Review of three-dimensional holographic imaging by Fresnel incoherent correlation holograms

Holographic imaging offers a reliable and fast method to capture the complete 3-D information of the scene from a single perspective. We review our recently proposed single-channel optical system for generating digital Fresnel holograms of 3-D real-existing objects illuminated by incoherent light. In this motionless holographic technique, light is reflected, or emitted, from a 3-D object, propagates through a spatial light modulator (SLM), and is recorded by a digital camera. The SLM is used as a beam-splitter of the single-channel incoherent interferometer, such that each spherical beam originated from each object point is split into two spherical beams with two different curve radiuses. Incoherent sum of the entire interferences between all the couples of spherical beams creates the Fresnel hologram of the observed 3-D object. When this hologram is reconstructed in the computer, the 3D properties of the object are revealed.