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Using artificial intelligence to generate 3D hologram projector in real-time

Despite years of hype, virtual reality headsets have yet to topple TV or computer screens as the go-to devices for video viewing. One reason: VR can make users feel sick. Nausea and eye strain can result because VR creates an illusion of 3D viewing although the user is in fact staring at a fixed-distance 2D display. The solution for better 3D visualization could lie in a 60-year-old technology remade for the digital world: holograms.
Hologram projector deliver an exceptional representation of 3D world around us. Plus, they’re beautiful. (Go ahead — check out the holographic dove on your Visa card.) Holograms offer a shifting perspective based on the viewer’s position, and they allow the eye to adjust focal depth to alternately focus on foreground and background.
Researchers have long sought to make computer-generated holograms, but the process has traditionally required a supercomputer to churn through physics simulations, which is time-consuming and can yield less-than-photorealistic results. Now, MIT researchers have developed a new way to produce holograms almost instantly — and the deep learning-based method is so efficient that it can run on a laptop in the blink of an eye, the researchers say.
“People previously thought that with existing consumer-grade hardware, it was impossible to do real-time 3D holography computations,” says Liang Shi, the study’s lead author and a PhD student in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). “It’s often been said that commercially available holographic displays will be around in 10 years, yet this statement has been around for decades.”
Shi believes the new approach, which the team calls “tensor holography,” will finally bring that elusive 10-year goal within reach. The advance could fuel a spillover of holography into fields like VR and 3D printing.
Shi worked on the study, published today in Nature, with his advisor and co-author Wojciech Matusik. Other co-authors include Beichen Li of EECS and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, as well as former MIT researchers Changil Kim (now at Facebook) and Petr Kellnhofer (now at Stanford University).
The quest for better 3D
A typical lens-based photograph encodes the brightness of each light wave — a photo can faithfully reproduce a scene’s colors, but it ultimately yields a flat image.
In contrast, a hologram encodes both the brightness and phase of each light wave. That combination delivers a truer depiction of a scene’s parallax and depth. So, while a photograph of Monet’s “Water Lilies” can highlight the paintings’ color palate, a hologram can bring the work to life, rendering the unique 3D texture of each brush stroke. But despite their realism, holograms are a challenge to make and share.
First developed in the mid-1900s, early holograms were recorded optically. That required splitting a laser beam, with half the beam used to illuminate the subject and the other half used as a reference for the light waves’ phase. This reference generates a hologram’s unique sense of depth. The resulting images were static, so they couldn’t capture motion. And they were hard copy only, making them difficult to reproduce and share.
Computer-generated holography sidesteps these challenges by simulating the optical setup. But the process can be a computational slog. “Because each point in the scene has a different depth, you can’t apply the same operations for all of them,” says Shi. “That increases the complexity significantly.” Directing a clustered supercomputer to run these physics-based simulations could take seconds or minutes for a single holographic image. Plus, existing algorithms don’t model occlusion with photorealistic precision. So Shi’s team took a different approach: letting the computer teach physics to itself.
They used deep learning to accelerate computer-generated holography, allowing for real-time hologram generation. The team designed a convolutional neural network — a processing technique that uses a chain of trainable tensors to roughly mimic how humans process visual information. Training a neural network typically requires a large, high-quality dataset, which didn’t previously exist for 3D holograms.
The team built a custom database of 4,000 pairs of computer-generated images. Each pair matched a picture — including color and depth information for each pixel — with its corresponding hologram. To create the holograms in the new database, the researchers used scenes with complex and variable shapes and colors, with the depth of pixels distributed evenly from the background to the foreground, and with a new set of physics-based calculations to handle occlusion. That approach resulted in photorealistic training data. Next, the algorithm got to work.
By learning from each image pair, the tensor network tweaked the parameters of its own calculations, successively enhancing its ability to create holograms. The fully optimized network operated orders of magnitude faster than physics-based calculations. That efficiency surprised the team themselves.
“We are amazed at how well it performs,” says Matusik. In mere milliseconds, tensor holography can craft holograms from images with depth information — which is provided by typical computer-generated images and can be calculated from a multicamera setup or LiDAR sensor (both are standard on some new smartphones). This advance paves the way for real-time 3D holography. What’s more, the compact tensor network requires less than 1 MB of memory. “It’s negligible, considering the tens and hundreds of gigabytes available on the latest cell phone,” he says.
The research “shows that true 3D holographic displays are practical with only moderate computational requirements,” says Joel Kollin, a principal optical architect at Microsoft who was not involved with the research. He adds that “this paper shows marked improvement in image quality over previous work,” which will “add realism and comfort for the viewer.” Kollin also hints at the possibility that holographic displays like this could even be customized to a viewer’s ophthalmic prescription. “Holographic displays can correct for aberrations in the eye. This makes it possible for a display image sharper than what the user could see with contacts or glasses, which only correct for low order aberrations like focus and astigmatism.”
“A considerable leap”
Real-time 3D holography would enhance a slew of systems, from VR to 3D printing. The team says the new system could help immerse VR viewers in more realistic scenery, while eliminating eye strain and other side effects of long-term VR use. The technology could be easily deployed on displays that modulate the phase of light waves. Currently, most affordable consumer-grade displays modulate only brightness, though the cost of phase-modulating displays would fall if widely adopted.
Three-dimensional holography could also boost the development of volumetric 3D printing, the researchers say. This technology could prove faster and more precise than traditional layer-by-layer 3D printing, since volumetric 3D printing allows for the simultaneous projection of the entire 3D pattern. Other applications include microscopy, visualization of medical data, and the design of surfaces with unique optical properties.
“It’s a considerable leap that could completely change people’s attitudes toward holography,” says Matusik. “We feel like neural networks were born for this task.”

