Four-dimensional prints

Printing house : Geola Digital uab, PO Box 343,  LTU-03227, Vilnius, Lithuania. Phone: +37052132737, fax: +37052132838, info@geola.com

PULSED DIGITAL HOLOGRAPHY DEVELOPED BY GEOLA

In 1998 the Lithuanian company Geola UAB (short for General Optics Laboratory) commenced an intensive programme of research and development into digital holography using pulsed Neodymium lasers. Geola, which was originally a spin-off company of Australian Holographics Pty Ltd, had built up considerable expertise since its birth in 1992 in the domain of pulsed lasers and large format pulsed analogue holography systems.

As an integral part of its R&D programme into digital holography Geola developed a unique prototype RGB pulsed laser. The company had felt from the start of the programme that the only feasible solution towards a real commercial holographic printer would be one based on pulsed rather than CW laser technology. By 1999 Geola had developed both 1-step and 2-step digital hologram printing technologies based around their pulsed lasers. 

In 2001 Geola UAB became a major shareholder of the Canadian company XYZ Imaging Inc which had offered to raise the finance required to take Geola’s prototype 1-step printing technology and develop it into a real commercial printer.

By early 2002 Geola had delivered a working RGB prototype dot-matrix printer to Montreal. This printer (see above) was able to generate full-colour reflection holograms by printing 15 RGB holopixels each second onto glass holoplates.

Over the next few years the printer technology was improved in various ways. The laser repetition rate was increased from 3x15 to 3x30Hz and the laser stability significantly improved. An automatic vacuum driven film advance system, designed to work with 1m wide film rolls, replaced the original two-dimensional translation stage. Automatic processing of the film was added. Software was completely rewritten and many functions of the printer are now adaptively controlled by software. Finally, working with the Russian companies BIT AO and Sphere-S OOO, a new panchromatic Silver Halide emulsion was produced. This emulsion was tailored to the requirements of the printer.