The Zerotrope, a Dynamic Holographic Display: Design and Implementation

This paper presents the Zerotrope, an improved version of the classic phenakistiscope and zoetrope devices. This device is used to create a new 360-degree dynamic 3D display by the inclusion of a single ultra-realistic full-color hologram. The Zerotrope is built with a zero-degree transplane hologram mounted on a disk rotating at a constant speed. When a stroboscopic lamp synchronized with the rotation illuminates this hologram, the recorded characters, arranged radially around the center of the disk, are animated as in a stop-motion movie. The operation of the Zerotrope is successful and shows the effect of a 3D display without the need for special viewing aids.