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When Can You Sue For Getting Cancer?

Being diagnosed with cancer can be devastating and affect anyone at any age. Several factors, such as genetics and lifestyle, can cause it. However, cancer can also be caused by the negligence of others. In such an instance, you can sue the people responsible for causing your cancer and claim compensation for the diagnosis and any associated damages.
Determining when and who to sue for getting cancer can be a complex process. So, it’s a wise idea to hire a lawyer to get you through the process and get the compensation you deserve. The attorney can advise you on when, how, and whom to sue for getting cancer.
With that said, here’s when you can sue for getting cancer:
- Product Liability
You can sue for getting cancer from a defective product. For example, in one hair product cancer lawsuit, a claim was made that a hair straightening product was causing uterine cancer in women. The defects in the hair product increase the risk of developing uterine cancer for whoever uses it. If you think you’re in a similar situation, you can sue the manufacturers if a certain product increases your risk of developing cancer.
However, proving your case and claiming compensation can be challenging. In such a case, you must prove the defective product caused your cancer to sue the manufacturer or retailer. You’ll have to request tests on the products to prove the defect and the relationship to cancer development. The product defect has to have caused your cancer diagnosis directly. One example is when the product has excessive amounts of lead. You’ll need to hire experts or resort to government authorities to investigate the product to prove this. This way, you have a piece of solid evidence to sue the product manufacturer.
- Medical Negligence
Medical negligence is one of the most common reasons to sue for getting cancer. You could sue for medical malpractice if the doctors, healthcare facility, hospital, or other medical professionals failed to offer the standard of care causing your cancer diagnosis. For example, if the doctor failed to order necessary tests or misdiagnosed your case resulting in cancer progression, you can sue for medical negligence.
To successfully sue for medical negligence, you must prove that the medical practitioner’s actions directly caused your cancer diagnosis. You must also show that you suffered damage because of the negligent actions of the medical practitioner. By doing so, you can claim compensation for treatment of progressing cancer, lost wages if you cannot work, and pain and suffering.
- Environmental Factors
Exposure to environmental pollutants and toxins is a common risk factor for cancer. Prolonged exposure to asbestos at the workplace, radiation, and other chemicals can increase cancer risk. If you can prove your cancer was caused by exposure to a certain environmental toxin like asbestos, consider suing the company or entity responsible for the pollutants.
Suppose a company’s activities produce excessive radiation that affects the population in a specific area and results in cancer. In that case, you can sue that company for exposing you to toxins that caused the development of your cancer.
Like the previous points, you must prove your cancer was directly caused by a specific substance you were exposed to. You’ll also have to show that the exposure was from the negligence of the company or entity you’re suing. Another aspect you must consider is the entity’s knowledge of the potential risks of exposing people to the toxin or substance. Since you’ll also claim that the company or entity was negligent, expose their bad practices that contributed to the development of your cancer.
Additionally, working in a hazardous environment may expose you to substances or toxins that can increase your cancer risk. For instance, if you’re a construction worker with constant exposure to asbestos, you’ll be at risk of developing cancer. Working as a firefighter can also expose you to asbestos and other carcinogenic substances that cause cancer.
You can sue your employer for getting cancer while working in a hazardous environment. To be successful, you must prove the cancer was caused directly by exposure to a specific chemical or substance at the workplace or in the line of duty. For example, getting cancer from asbestos exposure at a construction site.
In such a suit, you’ll claim compensation for the medical expenses covering the diagnosis and treatment, lost wages, damages for the pain and suffering caused to you and your family, and other associated costs.
Conclusion Getting a cancer diagnosis because of someone else’s negligence can be traumatizing and devastating. However, you can get a little relief through compensation for the medical expenses and other related damages, such as pain and suffering. The process of suing for getting cancer can be complicated, and it’d be best to hire an experienced lawyer to handle the litigation process. An attorney can also advise on the available legal options available and the compensation to seek.

Khalil ur Rehman is a proud born and raised in Abbottabad. Khalil has worked as a journalist for nearly a decade having contributed to several large publications including the Yahoo News and The Verge. As a journalist for The Hear Up, Khalil covers climate and science news. [email protected]