Fractal Hologram

JohnFP · Post by **JohnFP** » Fri May 28, 2004 8:39 am

Has anyone explored trying to make a holographic fractal?

Dinesh · Post by **Dinesh** » Fri May 28, 2004 10:44 am

"Has anyone explored trying to make a holographic fractal?"
Yes, 10 years ago. I'll try to find it and put up a picture.
Much more interesting: Is it possible to do a computer generated hologram of a fractal. To do this, you'd need to calculate the Fourier Transform of a fractal and so you'd need to integrate a "fractal function" but this violates the fundemental assumption of the Fourier Transform and Chaos Theory. I thought of a way to do that while listening to Mitch Henrion and her rock band. It occured to me that while some may consider this music, to me it was an Audio Fractal! (no reflection on the quality of Mitch's music - just my musical tastes) This led me to thinking on fractal holograms and then to how you could shoot it (pretty easy!) and how you could do a computer generated hologram of it(pretty hard). At the time,'90 or '91, Mitch was in the process of joining the Benton team and the two of us would go into Boston where Benton explained his current project - the Holo Video system. My mind was therefore full of computer-generated-hologram ideas.

JohnFP · Post by **JohnFP** » Fri May 28, 2004 11:12 am

Did you simply shoot a hologrm of a 2-D fractal or was it a model of a 3-D fractal or what? Could you explain? I would love to see it anyway.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Fri May 28, 2004 12:01 pm

I've made a reflection holographic stereogram of a fractal pattern that was vertically animated. The image was generated by Chuck Hassen, and we used his "Solid Air" plateholder for the shot. It was a test for the full parallax stereogram we made for the Holography Marketplace cover in 1995.

Dinesh · Post by **Dinesh** » Fri May 28, 2004 2:17 pm

It was a 2D fractal made with a fractal program that allowed you to plug in a recursive, non-linear equation and it would generate the fractal. I thought of 3D fractals at the time, but the equations were not easy, you'd need a 3 dimensional non-linear function recursive in all three dimensions. These probably already exist but I like starting from basic principles and building up. Also, the only way I could think of doing it was a multiplex ('lenticular') hologram. The amount of work necessary put me off. It also made me think of some form of FT for fractals to make life a little easier. I started working along this line and realised I was re-inventing wavelets. Why re-invent the wheel (even a fractal wheel!)? So I started trying to learn wavelet theory in order to make a computer generated fractal. Like so many other things, I started but never finished.
It may take me a while to find it, but I'll put it up in the gallery.

Greg G · Post by **Greg G** » Fri May 28, 2004 2:37 pm

You could also make a fractal hologram using a couple of shiny spheres and patterned wrapping paper. Google "Wada basins" if you're interested in the math. Here's a link for pretty computer graphics..

http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/fractals/wada/

Tom B. · Post by **Tom B.** » Sat May 29, 2004 1:18 am

I must try this! Or whatever variation is needed to make a pretty hologram. Sort of a 3D recursive nonlinear kaleidoscope effect...

Michael Harrison · Post by **Michael Harrison** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 7:46 am

I used Fractint many years ago for non-holographic fractal images. Unfortunately it looks like development has halted on that program although that may not matter.

Here are a bunch of fractal software links...

http://thinks.com/software/fractals.htm

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