̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Holograms

‘Hologram patients’ developed to help train doctors and nurses

ta385 — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 15:00:00 +0000

HoloScenarios, a new training application based on life-like holographic patient scenarios, is being developed by Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH), in partnership with the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Los Angeles-based tech company GigXR. ̽��ֱ��first module focuses on common respiratory conditions and emergencies.

"Mixed reality is increasingly recognised as a useful method of simulator training,” said Dr Arun Gupta, consultant anaesthetist at CUH and director of postgraduate education at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Health Partnership, who is leading the project.

“As institutions scale procurement, the demand for platforms that offer utility and ease of mixed reality learning management is rapidly expanding," he said.

Learners in the same room, wearing Microsoft HoloLens mixed-reality headsets, are able to see each other in real life, while also interacting with a multi-layered, medically accurate holographic patient. This creates a unique environment to learn and practice vital, real-time decision making and treatment choices.

Through the same type of headset, medical instructors are also able to change patient responses, introduce complications and record observations and discussions – whether in person in a teaching group or remotely to multiple locations worldwide, via the internet.

Learners can also watch, contribute to and assess the holographic patient scenarios from Android, iOS smartphone or tablet. This means true-to-life, safe-to-fail immersive learning can be accessed, delivered and shared across the world, with the technology now available for license to learning institutions everywhere.

Alongside the development and release of HoloScenarios, an analysis of the new technology as a teaching and learning resource is being led by Professor Riikka Hofmann at Cambridge’s Faculty of Education.

“Our research is aimed at uncovering how such simulations can best support learning and accelerate the adoption of effective mixed reality training while informing ongoing development,” said Hofmann.

“We hope that it will help guide institutions in implementing mixed reality into their curricula, in the same way institutions evaluate conventional resources, such as textbooks, manikins, models or computer software, and, ultimately, improve patient outcomes.”

Junior doctor Aniket Bharadwaj is one of the first to try out the new technology. "Throughout medical school we would have situations where actors would come in an act as patients. With the pandemic a lot of that changed to tablet based interactions because of the risk to people of the virus,” he said.

“Having a hologram patient you can see, hear and interact with is really exciting and will really make a difference to student learning."

̽��ֱ��first module features a hologram patient with asthma, followed by anaphylaxis, pulmonary embolism and pneumonia. Further modules in cardiology and neurology are in development.

Delivered by the Gig Immersive Learning Platform, HoloScenarios aims to centralise and streamline access and management of mixed reality learning, and encapsulate the medical experience of world-leading doctors at CUH and across the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��new technology could also provide more flexible, cost-effective training without heavy resource demands of traditional simulation, which can make immersive training financially prohibitive. This includes costs for maintaining simulation centres, their equipment and the faculty and staff hours to operate the labs and hire and train patient actors.

This story was first published on the Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals website

A new partnership involving Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals (CUH) and the ̽��ֱ��’s Faculty of Education, brings medical training using 'mixed reality' technology one step closer. ̽��ֱ��project aims to make consistent, high-level and relevant clinical training more accessible across the world.

̽��ֱ��demand for platforms that offer utility and ease of mixed reality learning management is rapidly expanding

Dr Arun Gupta

CUH/GigXR

Clinicians at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, using HoloScenarios, a new training application based on life-like holographic patient scenarios. Image: CUH/GigXR

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Stackable ‘holobricks’ can make giant 3D images

sc604 — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 00:53:32 +0000

̽��ֱ��researchers, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Disney Research, developed a holobrick proof-of-concept, which can tile holograms together to form a large seamless 3D image. This is the first time this technology has been demonstrated and opens the door for scalable holographic 3D displays. ̽��ֱ��results are reported in the journal Light: Science & Applications.

As technology develops, people want high-quality visual experiences, from 2D high-resolution TV to 3D holographic augmented or virtual reality, and large true 3D displays. These displays need to support a significant amount of data flow: for a 2D full HD display, the information data rate is about three gigabits per second (Gb/s), but a 3D display of the same resolution would require a rate of three terabits per second, which is not yet available.

Holographic displays can reconstruct high-quality images for a real 3D visual perception. They are considered the ultimate display technology to connect the real and virtual worlds for immersive experiences.

“Delivering an adequate 3D experience using the current technology is a huge challenge,” said Professor Daping Chu from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who led the research. “Over the past ten years, we’ve been working with our industrial partners to develop holographic displays which allow the simultaneous realisation of large size and large field-of-view, which needs to be matched with a hologram with a large optical information content.”

However, the information content of current holograms information is much greater than the display capabilities of current light engines, known as spatial light modulators, due to their limited space bandwidth product.

For 2D displays, it’s standard practice to tile small size displays together to form one large display. ̽��ֱ��approach being explored here is similar, but for 3D displays, which has not been done before. “Joining pieces of 3D images together is not trivial, because the final image must be seen as seamless from all angles and all depths,” said Chu, who is also Director of the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (CAPE). “Directly tiling 3D images in real space is just not possible.”

