Two-dimensional representation of a digital holographic image of the volume of a medium with particles as a method of depicting and processing information concerning the particles

A method is proposed for the two-dimensional depiction of a holographic image of the volume of a medium with particles, reconstructed from a digital hologram. Such a depiction is intended for simultaneous observation in a single plane and efficient processing of the holographic images of all the particles of the volume, which lie at various distances from the plane in which the hologram is recorded. Possibilities and techniques are considered for automatically processing such a two-dimensional depiction in order to increase the focusing accuracy of the holographic image of each particle and to take into account the possible overlap of the images of particles that have similar transverse coordinates, as well as in order to obtain information on the spatial location of the particles in the volume and concerning their distributions in size, over the layers of the volume, over orientations, and over the other parameters. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America.