Applications of Polaroids

Polaroids polarize light. A number of needle shaped crystals quinine iodosulphate with their
axes parallel to one another are packed between two sheets of plastic. This arrangement
serves as the polaroids.
The important uses are:

These reduce excess glare and hence sun glasses are fitted with Polaroid sheets.

These are also used to reduce headlight glare of cars.

They are used to improve color contrast in old oil paintings.

These are useful in 3-D motion pictures i.e., holography.

Wind shields of automobiles are also made of Polaroid sheets.

Uses of Polaroids
Polaroids polarize light. A number of needle shaped crystals quinine iodosulphate with their
axes parallel to one another are packed between two sheets of plastic. This arrangement
serves as the polaroids.
The important uses are:

These reduce excess glare and hence sun glasses are fitted with Polaroid sheets.

These are also used to reduce headlight glare of cars.

They are used to improve color contrast in old oil paintings.

These are useful in 3-D motion pictures i.e., holography.

Wind shields of automobiles are also made of Polaroid sheets.

Polarizing sheets are used in liquid crystal displays, optical microscopes and sunglasses. Since
Polaroid sheet is dichroic, it will absorb impinging light of one plane of polarization, so
sunglasses will reduce the partially polarized light reflected from level surfaces such as
windows and sheets of water, for example. They are also used to examine for chain
orientation in transparent plastic products made from polystyrene or polycarbonate.
The intensity of light passing through a Polaroid polarizer is described by Malus' law.

Uses of polaroid
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Polaroids are used in the laboratory to produce and analyse plane polarized light
Polaroids are widely used as polarizing sun glasses
They are used to eliminate the head light glare in motor cars.
They are used to improve colour contrasts in old oil paintings.
Polaroid films are used to produce three-dimensonal moving pictures.
They are used as glass windows in trains and aeroplanes to control the intensity
of light. In aeroplane one polaroid is fixed outside the window while the other is
fitted inside which can be rotated. The intensity of light can be adjusted by
rotating the inner polaroid.
7. Aerial pictures may be taken from slightly different angles and when viewed
through polaroids give a better perception of depth.
8. In calculators and watches, letters and numbers are formed by liquid crystal
display(LCD) through polarisation of light.
9. Polarization is also used to study size and shape of molecules.

Applications of Ultrasonics

Homogenizing
Dispersing and Deagglomeration
Emulsifying
Wet-Milling and Grinding
Disintegration
Cell Extraction
Hot Water Disinfection
Sonochemistry
Transesterification (Biodiesel)
Degassing
Leak Detection (Bottles and Cans)
Cleaning (Wire/Strip)

Ultrasonic Homogenizing
Ultrasonic processors are used as homogenizers, to reduce small particles in a liquid to
improve uniformity and stability. These particles (disperse phase) can be either solids or
liquids. Ultrasonic homogenizing is very efficient for the reduction of soft and hard particles.
Hielscher produces ultrasonic devices for the homogenization of any liquid volume for batch
or inline processing. Laboratory ultrasonic devices can be used for volumes from 1.5mL to
approx. 2L. Ultrasonic industrial devices are used for the process development and production
of batches from 0.5 to approx 2000L or flow rates from 0.1L to 20m per hour.
Ultrasonic Dispersing and Deagglomeration
The dispersing and deagglomeration of solids into liquids is an important application of
ultrasonic devices. Ultrasonic cavitation generates high shear forces that break particle
agglomerates into single dispersed particles. The mixing of powders into liquids is a common
step in the formulation of various products, such as paint, ink, shampoo, beverages, or
polishing media. The individual particles are held together by attraction forces of various
physical and chemical nature, including van der Waals forces and liquid surface tension. The
attraction forces must be overcome on order to deagglomerate and disperse the particles into
liquid media. For the dispersing and deagglomeration of powders in liquids, high intensity
ultrasonication is an interesting alternative to high pressure homogenizers and rotor-statormixers.
Ultrasonic Emulsifying
A wide range of intermediate and consumer products, such as cosmetics and skin lotions,
pharmaceutical ointments, varnishes, paints and lubricants and fuels are based wholly or in
part of emulsions. Emulsions are dispersions of two or more immiscible liquids. Highly
intensive ultrasound supplies the power needed to disperse a liquid phase (dispersed phase)
in small droplets in a second phase (continuous phase). In the dispersing zone, imploding
cavitation bubbles cause intensive shock waves in the surrounding liquid and result in the
formation of liquid jets of high liquid velocity. At appropriate energy density levels, ultrasound
can well achieve a mean droplet sizes below 1 micron (micro-emulsion).