To address this challenge, the researchers developed the holobrick unit, based on coarse integrated holographic displays for angularly tiled 3D images, a concept developed at CAPE with Disney Research about seven years ago.

Each of the holobricks uses a high-information bandwidth spatial light modulator for information delivery in conjunction with coarse integrated optics, to form the angularly tiled 3D holograms with large viewing areas and fields of view.

Careful optical design makes sure the holographic fringe pattern fills the entire face of the holobrick, so that multiple holobricks can be seamlessly stacked to form a scalable spatially tiled holographic image 3D display, capable of both wide field-of-view angle and large size.

̽��ֱ��proof-of-concept developed by the researchers is made of two seamlessly tiled holobricks. Each full-colour brick is 1024×768 pixels, with a 40° field of view and 24 frames per second, to display tiled holograms for full 3D images.

“There are still many challenges ahead to make ultra-large 3D displays with wide viewing angles, such as a holographic 3D wall,” said Chu. “We hope that this work can provide a promising way to tackle this issue based on the currently limited display capability of spatial light modulators.”

Reference:
Jin Li; Quinn Smithwick; Daping Chu. ‘Holobricks: Modular Coarse Integral Holographic Displays.’ Light: Science & Applications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41377-022-00752-7

Researchers have developed a new method to display highly realistic holographic images using ‘holobricks’ that can be stacked together to generate large-scale holograms.

CAPE

Reconstructed holographic images of a toy train (top) with holobricks and original image captured by a camera (bottom)

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Real-time holographic displays one step closer to reality

sc604 — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 14:00:00 +0000

Real-time dynamic holographic displays, long the realm of science fiction, could be one step closer to reality, after researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge developed a new type of pixel element that enables far greater control over displays at the level of individual pixels. ̽��ֱ��results are published in the journal Physica Status Solidi.

As opposed to a photograph, a hologram is created when light bounces off a sheet of material with grooves in just the right places to project an image away from the surface. When looking at a hologram from within this artificially-generated light field, the viewer gets the same visual impression as if the object was directly in front of them.

Currently, the development of holographic displays is limited by technology that can allow control of all the properties of light at the level of individual pixels. A hologram encodes a large amount of optical information, and a dynamic representation of a holographic image requires vast amounts of information to be modulated on a display device.

A relatively large area exists in which additional functionality can be added through the patterning of nanostructures (optical antennas) to increase the capacity of pixels in order to make them suitable for holographic displays.

“In a typical liquid crystal on silicon display, the pixels’ electronics, or backplane, provides little optical functionality other than reflecting light,” said Calum Williams, a PhD student at Cambridge’s Department of Engineering and the paper’s lead author. “This means that a large amount of surface area is being underutilised, which could be used to store information.”

Williams and his colleagues have achieved a much greater level of control over holograms through plasmonics: the study of how light interacts with metals on the nanoscale, which allows the researchers to go beyond the capability of conventional optical technologies.

Normally, devices which use plasmonic optical antennas are passive, meaning that their optical properties cannot be switched post-fabrication, which is essential for real-world applications.
Through integration with liquid crystals, in the form of typical pixel architecture, the researchers were able to actively switch which hologram is excited and there which output image is selected.

“Optical nanoantenas produce a strong interaction with light according to their geometry. Furthermore, it is possible to modulate this interaction with the aid of liquid crystals,” said co-author Yunuen Montelongo, a PhD student at the Department of Engineering, who, along with Williams, is a member of the CMMPE group.

̽��ֱ��work highlights the opportunity for utilising the plasmonic properties of optical antennas to enable multi-functional pixel elements for next generation holographic display technologies.

Scaling up these pixels would mean a display would have the ability to encode switchable amplitude, wavelength and polarisation information, a stark contrast to conventional pixel technology.

Researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge have designed a new type of pixel element and demonstrated its unique switching capability, which could make three-dimensional holographic displays possible.

A large amount of surface area is being underutilised, which could be used to store information

Calum Williams

Rendered schematic of holographic pixels in operation showing switching states

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Nanotechnology used to create next-generation holograms for information storage

sc604 — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 07:23:34 +0000

Researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge have developed a new method for making multi-coloured holograms from a thin film of silver nanoparticles, which could greatly increase the storage capabilities of typical optical storage devices.

̽��ֱ��interference produced by the interaction of light with the nanoparticles allows the holograms to go beyond the normal limits of diffraction, or the way in which waves spread or bend when they encounter an opening or obstacle. ̽��ֱ��results were recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

When metallic particles have dimensions on the nanoscale, they display iridescent colours. A noted example of this phenomenon is the Lycurgus cup, which was made in the 4th century during the Roman Empire, and changes colour when held up to the light. An optical phenomenon, known as dichroism, occurs when the colour of the cup changes from green to red according to the position of the light source.

Roman artisans made the cup by incorporating nanoparticles into glass, although they would have been unaware of the specific physical characteristics responsible for the colours observed in the cup. Only in the last 20 years have scientists begun to understand this phenomenon, but they have not been able to utilise its effects in currently-available technology.

