Months before the first episode of Star Trek aired, IBM researchers were showing off something that must have felt like science fiction at the time. On this day in 1967, IBM unveiled a new method for creating holograms with digital computers for the first time. A team in Texas used an IBM System/360 Model 50 computer to calculate the interference patterns that would be created if light waves were actually reflected from a real object. The creation of holograms numerically by a computer opened the possibility of obtaining 3D pictures of objects that exist only in concept, rather than in physical reality. The new technique greatly extended the usefulness of holography in engineering and scientific applications. And now, computer-generated 3D objects can be found everywhere, from video games to virtual reality.

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