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Making Holograms In The Kitchen

Posted by timothy on from the you-can-make-anything-in-the-kitchen dept.

Paul writes "Over at www.litiholo.com is a newly launched hologram kit that lets you make your own holograms at home. No, it's not Princess Leia asking you for help, but it's still pretty cool making a hologram on your kitchen table. Particularly interesting is the instant hologram film that makes holograms with no developing (kind of a Polaroid film for holograms). The hologram kit costs $99, including the laser, film, and everything else."

4 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. Edmund Scientific by maynard · · Score: 5, Informative

    Has sold holography kits for years. Currently they have a book Showbox Holography which shows how to set up a small lab to shoot holograms with a pen diode laser. They used to have a neat kit with a HeNe laser back in the day, but it wern't no $100 bucks. *cough* I haven't looked at an Edmund Scientific catalog for over a decade, but they seem to have shifted from the home hobby lab market to strictly the teaching market... shame. --M

  2. Better kits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I am not totally sure, but I think the kits sold at the linked site require the use of a laser to view the hologram, they are not white-light holograms. Instead you might wanna check out this site and their hologram kits, I plan on purchasing the Standard Kit. http://www.holokits.com

  3. Re:There's already a great book on making holograp by arbi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Note that the author of the article "Paul" is associated with the company (based on his email address). But at least he's honest in not trying to hide that info.

  4. Re:Photos? by Jason1729 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is ordinary film (in a sheet film format, I used to use black and white 4x5" film that's about $1/sheet in 25 packs.

    Basically, to make a hologram you start with a single source of monochromatic and in phase light (a laser), split the beam into two so they will still be in phase and at the same frequency. Then use one beam to illuminate the film directly (referrence beam) and the other to illuminate the object and then the film after bouncing off the object (subject beam).

    The result is that you create an interference pattern of lightwaves on the film, and depending on the shape of the object, the waves in the subject beam are delayed by various amounts.

    The result is that when light passes through this interference pattern on the film, it forms a real (3D) image of the original object that caused the interferrence pattern.

    Jason
    ProfQuotes