Three-dimensional-object recognition by use of single-exposure on-axis digital holography

On-axis phase-shifting digital holography requires recording of multiple holograms. We describe a novel real-time three-dimensional- (3-D-) object recognition system that uses single-exposure on-axis digital holography. In contrast to 3-D-object recognition by means of a conventional phase-shifting scheme that requires multiple exposures, our proposed method requires only a single digital hologram to be synthesized and used to recognize 3-D objects. A benefit of the proposed 3-D recognition method is enhanced practicality of digital holography for 3-D) recognition in terms of its simplicity and greater robustness to external scene parameters such as moving targets and environmental noise factors. We show experimentally the utility of the single-exposure on-axis digital holography-based 3-D-object recognition method. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.