2>Picking up fingermarks</h2>
<p>In 2017, our collaboration <a href="https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.56.3.034117">reported our first results</a>, where we made 3D pictures of latent fingermarks using the CTF technique. We recorded holograms of the CTF-developed fingermarks with two different wavelengths of light – green and blue – generated from a laser. Using two different wavelengths allowed us to make out tiny details such as pores in the 3D reconstructions. </p>
<p>Lakhtakia’s research group has deposited hundreds of fingermarks on glass, wood and plastic. They’ve then let them age in different environments, at various temperatures and humidity levels, before coating them with CTF film to pick up the fingerprint. My group records the digital holograms of these fingermarks and visualizes them in 3D on a computer. </p>
<p>We have also started working on a better 3D fingermark analysis plan to help identify crime suspects.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mcohio.org/816/Miami-Valley-Regional-Crime-Lab">Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab</a> in Dayton, Ohio, has graded the quality of the fingermarks captured by Lakhtakia’s research group. It will also help us develop a new method for grading the 3D holographic reconstructions, something that does not currently exist. This may involve creating categories to classify how clear the 3D renderings of the fingermarks are.</p>
<p>The use of fingerprints as unique identifiers has a long history, going back to <a href="https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/fingerprint-sourcebook">ancient Babylonian and Chinese civilizations</a>. They’ve been used for forensic purposes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2023.100863">since the late 1890s</a>, starting in Calcutta, India. Our work aims to build on this rich history and use cutting-edge technologies to improve fingermark analysis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216244/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Partha Banerjee’s Holography and Metamaterials (HaM) Lab has used Digital Holography for many applications funded by DARPA, Air Force and Army. The current joint work on fingermarks is supported by a grant from the Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis (CINA) Center of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). </span></em></p>Using fingerprints to catch criminals isn’t 100% accurate, but analyzing fingerprints in 3D, rather than 2D, could improve the process.Partha Banerjee, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/887152017-12-19T11:15:21Z2017-12-19T11:15:21ZPlundering dead artists for Christmas sales is more than creepy<p>Christmas. High time for re-releasing classic recordings from famous singers from the past. It’s that time of year when TV, radio, newspapers and websites advertise music from much-loved “legends” like <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wonder-You-Christmas-Philharmonic-Orchestra/dp/B076BFCL78/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1512645021&sr=1-1&refinements=p_32%3AElvis+Presley">Elvis Presley</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Hits-Martin-Frank-Sinatra/dp/B009R0ZQBC">Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin</a>. </p>
<p>When it does this, the music industry is well aware of three things: this is the season when consumers’ appetite for any old song that will feed that nostalgic mood peaks; artists and repertoire from the remote 1950s and 1960s are more suitable for romanticised family gatherings; and everyone has a hard time deciding which Christmas present they should buy for that very particular uncle whose musical curiosity gave up on him 30 years ago. </p>
<p>This year there is a “new” album by <a href="http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/">Ella Fitzgerald</a> “with” the London Symphony Orchestra featuring a “duet” with contemporary jazz singer <a href="http://www.gregoryporter.com/">Gregory Porter</a>. The reason I’ve just put some words in quotation marks is simple – they’re not true. Fitzgerald died in 1996 and Porter started his career in 2004 doubling as chef and singer at the now defunct Bread-Stuy restaurant, in Brooklyn. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.udiscovermusic.com/new-releases/ella-fitzgerald-sings-with-london-symphony-orchestra/">Someone to Watch Over Me</a> is being advertised as new. And, to some extent, it is. Using a couple of albums made in the early 1950s where Fitzgerald sings Gershwin and various songs from the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-American-Songbook-Composers-Standards/dp/1423419545">Great American Songbook</a>, technicians were able to isolate her voice, record the orchestra separately and then blend it all together. A remarkable new product, made possible by state-of-the-art audio technology. </p>
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<p>But is this ethically acceptable? Is it okay to manipulate the recorded work of dead artists to our own preference? Where do we draw the line between paying tribute to popular artists and exploiting their legacy? One thing is certain when it comes to Someone to Watch Over Me: no one asked Fitzgerald.</p>
<p>Every Christmas, artists seem blindly drawn to sing a duet with dead people they admire. Susan Boyle’s 2013 Christmas holiday album features her rendition of O Come, All Ye Faithful in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD1XuOiLCpc">posthumous duet with Elvis Presley</a>. Rod Stewart’s 2012 Merry Christmas, Baby album includes another duet with Ella Fitzgerald on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUHFd_vGtU0">What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?</a>. And the promotional single for Dean Martin’s 2011 retrospective collection of Christmas songs, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Kind-Christmas-Dean-Martin/dp/B002JNYM8M">My Kind of Christmas</a>, was a duet with Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QESEUv9k2p0">I’ll be Home for Christmas</a>. </p>
