Holographic Interference Pattern Computation via Two-Stage Segmentation

The patent divides the computation of the holographic interference pattern into two separate stages: (1) computing the total light component for each object point, and (2) computing the complex-valued amplitude for each pixel based on the pre-computed light components. This segmentation allows the computationally intensive lighting calculations to be performed once per object point rather than for every pixel-object point pair, dramatically reducing total computing time while preserving visual quality.

The patent performs preliminary computation of the total light component for each object point before computing the final holographic interference pattern. By pre-calculating the lighting effects (including occlusion, shadows, and reflections) for each object point and storing these light components, the method avoids redundant calculations during the pixel-wise amplitude computation stage, thereby reducing overall computing time while maintaining photo-realistic visual quality.

The computation is segmented into two phases: first computing light components for all object points, then using these pre-computed components to calculate amplitudes for all pixels. This segmentation reduces computational complexity from O(N*M) to O(N + M) where N is the number of object points and M is the number of pixels, while preserving complete visual information through the intermediate storage of light components.

The patent introduces an intermediary data structure - the total light component - that serves as a mediator between object points and pixels. Instead of directly computing contributions from every object point to every pixel, the light component acts as an intermediate representation that captures all necessary visual information (including occlusion, shadows, and reflections) in a compressed form that can be efficiently used for final amplitude calculation.