Re:Zeiss's "Holocam" turns glass windows into cameras
by terminous on Friday January 05, 2024 @09:07PM
(#38887643)
Don't think of it like a transparent camera. Think of the window as a giant external periscope lens, connected to the rest of the camera with such thin fiber optics that you can't notice.
Re:Zeiss's "Holocam" turns glass windows into cameras
by crazygringo on Friday January 05, 2024 @09:13PM
(#38887669)
Sure, but how do you build fiber optics like that? Especially so each "pixel" has to shoot out hundreds (?) of separate fibers to cover every possible angle to achieve the holographic effect?
For just a 1MP display, we're talking like hundreds of millions of fibers? That fit in some thin transparent layer? How?
Re:Zeiss's "Holocam" turns glass windows into cameras
by dclowd9901 on Saturday January 06, 2024 @01:00AM
(#38888865)
I also am a bit over my head here but I’d guess the major innovation is around manufacturing glass in a way that optic channels are a natural part of the glass’ characteristics as it’s developed. We’re probably talking fiber optics at a molecular level.
Re:Zeiss's "Holocam" turns glass windows into cameras
by mensetmanusman on Saturday January 06, 2024 @11:50AM
(#38892923)
There are nanoscale features in the glass that scatter or reflect the incoming light in an engineered way to small camera sensors in the frame.
It's basically something like the Microsoft Halolens in reverse.
I see some references to "light guides" and words like "coupling" but I don't know what those mean at all, and all of my googling is not helping to explain how light guides embedded in a thin, mostly transparent layer could possibly be used to project a hi-res holographic 3D light field out of a piece of glass. How big is each guide? What is it exactly -- what is it actually made of? How is it shaped? How are they arranged? How are they illuminated? How do you manufacture something like this?
Can anyone ELI15 how this works?