Ultrasonic Wet-Milling and Grinding

Ultrasonication is an efficient means for the wet-milling and micro-grinding of particles. In
particular for the manufacturing of superfine-size slurries, ultrasound has many advantages,
when compared with common size reduction equipment, such as: colloid mills (e.g. ball mills,
bead mills), disc mills or jet mills. Ultrasonication allows for the processing of highconcentration and high-viscosity slurries therefore reducing the volume to be processed.
Ultrasonic milling is suitable for processing micron-size and nano-size materials, such as
ceramics, alumina trihydrate, barium sulphate, calcium carbonate and metal oxides.
Ultrasonic Cell Disintegration
Ultrasonic treatment can disintegrate fibrous, cellulosic material into fine particles and break
the walls of the cell structure. This releases more of the intra-cellular material, such as starch
or sugar into the liquid. In addition to that the cell wall material is being broken into small
debris.
This effect can be used for fermentation, digestion and other conversion processes of organic
matter. After milling and grinding, ultrasonication makes more of the intra-cellular material
e.g. starch as well as the cell wall debris available to the enzymes that convert starch into
sugars. It does also increase the surface area exposed to the enzymes during liquefaction or
saccharification. This does typically increase the speed and yield of yeast fermentation and
other conversion processes, e.g. to boost the ethanol production from biomass.
Ultrasonic Cell Extraction
The extraction of enzymes and proteins stored in cells and subcellular particles is an effective
application of high-intensity ultrasound, as the extraction of organic compounds contained
within the body of plants and seeds by a solvent can be significantly improved. Ultrasound
has a potential benefit in the extraction and isolation of novel potentially bioactive
components, e.g. from non-utilized by-product streams formed in current processes.
Continuous Disinfection of Hot Water Systems
To fight the dangerous Legionella bacteria in hot water systems and secure a safer showering
environment theGruenbeck company has developed the GENO-break system. This system
uses Hielscher ultrasonic technology in combination with UV-C light.
Sonochemical Application of Ultrasonics
Sonochemistry is the application of ultrasound to chemical reactions and processes. The
mechanism causing sonochemical effects in liquids is the phenomenon of acoustic cavitation.
The sonochemical effects to chemical reactions and processes include increase in reaction
speed and/or output, more efficient energy usage, performance improvement of phase
transfer catalysts, activation of metals and solids or increase in the reactivity of reagents or
catalysts.
Ultrasonic Transesterification of Oil to Biodiesel
Ultrasonication increases the chemical reaction speed and yield of the transesterification of
vegetable oils and animal fats into biodiesel. This allows changing the production from batch
processing to continuous flow processing and it reduces investment and operational costs.
The manufacturing of biodiesel from vegetable oils or animal fats, involves the base-catalyzed

transesterification of fatty acids with methanol or ethanol to give the corresponding methyl
esters or ethyl esters. Ultrasonication can achieve a biodiesel yield in excess of 99%.
Ultrasound reduces the processing time and the separation time significantly.
Ultrasonic Degassing of Liquids
Degassing of liquids is an interesting application of ultrasonic devices. In this case the
ultrasound removes small suspended gas-bubbles from the liquid and reduces the level of
dissolved gas below the natural equilibrium level.
Sonication of Bottles and Cans for Leak Detection
Ultrasound is being used in bottling and filling machines to check cans and bottles for leaks.
The instantaneous release of carbon dioxide is the decisive effect of ultrasonic leakage tests
of containers filled with carbonated beverages.
Ultrasonic Wire, Cable and Strip Cleaning
Ultrasonic cleaning is an environmentally friendly alternative for the cleaning of continuous
materials, such as wire and cable, tape or tubes. The effect of the cavitation generated by the
ultrasonic power removes lubrication residues like oil or grease, soaps, stearates or dust.

