Unprejudiced information by redundancy

A hologram promises to contain all information of a recorded scene. It not just carries the amplitude information about the intensity i. e. the brightness of a point of light like a photograph. It carries the phase information as well. And with it the information about the relation between relative positions of single points of light of a reflecting object. That's fundamental for holography's virtue being able to reconstruct a three-dimensional image.

In addition to this spacial parallax is another feature of holography which is the ability of storing the image information of a recorded object on any whichever part of the recording material.

The sketch below wants to help making this a little more understandable. It shows the difference of recording a single point of light reflecting from an object between a photograph and a hologram.

On the left hand side the method of photography is being illustrated. As one can see every single recorded point of and on a photograph correspond exactly with just one single point of light (respectively one single point of the depicting image). "Im übertragenen Sinne übernimmt das Licht gewissermaßen die Funktion eines imaginären Fadens, der jeden einzelen Objektpunkt mit dem dazugehörigen Bildpunkt verbindet." (Peter Zec, 1987, p. 122f) [translation: Figuratively light assumes the virtual function of an imaginary thread which connects every single point of an object with its corresponding point of the image]

On the right hand side the method of holography is being illustrated. And as one can see here, one single point of light is stored on any part of the hologram.

Imagine a photograph that is cut into pieces. Every single snip now carries just a certain limited part of information of the whole image. The entire information is lost. Whereas just a part of a broken hologram contains the information of the entire image. Because of the information being spread all over the recording plate.

The four pics shown below want to illustrate how in contrast to a photograph in a hologram information extant due to the phenomenon of redundancy of (image) information.

Fig. Peter Zec, 1987, p. 123

This series of images show a broken hologram. The left splinter is being photographed from different angles. It is comparable to looking out of a window. If the frame of a window is getting smaller, the scene as a whole can not be seen anymore. But taking a step forward or to the left or to the right, the hidden part of the scene becomes visible again.

A hologram splinter carries the complete image information of a motif.

The phenomenon of redundant storage seems to be basis for the idea of creating and reconstructing an unreal virtual world in which perception is not limited by any loss of information. The following movie footages would like to conduce as examples.

In movie Déjà vu (2006) ATF agent Doug Carlin has to solve a bomb attack. Monitoring system software Snow White enables him to look into the past to investigate the events leading to the explosion.

This snippet gives an insight of how Snow White works.

Déjà vu (2006)

Doug Carlin's perception of the scene is not limited by any predefined frame, border or viewing direction e. g. of a CCTV camera. Every single information and every possible angle is unprejudiced available to him. Without any loss and lack and without any preselection. He can chose where ever he wants to be (in the past) and what ever he likes to see. There is no in between, no spare spaces and no leaps. Because information of spare spaces and information about beyond of frames, borders and viewing directions are available as well. Due to redundancy of information.

In US SiFi Mystery TV series Fringe (2009) FBI agent Olivia Dunham's brain gets connected to the one of her murdered colleague John Scott to synchronize their memories. As an aftermath part of his memories cross over to her brain. By putting her in a state of deep hypnosis Dr. Walter Bishop tries to make these memories accessible to her mind.

Fringe, The dreamscape (2009)

Making memories of a person visible, one would expect to see exactly the same scene, that person has seen before with it's own eyes. But in this snippet Olivia can see herself from the backside and she can see John's face. Things that actually can not be part of his memories, because he could not have seen them. But all information of the scene are available to Olivia, so that she can percept as she would have been there by herself.

The snippets shown above would like to illustrate the phantasm of an unusual viewing pattern. Actually we are get used to the fact that we are sticked to predefined sections when viewing footage and photographs and that we can not change angles once a scene is recorded.

This is an experience of viewing that is located in holography's promise of keeping unprejudiced information available by redundancy. An experience we perhaps would not have made without phenomenon of holography.