Adaptive Digital Hologram Binarization Method Based on Local Thresholding, Block Division and Error Diffusion

High-speed optical reconstruction of 3D-scenes can be achieved using digital holography with binary digital micromirror devices (DMD) or a ferroelectric spatial light modulator (fSLM). There are many algorithms for binarizing digital holograms. The most common are methods based on global and local thresholding and error diffusion techniques. In addition, hologram binarization is used in optical encryption, data compression, beam shaping, 3D-displays, nanofabrication, materials characterization, etc. This paper proposes an adaptive binarization method based on a combination of local threshold processing, hologram division into blocks, and error diffusion procedure (the LDE method). The method is applied for binarization of optically recorded and computer-generated digital holograms of flat objects and three-dimensional scenes. The quality of reconstructed images was compared with different methods of error diffusion and thresholding. Image reconstruction quality was up to 22% higher by various metrics than that one for standard binarization methods. The optical hologram reconstruction using DMD confirms the results of the numerical simulations.