Applications of Ultrasonic Sound

Sounds in the range 20-100kHz are commonly used for communication and navigation
by bats, dolphins, and some other species. Much higher frequencies, in the range 1-20
MHz, are used for medical ultrasound. Such sounds are produced by ultrasonic
transducers. A wide variety of medical diagnostic applications use both the echo time
and the Doppler shift of the reflected sounds to measure the distance to internal organs
and structures and the speed of movement of those structures. Typical is the
echocardiogram, in which a moving image of the heart's action is produced in video
form with false colors to indicate the speed and direction of blood flow and heart valve
movements. Ultrasound imaging near the surface of the body is capable of resolutions
less than a millimeter. The resolution decreases with the depth of penetration since
lower frequencies must be used (the attenuation of the waves in tissue goes up with
increasing frequency.) The use of longer wavelengths implies lower resolution since the
maximum resolution of any imaging process is proportional to the wavelength of the
imaging wave.

Prior to World War II, sonar, the technique of sending sound waves through water and observing
the returning echoes to characterize submerged objects, inspired early ultrasound investigators to
explore ways to apply the concept to medical diagnosis. In 1929 and 1935, Sokolov studied the
use of ultrasonic waves in detecting metal objects. Mulhauser, in 1931, obtained a patent for using
ultrasonic waves, using two transducers to detect flaws in solids. Firestone (1940) and Simons
(1945) developed pulsed ultrasonic testing using a pulse-echo technique.
Shortly after the close of World War II, researchers in Japan began to explore medical diagnostic
capabilities of ultrasound. The first ultrasonic instruments used an A-mode presentation with blips
on an oscilloscope screen. That was followed by a B-mode presentation with a two dimensional,
gray scale imaging.
Japan's work in ultrasound was relatively unknown in the United States and Europe until the
1950s. Then researchers presented their findings on the use of ultrasound to detect gallstones,
breast masses, and tumors to the international medical community. Japan was also the first
country to apply Doppler ultrasound, an application of ultrasound that detects internal moving
objects such as blood coursing through the heart for cardiovascular investigation.

Ultrasound pioneers working in the United States contributed many innovations and important
discoveries to the field during the following decades. Researchers learned to use ultrasound to
detect potential cancer and to visualize tumors in living subjects and in excised tissue. Real-time
imaging, another significant diagnostic tool for physicians, presented ultrasound images directly on
the system's CRT screen at the time of scanning. The introduction of spectral Doppler and later
color Doppler depicted blood flow in various colors to indicate
speed of flow and direction.
The United States also produced the earliest hand held
"contact" scanner for clinical use, the second generation of Bmode equipment, and the prototype for the first articulatedarm hand held scanner, with 2-D images.

Beginnings of Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE)

Nondestructive testing has been practiced for many decades, with initial rapid developments in
instrumentation spurred by the technological advances that occurred during World War II and the
subsequent defense effort. During the earlier days, the primary purpose was the detection of
defects. As a part of "safe life" design, it was intended that a structure should not develop
macroscopic defects during its life, with the detection of such defects being a cause for removal of
the component from service. In response to this need, increasingly sophisticated techniques using
ultrasonics, eddy currents, x-rays, dye penetrants, magnetic particles, and other forms of

interrogating energy emerged.

In the early 1970's, two events occurred which caused a major change. The continued
improvement of the technology, in particular its ability to detect small flaws, led to the
unsatisfactory situation that more and more parts had to be rejected, even though the probability
of failure had not changed. However, the discipline of fracture mechanics emerged, which enabled
one to predict whether a crack of a given size would fail under a particular load if a material
property, fracture toughness, were known. Other laws were developed to predict the rate of growth
of cracks under cyclic loading (fatigue). With the advent of these tools, it became possible to
accept structures containing defects if the sizes of those defects were known. This formed the
basis for new philosophy of "fail safe" or "damage tolerant" design. Components having known
defects could continue in service as long as it could be established that those defects would not
grow to a critical, failure producing size.
A new challenge was thus presented to the nondestructive testing community. Detection was not
enough. One needed to also obtain quantitative information about flaw size to serve as an input to
fracture mechanics based predictions of remaining life. These concerns, which were felt
particularly strongly in the defense and nuclear power industries, led to the creation of a number of
research programs around the world and the emergence of quantitative nondestructive evaluation
(QNDE) as a new discipline. The Center for Nondestructive Evaluation at Iowa State University
(growing out of a major research effort at the Rockwell International Science Center); the Electric
Power Research Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina; the Fraunhofer Institute for Nondestructive
Testing in Saarbrucken, Germany; and the Nondestructive Testing Centre in Harwell, England can
all trace their roots to those.

