Review of holographic-based three-dimensional object recognition techniques [invited].

With the advancement of computing and optical technologies, it is now possible to capture digital holograms of real-life object scenes. Theoretically, through the analysis of a hologram, the three-dimensional (3D) objects coded on the hologram can be identified. However, being different from an optical image, a hologram is composed of complicated fringes that cannot be analyzed easily with traditional computer vision methods. Over the years, numerous important research investigations have been attempted to provide viable solutions to this problem. The aim of this work is three-fold. First, we provide a quick walkthrough on the overall development of holographic-based 3D object recognition (H3DOR) in the past five decades, from film-based approaches to digital-based innovation. Second, we describe in more detail a number of selected H3DOR methods that are introduced at different timelines, starting from the late sixties and then from the seventies, where viable digital holographic-based 3D recognition methods began to emerge. Finally, we present our work on digital holographic, pose-invariant 3D object recognition that is based on a recently introduced virtual diffraction plane framework. As our method has not been reported elsewhere, we have included some experimental results to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.