REAL-TIME HOLOGRAPHY COCKPIT DISPLAY

THE ABILITY TO SEE THREE-DIMENSIONAL IMAGES IN CONVEYED BY ONLY A FEW TECHNOLOGIES. HOLOGRAPHY IS ONE. THIS PROPOSAL IS FOR A DYNAMIC (RECORDER OR REAL-TIME) MULTIPLEXED HOLOGRAPHIC SYSTEM IN WHICH A REMOTE LARGE-SCALE OBJECT OR SCENE-AIRCRAFT, TERRAIN OR OTHER - IS DISPLAY IN REAL TIME BY MEANS OF HOLOGRAPHY. THE MECHANISM USED IS HIGH-SPEED VIDEO RECORDING, COMBINED WITH COMPUTER AND OPTICAL TRANSFORMATION INTO MULTIPLEXTED HOLOGRAMS WHICH ARE SHOWN SEQUENTIALLY ON A SCREEN OR OTHER DEVICE. THE SYSTEM WOULD PERMIT, FOR THE FIRST TIME, REAL-TIME DISPLAY IN THREE DIMENSIONS WITHOUT THE USE OF THE HUMAN EYE. ADVANCES IN PARALLEL COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE AND IMAGE PROCESSING HAVE MADE POSSIBLE REAL-TIME HOLOGRAPHY, WHICH SEEMED UNATTAINABLE A FEW YEARS AGO. REAL-TIME HOLOGRAPHY WOULD ALLOW, IN PRINCIPLE, DISCARDING OF THE RELATIVELY FRAGILE CANOPY OF AIRCRAFT, AND COMPLETE REDEISGN OF FUTURE AIRCRAFT. THE PROPOSAL IS FOR A "TEST-BED" FOR DETERMINING THE APPROPIRATE RESEARCH AVENUES TO ACHIEVE THESE OBJECTIVES. MUCH OF THE PROPOSED EFFORT CONSISTS OF EVALUATING HOW PRESENT-DAY TECHNOLOGY IN ADVANCED COMPUTERS, ELECTRO-OPTIC MODULATORS, HOLOGRAPHY, LASERS AND OTHER FIELDS CAN BE COMBINED TO ATTAIN THE GOAL.