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Graphics Software Science

Holography Pioneer Passes Away 54

Posted by CowboyNeal from the obi-wan-you're-our-only-hope dept.
Hal-9001 writes "The New York Times has an article on Emmett Leith, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Michigan and inventor of three-dimensional holography, who passed away on Dec. 23, 2005. Professor Leith and his coworker Juris Upatnieks displayed the world's first three-dimensional hologram at a conference of the Optical Society of America in 1964."
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Holography Pioneer Passes Away More

Holography Pioneer Passes Away

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  • He didn't pass away (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 07, 2006 @12:30PM (#14417222)
    He's no longer creating an interference pattern with the living.
    • On the other hand, if you thought video tombstones [gearlive.com] were cool, just wait 'til you see what the Optical Society cooks up for this guy's grave!

    • He's no longer creating an interference pattern with the living.

      I think that statement would have given Prof. Leith a good laugh. He had a cartoon on his office door illustrating the difference between classical and quantum barriers. In the classical case, this guy is making faces at a lion on the other side of the barrier because the lion cannot penetrate the barrier. In the quantum case, the guy is running for his life because the lion has tunneled through the barrier...

  • holomed unit activated (Score:3, Funny)

    by User 956 ( 568564 ) on Saturday January 07, 2006 @12:39PM (#14417254) Homepage
    Please state the nature of the medical emergency.

  • Damn (Score:1, Funny)

    by teklob ( 650327 )
    My training was almost complete. Now where will I learn to make realstic fake IDs?

  • Holography museum (Score:4, Informative)

    by dada21 ( 163177 ) * <adam.dada@gmail.com> on Saturday January 07, 2006 @12:42PM (#14417273) Homepage Journal
    I know this is a bit off topic, but since the news is a bit old and I wanted to mention this weeks ago, I figure the slashdotters will like it.

    The Museum of Holography [holographiccenter.com] is an awesome visit if you come to Chicago for any reason. It is minutes outside of downtown and half hour from O'hare. It is really an interesting place (a bit commercialized lately) and the greatest thing is it completely passed the Wife Acceptance Factor as Oprah's HARPO studios is just down the street. Drop the lady off at their store and hit the Museum of Holography.

    • But if you do so, expect to find your bank account overdrawn before you can buy any cool gear from the museum.
    • Similar recommendation: if you find yourself in Boston, the MIT Museum [mit.edu] has the world's largest collection of holography.
      • uh oh, they're trying to outdo each other! here's the MIT museum described :
        Holography: The Light Fantastic features an awe-inspiring sampling of twenty-three historic holograms from the MIT Museum holography collection--the world's largest
        and this is from the Museum of Holography website :
        It is perhaps the only, and certainly the most complete, such institution in the country, if not the world.
  • He was nearly transparent and incoherant at the time.

  • DIY Holograms (Score:3, Insightful)

    by maxrate ( 886773 ) on Saturday January 07, 2006 @12:55PM (#14417324)
    I was speaking to a friend about a kit I saw 10 years ago at a local science store that let one build they're own holograms. Anyone seen anything like this recently?

    It came with a bunch of optics, a laser, sandbox, film, etc. I wonder if Bill Gates was bored one weekend and started shooting the laser at some of his Windows XP cd-roms?! Those CD's are incredible, they are one big hologram!

  • In other news (Score:3, Funny)

    by Rude Turnip ( 49495 ) <valuationNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Saturday January 07, 2006 @12:58PM (#14417333)
    A man with a letter "H" on his forehead was seen walking away.
  • I spent most of highschool in the closet with the lights off.... shooting holograms. It was the highlight of secondary education. RIP
    • I spent most of highschool in the closet with the lights off.... shooting holograms.

      You didn't happen to be shooting those Holograms with a needle, did you?
    • When did you come out of the closet?

      (sorry, I couldn't help myself.)

      RIP
  • George Lucas suggested holograms would replace TV in his first sci-fi movie, THX-1138, and what were the first images people watched? Porn (soft porn to avoid X rating for movie), just like the internet!

  • Conventional wisdom says (Score:4, Funny)

    by icepick72 ( 834363 ) on Saturday January 07, 2006 @01:12PM (#14417393)
    Holigraphists don't die, they just gradually fade away.

  • A history of holography (Score:2, Interesting)

    by k-zed ( 92087 )
    Here's an article about the history of holography:
    http://www.holophile.com/history.htm [holophile.com]
    Besides Leith and others, it mentions Dennis Gabor, who originally developed the theory behind it all, in 1947.
  • Little do we know he has already died nine times, and that this was just his last time reversal cube and he's all out of quarters.

  • Good teacher, great hologram collection (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mfago ( 514801 ) on Saturday January 07, 2006 @01:41PM (#14417478)
    I was lucky enough to have Prof Leith teach my optics class at Michigan about 10 years ago. At one point, he took the entire class over to his lab to show his latest work as well as share his outstanding personal holography collection. Still recall the 20"x30" self-portrait he received from a Soviet scientist: amazingly crisp and clear (used Dichromated gelatin rather than film). Always had stories to tell...

    • I had him too, and while he was sometimes eccentric, he was one of the most passionate teachers I've ever met. This guy inspired me, and it was odd to hear that he was one of the founding fathers of the field, because he was so open to teaching everybody. Thank you, Professor Leith, for your energy and inspiration.
  • back in 80's i was an art student learning holography and had attended an international symposium on holography at lake forest college hosted by dr. tung jeong(TJ) in the summer 1985. this was THE conference to attend, and as a youngblood attendee, i had the chance to meet and rub shoulders with all the holographic greats: yuri denisyuk, emmett leith, steve benton, nick philips, graham saxby, just to name a few. it was literally a whos who of holography, all in attendace. with worldwide attendance number
    • I was a student of TJ's in 85, and worked at the symposium. The symposiums and workshops run by TJ were amazing events. I don't know where else in the world you would gather such a fascinating collection of scientists and artists. There was a ton of both left and right brain power present.

      You are right about the chemicals... some nasty stuff (ever use bromine gas as a bleach? Yeehah!)

      • dude, small world is right! no bromine gas, nastiest stuff i used was mercuric chloride for bleach when creating master plates. typically i had contact more mundane chemicals(pyrogallic acid, suphric acid with potassium dichormates and permanganates being the nastiest stuff at that time, remember pryo A+B and bleach? and the holographers' permanently stained fingers?) for silver processes with HeNe and pulse ruby work. it was only when i started working for a commercial lab making photo-resist plates for em
  • Oh I hope they make a nice big holographic picture for his tombstone.

    Would be such a fitting tribute.
  • I worked in the Radar and Optics lab starting back in the summer of 1968. That fall I ran an optical processor in Emmett's lab for one of his colleagues (Ron Fredricks), processing side-looking radar data using holographic techniques. (An optic processor could do a multi-megapixel two-D fourier transform in the time it took the laser light to go a couple yards down the optic bench. In those days computers were built of discrete components, and it would have taken one perhaps days - even with FFT algorith
  • I just graduated last year from Umich, and hands down, Leith was by far the greatest prof I had. He will be greatly missed.
  • I know there's a book coming out (already out?) on the history of holography by a historian who spent a lot of time with emmett and other holographers around the world (title?)

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