The VIP System (Video Images with Parallax)

The VIP system was specifically designed to record a hologram of Her Majesty the Queen of England for a project that involved the production of many types of holograms and other three-dimensional images - see Portrait of the Queen . It is a state-of-the-art digital video linear rail system for capturing the stereographic images required to make large or small format holographic stereograms or three-dimensional digital holograms of portraits, products and other real-life subjects.

The system utilises the latest linear servo motor stages, one two meter linear travel stage and the other a rotary stage, to translate a high resolution digital camera smoothly and at high speed. The two meter linear stage has a resolution along its entire length of only 1 micron and is capable of moving at a very high speed of over 1 meter per second. This high speed enables the recording of portraits or other scenes with a minimum risk of the subject moving. The VIP system currently utilises the latest digital camera from the Dalsa Corporation. This world beating camera has an extremely high resolution of 1600 * 1200 pixels and is able to output full colour images directly to the computer's memory at 30 frames per second. After a sequence has been recorded the digital images are instantly saved to hard disk and, using the VIP's custom software, are automatically keystone corrected and converted to run as an on screen animation so that the 'photographer' can easily appraise images on a shoot by shoot basis.

VIP software features include Continuous Recording - as described above, Manual Recording - for 'real life' multi-channel effects and stop frame holographic animations and Time Lapse Recording for stunning time lapse animated holograms.

The VIP system can be used to record images for ANY holographic stereogram printing system however it is a perfectly matched with SiTech’s Lightgate range of digital mastering systems.