Normal Beam Inspection

Pulse-echo ultrasonic measurements can determine the location of a discontinuity in a
part or structure by accurately measuring the time required for a short ultrasonic pulse
generated by a transducer to travel through a thickness of material, reflect from the
back or the surface of a discontinuity, and be returned to the transducer. In most
applications, this time interval is a few microseconds or less. The two-way transit time
measured is divided by two to account for the down-and-back travel path and multiplied

by the velocity of sound in the test material. The result is expressed in the well-known
relationship
d = vt/2 or v = 2d/t
where d is the distance from the surface to the discontinuity in the test piece, v is the
velocity of sound waves in the material, and t is the measured round-trip transit time.
The diagram below allows you to move a transducer over the surface of a stainless
steel test block and see return echoes as they would appear on an oscilloscope. The
transducer employed is a 5 MHz broadband transducer 0.25 inches in diameter. The
signals were generated with computer software similar to that found in the ThompsonGray Measurement Model and UTSIM developed at the Center for Nondestructive
Evaluation at Iowa State University.

Precision ultrasonic thickness gages usually operate at frequencies between 500 kHz
and 100 MHz, by means of piezoelectric transducers that generate bursts of sound
waves when excited by electrical pulses. A wide variety of transducers with various
acoustic characteristics have been developed to meet the needs of industrial
applications. Typically, lower frequencies are used to optimize penetration when
measuring thick, highly attenuating or highly scattering materials, while higher
frequencies will be recommended to optimize resolution in thinner, non-attenuating,
non-scattering materials.
In thickness gauging, ultrasonic techniques permit quick and reliable measurement of
thickness without requiring access to both sides of a part. Accuracy's as high as 1
micron or 0.0001 inch can be achieved in some applications. It is possible to measure
most engineering materials ultrasonically, including metals, plastic, ceramics,
composites, epoxies, and glass as well as liquid levels and the thickness of certain
biological specimens. On-line or in-process measurement of extruded plastics or rolled
metal often is possible, as is measurements of single layers or coatings in multilayer
materials. Modern handheld gages are simple to use and very reliable.
Weldments (Welded Joints)

The most commonly occurring defects in welded joints are porosity, slag inclusions,
lack of side-wall fusion, lack of inter-run fusion, lack of root penetration, undercutting,
and longitudinal or transverse cracks.
With the exception of single gas pores all the defects listed are usually well detectable
by ultrasonics. Most applications are on low-alloy construction quality steels, however,
welds in aluminum can also be tested. Ultrasonic flaw detection has long been the
preferred method for nondestructive testing in welding applications. This safe, accurate,
and simple technique has pushed ultrasonics to the forefront of inspection technology.
Ultrasonic weld inspections are typically performed using a straight beam transducer in
conjunction with an angle beam transducer and wedge. A straight beam transducer,
producing a longitudinal wave at normal incidence into the test piece, is first used to
locate any laminations in or near the heat-affected zone. This is important because an
angle beam transducer may not be able to provide a return signal from a laminar flaw.

The second step in the inspection involves using an angle beam transducer to inspect
the actual weld. Angle beam transducers use the principles of refraction and mode
conversion to produce refracted shear or longitudinal waves in the test material. [Note:
Many AWS inspections are performed using refracted shear waves. However, material
having a large grain structure, such as stainless steel may require refracted longitudinal
waves for successful inspections.] This inspection may include the root, sidewall,
crown, and heat-affected zones of a weld. The process involves scanning the surface of

the material around the weldment with the transducer. This refracted sound wave will
bounce off a reflector (discontinuity) in the path of the sound beam. With proper angle
beam techniques, echoes returned from the weld zone may allow the operator to
determine the location and type of discontinuity.

To determine the proper scanning area for the weld, the inspector must first calculate
the location of the sound beam in the test material. Using the refracted angle, beam
index point and material thickness, the V-path and skip distance of the sound beam is
found. Once they have been calculated, the inspector can identify the transducer
locations on the surface of the material corresponding to the crown, sidewall, and root
of the weld.