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<p>Although this is more common at Christmas, it happens all year round. The music world was <a href="https://www.spin.com/2014/01/25-most-inexplicable-wins-in-grammy-history/140121-natalie-cole/">clearly divided</a> when Natalie Cole decided to make a record with the voice of her dead father, Nat King Cole. <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1a40o">Unforgettable With Love</a> became a huge commercial success and went on to win a Grammy for Best Album the Year in 1991. </p>
<p>Less divided was the audience at the 1997 tribute concert that marked the 20th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death, when his daughter Lisa Marie Presley sang a duet with a video of her father on <a href="http://www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/a45416/elvis-and-lisa-marie-presley-singing-daddy-dont-cry/">Don’t Cry Daddy</a>. </p>
<p>However, in most cases, what might have started as a very sincere way of paying tribute to past artists, ends up being seen as a pathetic attempt to rub shoulders with timeless music icons. In 2000, saxophonist Kenny G got a taste of how such attempts can backlash in a rather bitter way. </p>
<h2>Musical necrophilia</h2>
<p>When he overdubbed his saxophone on to Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World, the jazz world didn’t show any kind of sympathy – on the contrary, jazz guitarist Pat Metheny called it “<a href="http://www.jazzoasis.com/methenyonkennyg.htm">musical necrophilia</a>”. And, despite receiving his 15th Grammy nomination with the album My Dream Duets in 2015, featuring duets exclusively with dead artists, Barry Manilow was criticised for it and included in the Guardian’s list of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/mar/24/dead-singers-duets-faith-evans-notorious-big">the creepiest duets with dead singers</a>”. </p>
<p>Dead artists are also being forced back into the business in hologram form. Celine Dion performed a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1HtPG6eMIo">duet on American Idol</a> side by side with the King himself. Elvis was also forced into a duet with country singer Martina McBride who sandwiched herself into his classic rendition of Blue Christmas. However, Christina Aguilera’s planned duet with Whitney Huston was <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/whitney-houston-estate-pulls-hologram-duet-with-christina-aguilera-20160520">pulled before it got to air</a>. </p>
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<p>In one of the original recordings used to rip Fitzgerald’s voice, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBSjLFJBW6M">Ella Sings Gershwin</a>, she is responding to a pianist (the discrete but amazing Ellis Larkins, who was utterly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J94EWJ_sT2o">obliterated from the 2017</a> version). Fitzgerald was known for being able to interpret the same song in an absolutely new and exciting way every time she sang it. It is fair to assume that she would most likely respond differently to an orchestra.</p>
<p>And that response is the actual voice of the artist. Records are more than sound – they document a moment in time of a unique interaction between musicians, producer, technicians and even the recording room. Technology is very useful when it comes to restoring priceless recordings, enabling them to be enjoyed today. That is respecting the past and heritage. Using that technology to sell a Christmas album is a completely different agenda.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88715/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jose Dias does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Using cutting edge technology to construct ham-fisted duets with dead singers to boost sales is sad way to listen to great artists.Jose Dias, Senior Lecturer in Music, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/693062016-11-24T09:14:49Z2016-11-24T09:14:49ZHolograms are no longer the future, but we must not forget them – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147244/original/image-20161123-19685-1i36y0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The future's so bright ...</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sean Johnston</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit01.htm">Stereoscopes</a> entertained every Victorian home with their ability to produce three-dimensional pictures. Typewriters and later fax machines were once essential for business practices. Photo printers and video rentals came and went from high streets. </p>
<p>When innovative technologies like these come to the end of their lives, we have various ways of remembering them. It might be through rediscovery – hipster subculture popularising retro technologies like valve radios or vinyl, for example. Or it might be by fitting the technology into a narrative of progress, such as the way we laugh at the brick-sized mobile phones of 30 years ago next to the sleek smartphones of today. </p>
<p>These stories sometimes simplify reality but they have their uses: they let companies align themselves with continual improvement and justify <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160612-heres-the-truth-about-the-planned-obsolescence-of-tech">planned obsolescence</a>. Even museums of science and technology tend to chronicle advances rather than document dead-ends or unachieved hopes. </p>
