This paper describes a method by which the processing of three dimensional information can be done by numerical reconstruction from an ultrasonic hologram using a digital computer.
This numerical method gives not only the intensity but also the phase of the reconstructed wavefront. The intensity term shows the shape and the phase term shows the unevenness of the reconstructed image. The phase distribution of the reconstructed image is flat for a plane object and variable for a three dimensional object.
It is possible to measure the unevenness of the original object from the phase distribution of the reconstructed wavefront.
In the experiment, the magnitude and direction of the gradient of the object were quanti-tatively measured from the phase term of the reconstructed wavefront made by the numerical method.