Applications[edit]

Art[edit]
Early on, artists saw the potential of holography as a medium and gained access to science laboratories to
create their work. Holographic art is often the result of collaborations between scientists and artists, although
some holographers would regard themselves as both an artist and a scientist.
Salvador Dal claimed to have been the first to employ holography artistically. He was certainly the first and bestknown surrealist to do so, but the 1972 New York exhibit of Dal holograms had been preceded by the
holographic art exhibition that was held at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan in 1968 and by the one at
the Finch College gallery in New York in 1970, which attracted national media attention. [45]
During the 1970s, a number of art studios and schools were established, each with their particular approach to
holography. Notably, there was the San Francisco School of Holography established by Lloyd Cross, The
Museum of Holography in New York founded by Rosemary (Possie) H. Jackson, the Royal College of Art in
London and the Lake Forest College Symposiums organised by Tung Jeong (T.J.). [46] None of these studios still

exist; however, there is the Center for the Holographic Arts in New York [47] and the HOLOcenter in Seoul,[48] which
offers artists a place to create and exhibit work.
During the 1980s, many artists who worked with holography helped the diffusion of this so-called "new medium"
in the art world, such as Harriet Casdin-Silver of the USA, Dieter Jung of Germany, and Moyss
Baumstein of Brazil, each one searching for a proper "language" to use with the three-dimensional work,
avoiding the simple holographic reproduction of a sculpture or object. For instance, in Brazil, many concrete
poets (Augusto de Campos, Dcio Pignatari, Julio Plaza and Jos Wagner Garcia, associated with Moyss
Baumstein) found in holography a way to express themselves and to renew Concrete Poetry.
A small but active group of artists still useists integrate holographic elements into their work. [49] Some are
associated with novel holographic techniques; for example, artist Matt Brand [50] employed computational mirror
design to eliminate image distortion from specular holography.
The MIT Museum[51] and Jonathan Ross[52] both have extensive collections of holography and on-line catalogues
of art holograms.

Data storage[edit]
Main article: Holographic memory
Holography can be put to a variety of uses other than recording images. Holographic data storage is a technique
that can store information at high density inside crystals or photopolymers. The ability to store large amounts of
information in some kind of media is of great importance, as many electronic products incorporate storage
devices. As current storage techniques such as Blu-ray Disc reach the limit of possible data density (due to
the diffraction-limited size of the writing beams), holographic storage has the potential to become the next
generation of popular storage media. The advantage of this type of data storage is that the volume of the
recording media is used instead of just the surface. Currently available SLMs can produce about 1000 different
images a second at 10241024-bit resolution. With the right type of media (probably polymers rather than
something like LiNbO3), this would result in about one-gigabit-per-second writing speed. Read speeds can
surpass this, and experts believe one-terabit-per-second readout is possible.
In 2005, companies such as Optware and Maxell produced a 120 mm disc that uses a holographic layer to store
data to a potential 3.9 TB, a format called Holographic Versatile Disc. As of September 2014, no commercial
product has been released.
Another company, InPhase Technologies, was developing a competing format, but went bankrupt in 2011 and all
its assets were sold to Akonia Holographics, LLC.
While many holographic data storage models have used "page-based" storage, where each recorded hologram
holds a large amount of data, more recent research into using submicrometre-sized "microholograms" has
resulted in several potential 3D optical data storage solutions. While this approach to data storage can not attain
the high data rates of page-based storage, the tolerances, technological hurdles, and cost of producing a
commercial product are significantly lower.

Dynamic holography[edit]

In static holography, recording, developing and reconstructing occur sequentially, and a permanent hologram is
produced.
There also exist holographic materials that do not need the developing process and can record a hologram in a
very short time. This allows one to use holography to perform some simple operations in an all-optical way.
Examples of applications of such real-time holograms include phase-conjugate mirrors ("time-reversal" of light),
optical cache memories, image processing (pattern recognition of time-varying images), andoptical computing.
The amount of processed information can be very high (terabits/s), since the operation is performed in parallel
on a whole image. This compensates for the fact that the recording time, which is in the order of amicrosecond,
is still very long compared to the processing time of an electronic computer. The optical processing performed by
a dynamic hologram is also much less flexible than electronic processing. On one side, one has to perform the
operation always on the whole image, and on the other side, the operation a hologram can perform is basically
either a multiplication or a phase conjugation. In optics, addition and Fourier transform are already easily
performed in linear materials, the latter simply by a lens. This enables some applications, such as a device that
compares images in an optical way.[53]
The search for novel nonlinear optical materials for dynamic holography is an active area of research. The most
common materials are photorefractive crystals, but in semiconductors or semiconductor heterostructures (such
as quantum wells), atomic vapors and gases, plasmas and even liquids, it was possible to generate holograms.
A particularly promising application is optical phase conjugation. It allows the removal of the wavefront
distortions a light beam receives when passing through an aberrating medium, by sending it back through the
same aberrating medium with a conjugated phase. This is useful, for example, in free-space optical
communications to compensate for atmospheric turbulence (the phenomenon that gives rise to the twinkling of
starlight).