<p>But some technologies are more problematic: their expectations have failed to materialise, or have retreated into an indefinite future. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141209-sinclair-c5-30-years-too-soon">Sir Clive Sinclair’s C5</a> electric trike was a good example. Invisible in traffic, exposed to weather and excluded from pedestrian and cycle spaces, it satisfied no one. It has not been revived as retro-tech, and fits uncomfortably into a story of transport improvement. We risk forgetting it altogether. </p>
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<p>When we are talking about a single product like the C5, that is one thing. But in some cases we are talking about a whole genre of innovation. Take the hologram, for instance. </p>
<p>The hologram was conceived by Hungarian engineer <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1971/gabor-bio.html">Dennis Gabor</a> some 70 years ago. It was breathlessly reported in the media from the early 1960s, <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1971/">winning Gabor</a> the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1971, and hologram exhibitions attracted audiences of tens of thousands during the 1980s. Today, tens of millions of people have heard of them, but mostly through science fiction, computer gaming or social media. None of those representations bear much resemblance to the real thing.</p>
<p>When I first began researching the history of the field, my raw materials were mostly typical fodder for historians: unpublished documents and interviews. I had to hunt for them in neglected boxes in the homes, garages and memories of retired engineers, artists and entrepreneurs. The companies, universities and research labs that had once kept the relevant records and equipment had often lost track of them. The reasons were not difficult to trace. </p>
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<h2>The future that never came</h2>
<p>Holography had been conceived by Gabor as an improvement for <a href="http://www.explainthatstuff.com/electronmicroscopes.html">electron microscopes</a>, but after a decade its British developers <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=AtATDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=T.+E.+Allibone,+%22White+and+black+elephants+at+Aldermaston,%22+Journal+of+Electronics+and+Control,+4+(1958),+179-92.&source=bl&ots=BGwdi8yVdF&sig=7d1amUWGCDMC5brtMdeTF6hxjBk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjwoui6nb_QAhUDLcAKHfwlD6QQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=T.%20E.%20Allibone%2C%20%22White%20and%20black%20elephants%20at%20Aldermaston%2C%22%20Journal%20of%20Electronics%20and%20Control%2C%204%20(1958)%2C%20179-92.&f=false">publicly dubbed</a> it an impractical white elephant. At the same time, American and Soviet researchers were quietly <a href="https://www.academia.edu/1784560/The_parallax_view_the_military_origins_of_holography">developing</a> a Cold War application: bypassing inadequate electronic computers by holographic image processing showed good potential, but it could not be publicly acknowledged.</p>
<p>Instead, the engineering industry <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=iPfU_powAgAC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=%E2%80%98Lensless+photography+uses+laser+beams+to+enlarge+negatives,+microscope+slides%E2%80%99,+Wall+Street+Journal,+5+Dec.+1963&source=bl&ots=UZNTUoJYCI&sig=lvZ5gv6SLrE5npbqlhjFahDXFpQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjcrLj0nb_QAhUPOsAKHbANAL0Q6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%98Lensless%20photography%20uses%20laser%20beams%20to%20enlarge%20negatives%2C%20microscope%20slides%E2%80%99%2C%20Wall%20Street%20Journal%2C%205%20Dec.%201963&f=false">publicised</a> the technology as “lensless 3D photography” in the 1960s, predicting that traditional photography would be replaced and that holographic television and home movies were imminent. Companies and government-sponsored labs pitched in, eager to explore the rich potential of the field, <a href="http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=755546">generating</a> 1,000 PhDs, 7,000 patents and 20,000 papers. But by the end of the decade, none of these applications were any closer to materialising.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147235/original/image-20161123-19722-rtb9ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147235/original/image-20161123-19722-rtb9ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147235/original/image-20161123-19722-rtb9ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147235/original/image-20161123-19722-rtb9ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147235/original/image-20161123-19722-rtb9ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147235/original/image-20161123-19722-rtb9ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147235/original/image-20161123-19722-rtb9ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147235/original/image-20161123-19722-rtb9ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Exhibition time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sean Johnston</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From the 1970s, artists and artisans began taking up holograms as an art form and home attraction, leading to a wave of public exhibitions and a cottage industry. Entrepreneurs flocked to the field, attracted by expectations of guaranteed progress and profits. Physicist Stephen Benton of Polaroid Corporation and later MIT <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tLWlCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=benton+%22is+not+a+technological+speculation,+it+is+a+historical+inevitability%22&source=bl&ots=bajjz-yDEv&sig=BjCw9DT-5MH6SvDLkPzy9AWl6Yw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPka2e6r7QAhXEIsAKHRrjDmkQ6AEIGzAA">expressed</a> his faith: “A satisfying and effective three-dimensional image”, he said, “is not a technological speculation, it is a historical inevitability”. </p>
