Generation of real-time large computer generated hologram using wavefront recording method.

We report the generation of a real-time large computer generated hologram (CGH) using the wavefront recording plane (WRP) method with the aid of a graphics processing unit (GPU). The WRP method consists of two steps: the first step calculates a complex amplitude on a WRP that is placed between a 3D object and a CGH, from a three-dimensional (3D) object. The second step obtains a CGH by calculating diffraction from the WRP to the CGH. The disadvantages of the previous WRP method include the inability to record a large three-dimensional object that exceeds the size of the CGH, and the difficulty in implementing to all the steps on a GPU. We improved the WRP method using Shifted-Fresnel diffraction to solve the former problem, and all the steps could be implemented on a GPU. We show optical reconstructions from a 1,980 × 1,080 phase only CGH generated by about 3 × 10(4) object points over 90 frames per second. In other words, the improved method obtained a large CGH with about 6 mega pixels (1,980 × 1,080 × 3) from the object points at the video rate.