Hobbyist use[edit]

Peace Within Reach, a Denisyuk DCG hologram by amateur Dave Battin

Since the beginning of holography, experimenters have explored its uses. Starting in 1971, Lloyd Cross started
the San Francisco School of Holography and started to teach amateurs the methods of making holograms with
inexpensive equipment. This method relied on the use of a large table of deep sand to hold the optics rigid and
dampvibrations that would destroy the image.

Many of these holographers would go on to produce art holograms. In 1983, Fred Unterseher published
the Holography Handbook, a remarkably easy-to-read description of making holograms at home. This brought in
a new wave of holographers and gave simple methods to use the then-available AGFA silver halide recording
materials.
In 2000, Frank DeFreitas published the Shoebox Holography Book and introduced the use of inexpensive laser
pointers to countless hobbyists. This was a very important development for amateurs, as the cost for a 5 mW
laser dropped from $1200 to $5 as semiconductor laser diodes reached mass market. Now, there are hundreds
to thousands of amateur holographers worldwide.
By late 2000, holography kits with the inexpensive laser pointer diodes entered the mainstream consumer
market. These kits enabled students, teachers, and hobbyists to make many kinds of holograms without
specialized equipment, and became popular gift items by 2005.[54] The introduction of holography kits with selfdeveloping film plates in 2003 made it even possible for hobbyists to make holograms without using chemical
developers.[55]
In 2006, a large number of surplus Holography Quality Green Lasers (Coherent C315) became available and put
Dichromated Gelatin (DCG) within the reach of the amateur holographer. The holography community was
surprised at the amazing sensitivity of DCG to green light. It had been assumed that the sensitivity would be
non-existent. Jeff Blyth responded with the G307 formulation of DCG to increase the speed and sensitivity to
these new lasers.[56]
Many film suppliers have come and gone from the silver-halide market. While more film manufactures have filled
in the voids, many amateurs are now making their own film. The favorite formulations are Dichromated Gelatin,
Methylene Blue Sensitised Dichromated Gelatin and Diffusion Method Silver Halide preparations. Jeff Blyth has
published very accurate methods for making film in a small lab or garage. [57]
A small group of amateurs are even constructing their own pulsed lasers to make holograms of moving objects.
[58]

Holographic interferometry[edit]
Main article: holographic interferometry
Holographic interferometry (HI) is a technique that enables static and dynamic displacements of objects with
optically rough surfaces to be measured to optical interferometric precision (i.e. to fractions of a wavelength of
light).[59][60] It can also be used to detect optical-path-length variations in transparent media, which enables, for
example, fluid flow to be visualized and analyzed. It can also be used to generate contours representing the form
of the surface.
It has been widely used to measure stress, strain, and vibration in engineering structures.

Interferometric microscopy[edit]
Main article: Interferometric microscopy

The hologram keeps the information on the amplitude and phase of the field. Several holograms may keep
information about the same distribution of light, emitted to various directions. The numerical analysis of such
holograms allows one to emulate large numerical aperture, which, in turn, enables enhancement of the
resolution of optical microscopy. The corresponding technique is called interferometric microscopy. Recent
achievements of interferometric microscopy allow one to approach the quarter-wavelength limit of resolution. [61]

Sensors or biosensors[edit]
Main article: Holographic sensor
The hologram is made with a modified material that interacts with certain molecules generating a change in the
fringe periodicity or refractive index, therefore, the color of the holographic reflection. [62][63]

Security[edit]
Main article: Security hologram

Identigram as a security element in a German identity card

Security holograms are very difficult to forge, because they are replicated from a master hologram that requires
expensive, specialized and technologically advanced equipment. They are used widely in many currencies, such
as the Brazilian 20, 50, and 100-reais notes; British 5, 10, and 20-pound notes; South Korean 5000, 10,000, and
50,000-won notes; Japanese 5000 and 10,000 yen notes; and all the currently-circulating banknotes of
the Canadian dollar, Danish krone, and Euro. They can also be found in credit and bank cards as well
as passports, ID cards, books, DVDs, and sports equipment.
Covertly storing information within a full colour image hologram was achieved in Canada, in 2008, at the UHR
lab. The method used a fourth wavelength, aside from the RGB components of the object and reference beams,
to record additional data, which could be retrieved only with the correct key combination of wavelength and
angle. This technique remained in the prototype stage and was never developed for commercial applications.

