Gray tone image watermarking with complementary computer generated holography

We present herein an original approach for the watermarking of holograms in gray tone images for use in microscopic halftone image archiving. Our concept is based on the principle of complementary holography presented in a previous contribution. The efficiency of the concept is evaluated theoretically and experimentally. We demonstrate the interest of elliptical diffraction patterns as an alternative to the usual rectangular diffraction patterns and confirm the subsidiary role of the hologram amplitude in the hologram recovery process.