Full Color Holographic Endoscopy

Abstract

The ability to produce color holograms from the human tissue represents a major medical advance, specifically in the areas of diagnosis and teaching. This has been achieved at Glyndwr University. In corporation with partners at Gooch & Housego, Moor Instruments, Vivid Components and peninsula medical school, Exeter, UK, for the first time, we have produced full color holograms of human cell samples in which the cell boundary and the nuclei inside the cells could be clearly focused at different depths – something impossible with a two-dimensional photographic image. This was the main objective set by the peninsula medical school at Exeter, UK. Achieving this objective means that clinically useful images essentially indistinguishable from the object human cells could be routinely recorded. This could potentially be done at the tip of a holo-endoscopic probe inside the body. Optimised recording exposure and development processes for the holograms were defined for bulk exposures. This included the optimisation of in-house recording emulsions for coating evaluation onto polymer substrates (rather than glass plates), a key step for large volume commercial exploitation. At Glyndwr University, we also developed a new version of our in-house holographic (world-leading resolution) emulsion.