Other applications[edit]
Holographic scanners are in use in post offices, larger shipping firms, and automated conveyor systems to
determine the three-dimensional size of a package. They are often used in tandem with checkweighers to allow
automated pre-packing of given volumes, such as a truck or pallet for bulk shipment of goods. Holograms
produced in elastomers can be used as stress-strain reporters due to its elasticity and compressibility, the
pressure and force applied are correlated to the reflected wavelength, therefore its color.[64]

Non-optical holography[edit]
In principle, it is possible to make a hologram for any wave.
Electron holography is the application of holography techniques to electron waves rather than light waves.
Electron holography was invented by Dennis Gabor to improve the resolution and avoid the aberrations of
the transmission electron microscope. Today it is commonly used to study electric and magnetic fields in thin
films, as magnetic and electric fields can shift the phase of the interfering wave passing through the sample.
[65]

The principle of electron holography can also be applied to interference lithography.[66]

Acoustic holography is a method used to estimate the sound field near a source by measuring acoustic
parameters away from the source via an array of pressure and/or particle velocity transducers. Measuring
techniques included within acoustic holography are becoming increasingly popular in various fields, most notably
those of transportation, vehicle and aircraft design, and NVH. The general idea of acoustic holography has led to
different versions such as near-field acoustic holography (NAH) and statistically optimal near-field acoustic
holography (SONAH). For audio rendition, the wave field synthesis is the most related procedure.
Atomic holography has evolved out of the development of the basic elements of atom optics. With the Fresnel
diffraction lens and atomic mirrors atomic holography follows a natural step in the development of the physics
(and applications) of atomic beams. Recent developments including atomic mirrors and especially ridged
mirrors have provided the tools necessary for the creation of atomic holograms, [67] although such holograms have
not yet been commercialized.

Things often confused with holograms[edit]

Effects produced by lenticular printing, the Pepper's Ghost illusion (or modern variants such as the Musion
Eyeliner), tomography and volumetric displays are often confused with holograms.[68][69]
The Pepper's ghost technique, being the easiest to implement of these methods, is most prevalent in 3D
displays that claim to be (or are referred to as) "holographic". While the original illusion, used in theater, involved
actual physical objects and persons, located offstage, modern variants replace the source object with a digital
screen, which displays imagery generated with 3D computer graphics to provide the necessarydepth cues. The
reflection, which seems to float mid-air, is still flat, however, thus less realistic than if an actual 3D object was
being reflected.
Examples of this digital version of Pepper's ghost illusion include the Gorillaz performances in the 2005 MTV
Europe Music Awards and the 48th Grammy Awards; and Tupac Shakur's virtual performance atCoachella
Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2012, rapping alongside Snoop Dogg during his set with Dr. Dre.[70]
During the 2008 American presidential election, CNN debuted its tomograms to "beam in" correspondents
including musician will.i.am as "holograms".
An even simpler illusion can be created by rear-projecting realistic images into semi-transparent screens. The
rear projection is necessary because otherwise the semi-transparency of the screen would allow the background
to be illuminated by the projection, which would break the illusion.

Crypton Future Media, a music software company that produced Hatsune Miku,[71] one of many Vocaloid singing
synthesizer applications, has produced concerts that have Miku, along with other Crypton Vocaloids, performing
on stage as "holographic" characters. These concerts use rear projection onto a semi-transparent DILAD
screen[72][73] to achieve its "holographic" effect.[74][75][76]
In 2011, in Beijing, apparel company Burberry produced the "Burberry Prorsum Autumn/Winter 2011 Hologram
Runway Show", which included life size 2-D projections of models. The company's own video [77] shows several
centered and off-center shots of the main 2-dimensional projection screen, the latter revealing the flatness of the
virtual models. The claim that holography was used was reported as fact in the trade media. [78]
Microsoft Hololens can potentially be mistaken for a true hologram.

Holography in fiction[edit]
Main article: Holography in fiction
Holography has been widely referred to in novels, TV and movies.