[UT] Hologram on stasis web surface?

[munin]

A stasis web (UT193-194) has a reflective surface (if it can't absorb or emit light, reflection is the only possibility). It occurred to me that it might be possible to make some parts of the surface apparantly non-reflective, by angling/rippling the surface so that it doesn't reflect back in certain directions (the same way a stealth ship angles surfaces so as not to reflect radar).

Would it be possible to go further and create a hologram (the regular kind of hologram, not a superscience 3D hologram), simply by shaping the stasis web's reflective surface? Perhaps even a hologram of the interior as it's created?

[sir_pudding]

I'm not certain that this would be holographic, and not just a non-holographic analog image, although when you are dealing with superscience like stasis, I'm not sure if the technical details of holography actually matter. I suppose if you only could see a small portion of the field?

The process you describe, at any rate, seems to be missing the superimposed reference beam.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by munin

A stasis web (UT193-194) has a reflective surface (if it can't absorb or emit light, reflection is the only possibility). It occurred to me that it might be possible to make some parts of the surface apparantly non-reflective, by angling/rippling the surface so that it doesn't reflect back in certain directions (the same way a stealth ship angles surfaces so as not to reflect radar).

Would it be possible to go further and create a hologram (the regular kind of hologram, not a superscience 3D hologram), simply by shaping the stasis web's reflective surface? Perhaps even a hologram of the interior as it's created?

If it's perfectly reflective, you should be able to do stuff like this... but the nature of stasis is that it's static, so unless it's in a controlled, consistent environment with regards to lighting, any "holograms" you do in this manner are only going to look right initially; once the lighting changes, so will the reflections.

But perfectly reflective isn't the only option for something that doesn't absorb or emit light. It could be invisible (light just passes through), or it could let light go through but distort it (similar to a cloaking device, but perhaps a markedly more pronounced distortion - one that utterly fails to hide the object's presence, even to casual observation). It could also reflect it similarly-distorted... maybe so distorted it mostly just looks like a single color, made up of a mix of all the light striking it.