To apply this phenomenon in modern optics, an interdisciplinary team of researchers have created nanoscale metallic nanoparticle arrays that mimic the colour effects of the Lycurgus cup, to form multi-colour holograms. This breakthrough could lead to the shrinkage of standard bulky optical devices.

“This technology will lead to a new range of applications in the area of photonics, as conventional optical components simply cannot achieve this kind of functionality,” said Yunuen Montelongo, a PhD student from the Department of Engineering, who led the research. “ ̽��ֱ��potential of this technology will be realised when they are mass produced and integrated into the next generation of ultra-thin consumer electronics.”

Using a single thin layer of silver, Montelongo and his colleagues patterned colourful holograms containing 16 million nanoparticles per square millimetre. Each nanoparticle, approximately 1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, scatters light into different colours depending on its particular size and shape. ̽��ֱ��scattered light from each of the nanoparticles interacts and combines with all of the others to produce an image.

̽��ֱ��device can display different images when illuminated with a different colour light, a property not seen before in a device of this type. Furthermore, when multiple light sources are shone simultaneously, a multi-colour image is projected.

These holographic devices are between 10 and 100 times smaller than just one of the millions of pixels used to produce a colour image on a typical laptop screen, yet they project a complete multi-colour image to the eye. This is possible through plasmonics: the study of how light interacts with metals on the nanoscale, which allows the researchers to go beyond the capability of conventional optical technologies.

“This hologram may find a wide range of applications in the area of displays, optical data storage, and sensors,” said PhD student Calum Williams, a co-author of the paper. “However, scalable approaches are needed to fulfil the potential of this technology.”

Currently, the team is exploring various optical mechanisms involved in the light-matter interaction at nanoscale. ̽��ֱ��future research will involve the construction of three-dimensional dynamic displays for consumer electronics and the researchers are already looking into tuning these devices for reconfigurable display technologies.

Holograms made of tiny particles of silver could double the amount of information that can be stored in digital optical devices, such as sensors, displays and medical imaging devices.

Conventional optical components simply cannot achieve this kind of functionality

Yunuen Montelongo

Multi-coloured holograms

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Nanotubes used to create smallest ever hologram pixels

bjb42 — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 15:17:31 +0000

Scientists have generated holograms from carbon nanotubes for the first time, which could lead to much sharper holograms with a vastly increased field of view.

̽��ֱ��researchers from the ̽��ֱ��’s Centre of Molecular Materials for Photonics and Electronics (CMMPE) have harnessed the extraordinary conductive and light scattering abilities of these tubes - made from several sheets of carbon atoms rolled into a cylinder - to diffract high resolution holograms.

Carbon nanotubes are one billionth of a metre wide, only a few nanometres, and the scientists have used them as the smallest ever scattering elements to create a static holographic projection of the word CAMBRIDGE.

Many scientists believe that carbon nanotubes will be at the heart of future industry and human endeavour, with anticipated impact on everything from solar cells to cancer treatments, as well as optical imaging. One of their most astonishing features is strength - about 100 times stronger than steel at one-sixth the weight.

̽��ֱ��work on using these nanotubes to project holograms, the 2D images that optically render as three-dimensional, has been published in the journal Advanced Materials.

“Smaller pixels allow the diffraction of light at larger angles - increasing the field of view. Essentially, the smaller the pixel, the higher the resolution of the hologram,” said Dr Haider Butt from CMMPE, who conducted the work along with Yunuen Montelongo.

“We used carbon nanotubes as diffractive elements - or pixels - to produce high resolution and wide field of view holograms.”

̽��ֱ��multi-walled nanotubes used for this work are around 700 times thinner than a human hair, and grown vertically on a layer of silicon in the manner of atomic chimney stacks.

̽��ֱ��researchers were able to calculate a placement pattern that expressed the name of this institution using various colours of laser light - all channelled out (scattered) from the nano-scale structures.

For Haider Butt this is just the start - as these pixels and their subsequent displays are not only of the highest resolution, but ultra-sensitive to changes in material and incoming light.

"A new class of highly sensitive holographic sensors can be developed that could sense distance, motion, tilt, temperature and density of biological materials,” said Butt.

“What’s certain is that these results pave the way towards utilising nanostructures to producing 3D holograms with wide field of view and the very highest resolution.”

For the researchers, there are two key next steps for this emerging technology. One is to find a less expensive alternative to nanotubes, which are financially prohibitive: “Alternative materials should be explored and researched, we are going to try zinc oxide nanowires to achieve the same effects.”

̽��ֱ��other is to investigate movement in the projections. Currently, these atomic scale pixels can only render static holograms. Butt and his team will look at different techniques such as combining these pixels with the liquid crystals found in flat-screen technology to create fluid displays - possibly leading to changeable pictures and even razor-sharp holographic video.

A breakthrough in the use of carbon nanotubes as optical projectors has enabled scientists to generate holograms using the smallest ever pixels.

These results pave the way towards utilising nanostructures to producing 3D holograms with wide field of view and the very highest resolution.

Haider Butt

Dr Haider Butt

Hologram

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