<p>Not much had emerged a decade later, though unexpected new potential niches sprang up. Holograms were touted for magazine illustrations and billboards, for instance. And finally there was a commercial success – holographic security patches on credit cards and bank notes.</p>
<p>Ultimately, however, this is a story of failed endeavour. Holography has not replaced photography. Holograms do not dominate advertising or home entertainment. There is no way of generating a holographic image that behaves like the image of Princess Leia projected by R2-D2 in Star Wars, or Star Trek’s <a href="http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Holographic_program">holographic doctor</a>. So pervasive are cultural expectations even now that it is almost obligatory to follow such statements with “… yet”. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pUaxXsqGeFI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Preserving disappointment</h2>
<p>Holography is a field of innovation where art, science, popular culture, consumerism and cultural confidences intermingled; and was shaped as much by its audiences as by its creators. Yet it doesn’t fit the kind of stories of progress that we tend to tell. You could say the same about <a href="http://uk.ign.com/articles/2010/04/23/the-history-of-3d-movie-tech">3D cinema</a> and <a href="http://technosnowball.co.uk/blog/the-history-of-3d-television/">television</a> or the <a href="http://io9.gizmodo.com/seriously-scary-radioactive-consumer-products-from-the-498044380">health benefits</a> of radioactivity, for example. </p>
<p>When a technology does not deliver its potential, museums are less interested in holding exhibitions; universities and other institutions less interested in devoting space to collections. When the people who keep them in their garages die, they are likely to end up in landfill. As the Malian writer Amadou Hampâté Bâ <a href="http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001145/114582f.pdf">observed</a>: “When an old person dies, a library burns”. Yet it is important we remember these endeavours. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147240/original/image-20161123-19696-1wl2oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147240/original/image-20161123-19696-1wl2oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147240/original/image-20161123-19696-1wl2oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147240/original/image-20161123-19696-1wl2oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147240/original/image-20161123-19696-1wl2oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147240/original/image-20161123-19696-1wl2oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147240/original/image-20161123-19696-1wl2oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147240/original/image-20161123-19696-1wl2oa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Miaow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/voyagernz/8222687289/in/photolist-dwBqsv-apzuWc-bmTXsg-7k3XAz-3ehBt-4jJmwV-3Q9FwQ-CgHut-7k3XAg-4do6X-4xQMtQ-4docc-3q65-6P8Jmx-bdm8EV-5A4G4x-ku7yU-21vFU-GrV4z-eUkXuc-pG9XX7-brUnBD-5qDcfS-ah5iM-6UTNVC-5voJvS-mvjmAd-2Nqaq-rY85q-mZAxM-4Q2ctc-25E3hz-4PSRag-prNmDY-rY85A-gPXPZb-3PeDon-nCs58-rY85u-rY85w-56gq8U-bvQLQ-c5cMb-prQZaG-4Vnyzb-25UwiZ-6BRNuP-7fEBPC-5rBUN8-6bp3rG">Murray Adamson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Technologies like holograms were created and consumed by an exceptional range of social groups, from classified scientists to countercultural explorers. Most lived that technological faith, and many gained insights from sharing frustrating or secret experiences of innovation. </p>
<p>It gets left to us historians to hold these stories of unsuccessful fields together, and arguably that’s not sufficient. By remembering our endeavours with holograms or 3D cinema or radioactive therapy we may help future generations understand how technologies make society tick. For that vital reason, preserving them needs to be more of a priority.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69306/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Johnston has received funding for this research from
Shearwater Foundation (now defunct), the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and the
American Institute of Physics Center for the History of Physics. </span></em></p>When technologies let us down, they tend to be forgotten. There’s a very good reason why this should be resisted.Sean F. Johnston, Professor of Science, Technology and Society, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/417332015-10-30T15:44:22Z2015-10-30T15:44:22ZNot just for Halloween: dead celebrities come back to haunt us all year round<p>Earlier this week, Forbes announced in its “Top-Earning Dead Celebrities of 2015” <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2015/10/27/the-13-top-earning-dead-celebrities-of-2015/">list</a> that Michael Jackson has been crowned once again as this year’s most lucrative ghost, having earned a whopping $115m. Elvis Presley is no longer faring so well: he topped the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/dead-celebrities/">list</a> for many years, until pushed to second place in 2009.</p>
