How to make holograms at home

At his business, Christie and company use industrial-size lasers and special, sophisticated vibration-free equipment. Professional holograms require zero motion during the process and must be produced in totally dark rooms. That’s for professional holograms.

But as part of his tinkering, Christie has created a new kind of "instant hologram" film.  It still uses lasers to make the three-dimensional image, but it doesn’t need developing, vibration-free equipment or even a dark room. Christie has built a little kit that uses the new film and says you can use it to make holograms at home.

Last week, Christie proudly showed me his invention. In a very bright room, he set up his plastic hologram kit. There are a bunch of black plastic pieces that fit together to keep everything at the proper distance from each other. Everything you need is in the box from the laser, a supply of special film (2 by 3 inches on glass plates) and even a metal toy car to use as the photo model. The tiny red laser diode is powered by AA batteries (included).

The process is simple. Put all the pieces together, put the car (or any other small, solid object) in place, aim the laser (half at the car and half behind it), put the hologram film in place then quietly wait 5 minutes for the image to be formed.

Liti Holographics If you look closely, you can see the toy car and the three-dimensional image of it beginning to take shape.

All I have to say is it that worked exactly as advertised.  The room wasn’t anywhere near dark and although we tried not to bump the table, I wouldn’t call our test space vibration-free.  A few minutes after we started we had a small transmission hologram.  When viewed using the same laser you can actually see a three-dimensional picture.  I was amazed.

And this system is only going to get better.  Christie says he’s currently working on an improved film that won’t require a laser light to see the image.  That way you can take your hologram with you wherever you go.

As for price, the Litholo Hologram kit sells for $139 and is available on the Liti Holographics Website.   If you’ve ever wanted to experience a home-made hologram this is a great way of experimenting.

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