<p>Life after death is not exclusive to these two megastars by any means: plenty of other well-known figures who have shuffled off this mortal coil continue to haunt us – not just at Halloween, but year round.</p>
<p>For many famous individuals, death has been a successful career move. As well as Jackson, the ghostlike apparitions of Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and Steve McQueen have all been sighted in recent decades. Images of the dead are attached to everything from clothing to chocolate to perfume. </p>
<p>Some performers have even been known to return to tread the boards after their death. This happened in 1992 when Natalie Cole performed a virtual <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOFUyoNuTVc">duet with her father</a> Nat King Cole (appearing on a screen behind her). And, more perturbingly, last year – when <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/events/bbma-2014/6092040/michael-jackson-hologram-billboard-music-awards">Michael Jackson</a>’s holographic resurrection left fans both thrilled and uncomfortable.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jDRTghGZ7XU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Life after death is not limited to Hollywood stars and the music elite – Albert Einstein has a vibrant celebrity career in his afterlife via his own range of T-shirts, posters and even <a href="http://einsteinworld.com/product/einstein-tablet/">tablets</a>.</p>
<h2>Who owns the ghosts?</h2>
<p>But of course, ghosts such as these don’t appear of their own volition. While living celebrities can be volatile and demanding, in death they become brands, far easier to manage (and exploit).</p>
<p>The advertising industry has been a principle factor in the rush to resurrect dead celebrities. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/intellectual-property-office">Intellectual property</a> or “image ownership” is increasingly profitable both in and after life. But exerting control over the non-tangible remains complex and <a href="https://theconversation.com/courthouse-rock-elviss-legal-legacy-at-80-35973">a whole speciality of law</a> has been developed in order to deal with image ownership.</p>
<p>There are now businesses that specialise in owning dead celebrities in order to manage and maximise earnings from their posthumous career. <a href="http://authenticbrandsgroup.com/">Authentic Brand Group</a>, for example, purchased the rights to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mfl45elikj/marilyn-monroe-7/">Marilyn Monroe</a> in 2011. They have subsequently been investing in her brand by collaborating with US retailer Macy’s in the development of a clothing line inspired by <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2288672/Marilyn-Monroe-inspires-new-Macys-collection-puts-modern-twist-legendary-stars-Fifties-style.html">Monroe</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100352/original/image-20151030-16554-zyhfav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100352/original/image-20151030-16554-zyhfav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100352/original/image-20151030-16554-zyhfav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100352/original/image-20151030-16554-zyhfav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100352/original/image-20151030-16554-zyhfav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100352/original/image-20151030-16554-zyhfav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100352/original/image-20151030-16554-zyhfav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marilyn is everywhere.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">meunierd / Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So ownership of image after death has opened a range of issues beyond those experienced by celebrities in life. The rights to dead celebrities is largely passed to the direct relatives. But this has been controversial: just look at the afterlife of <a href="https://theconversation.com/review-life-james-dean-and-the-limits-of-nostalgia-47451">James Dean</a> – whose family unscrupulously sold Dean spectres left, right and centre.</p>
<p>Then there’s the case of Fred Astaire, whose widow granted permission for his image from the 1951 film Royal Wedding to be used in an advertisement for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QASUovFOquw">Dirt Devil Vacuum</a>’s in 1997. His daughter subsequently <a href="http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-08-21/features/1997233108_1_astaire-robyn-devil-vacuum">voiced her disapproval</a>, saying she was “saddened that after Fred’s wonderful career, he was sold to the devil”. </p>
<h2>Avoiding afterlife</h2>
<p>Given this minefield, consideration of image protection is now crucial for celebrities not only in life but also after death – and many want to have a say from beyond the grave. So not all celebrities pursue a career in their afterlife. Before his death in August 2014, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/31/robin-williams-restricted-use-of-his-image-for-25-years-after-his-death">Robin Williams</a> safeguarded himself against image resurrection after death. The Robin Williams Trust has a deed containing a detailed description of how Williams intended to be used in any publicity. </p>
<p>He passed on rights to his name, signature, photograph and likeness to the Windfall Foundation, set up in his name. So Williams protected his image from resurrection in any form. He cannot be used to haunt any films or adverts – but only until 2039. After that his situation is a lot more precarious.</p>
<p>This new form of privacy contract based on and around new technologies successfully maintains ownership and control of image after death – for a while. The need to exert control over post-mortem image and income is increasingly an issue for the rich and famous. Avoiding a life after death is possible, but needs to be very carefully legally framed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41733/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Penfold-Mounce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you’re a celebrity, avoiding a life after death is possible but needs to be very carefully legally framed.Ruth Penfold-Mounce, Lecturer in Criminology, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/452512015-07-30T04:12:14Z2015-07-30T04:12:14ZClassrooms of the e-future will be virtual with life-like reality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89966/original/image-20150728-9853-1tvflh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Holograms offer the promise of transforming electronic modes of teaching</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Groundbreaking 3D hologram <a href="http://proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2010/InSITE10p693-704Ghuloum751.pdf">technology</a> will create a virtual classroom. The new hologram is a creative innovation that will transform electronic modes of teaching. It will give lecturers and students a semblance of the classroom when they may be at home or anywhere else. </p>
<p>The 3D technology operates by creating the illusion of three-dimensional imagery. A light source is projected onto the surface of an object and scattered. A second light illuminates the object to create interference between both sources. Essentially, the two light sources interact with each other and cause diffraction, which appears as a 3D image. </p>
<p>This form of mobile-learning has been hailed as an effective teaching tool of the future. It allows teachers to provide instruction from home with holographic images of students via an electronic multimedia device.</p>
<p>The 3D hologram provides a lifelike experience. Students will also be able to see the teacher and fellow learners using mobile devices. This will give teachers and students the impression that they are in the same physical space.</p>
<p>The main <a href="http://proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2010/InSITE10p693-704Ghuloum751.pdf">barriers</a> to integrating the technology into learning environments are the high costs of setting it up and the lack of fast internet connection.</p>
<h2>How the world is changing</h2>
<p>Since the start of the 20th <a href="http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=149560">century</a> major progress has been made in how electronic media is used.</p>
<p>The advantages offered by this media have persuaded most educational institutions to integrate e-learning in their teaching.</p>
<p>At the same time, advancements in technology have enabled teachers, academics and students to move from traditional chalkboards and opt for interactive white boards or <a href="http://www.cloquet.k12.mn.us/curriculum.cfm?subpage=511729">smart</a> boards.</p>
<p>Various network–based methods are used to complement classroom education to reduce the effects of <a href="http://firstmonday.org/article/view/2178/2033">distance</a>, making it independent of time and physical location.</p>
<p>Now, the 3D hologram technology promises to be able to group all parties for an even more lifelike experience.</p>
<p>Future e-learning will use technology that will deliver a course in the same way as happens in a physical classroom. The inherent characteristics of the lesson sequence in a face-to-face classroom which would be reproduced in the e-learning framework will be so accurately replicated so that the learner will feel physically in the presence of both his or her teacher and fellow students.</p>
<p>The student will be consequently unaware of the distance and the technical device that separates him or her from the teacher and other students.</p>
<h2>Drivers of change</h2>
<p>Technological developments tend to spawn new working methods that, in turn, require new skills. This will spur workers to embrace distance learning as it would allow them to continue their education while pursuing their professional activities. They will not need to take time off from work to attend evening classes - the class can take place at home or their place of work. </p>
<p>Telecommunications networks will become dense and easily available at lower prices.</p>
<p>E-Learning as practised today emphasises written communication – messaging, chat, forum, and wiki - to the detriment of audio-visual communication. But the arrival of smartphones and tablets, given their popularity within the student community, will boost audio-visual communication.</p>
<p>Although smartphone and tablet screens might appear inadequate for audio-visual communication, with the extension of the projection of holographic images in three dimensions a great revolution is being ushered-in. It is now possible to project the image of a smartphone or tablet as a 3D holographic image.</p>
<p>The virtual world gives a greater sense of presence than discussion boards. The result is that the students get a better feel for the teacher and subject matter. Studies have indicated that this style of learning results in better retention and understanding of a given topic.</p>
<p>This will unquestionably make a pre-eminent contribution to the field of e-learning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Holograms could make science and technology accessible as part of a new way of teaching.Sheryl Buckley, Director of the School of Computing, University of South AfricaMoses J. Strydom, Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.