Stephen Benton

Benton was born in San Francisco in 1941 and grew up in Santa Barbara, California. He graduated from Santa Barbara High School in 1959. Benton first became interested in optics at 11 when he wore a pair of 3-D glasses to view the Vincent Price movie House of Wax. He recalled, ''There was a realism and a sense of excitement like nothing I had ever felt before. Not only was I amazed, I determined then and there to figure out how it worked''.[1] Benton received his undergraduate degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in electrical engineering (1963) and worked with Professor Harold "Doc" Edgerton, a pioneer in stroboscopy. During his undergraduate career, Benton also worked with Edwin H. Land, the co-founder of Polaroid Corp. and inventor of instant photography, in the company's vision research laboratory.[2]

Benton received his M.S. in 1964 and his Ph.D. in 1968 in applied physics at Harvard University.

Benton remained at Harvard University as an assistant professor of applied optics until 1973. From 1980 to 1983, Benton returned to MIT as a visiting scientist in the Laser Research Center.[4] While at MIT, he helped form the Spatial Imaging Research Group in 1982.[5] In 1984, Benton joined the MIT faculty as a founding member of the MIT Media Lab, an interdisciplinary research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology devoted to projects at the convergence of technology, multimedia, sciences, art and design.[4] There, he made a lasting impression on his colleagues. "Steve brought a joy and spirit of inventiveness to all that he did," Charles M. Vest, MIT's president, said in a statement. "He was a gifted teacher, scientist, engineer, and artist who personified the best of MIT."[6] Dr. Benton was the founding head of the MIT Program in Media Arts & Sciences from 1987 to 1994 and became the director for the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) in 1996. He remained the director of CAVS until his death in 2003.[7]

Benton was married to Jeanne L. Benton, a senior neuroscience researcher at Wellesley College. They have two children: James Benton and Julia Benton Pease as well as a grandchild, Emmett Stephen Benton Pease.

In 1968, Benton began working on the rainbow hologram or the Benton hologram, at Polaroid Corporation. Rainbow holography makes use of common white light to visualize holograms rather than lasers, thereby leading "holography out of the lab".[1][6] This type of hologram is commonly seen as the dove on the VISA card.[8] The first rainbow hologram, termed "Motif 1," was presented on a 4-by-5-inch glass plate. It consisted of three chess pieces illuminated by a single white light bulb. Dr. Benton first presented his invention to the optical society in California in 1968.[6] This discovery was also of great interest to the artistic community, as "fiercely bright images which could be manipulated in an artistic context were observed".[8] Since the rainbow hologram was very easy to mass-produce, today, credit card companies and state agencies widely make use of rainbow holograms to deter counterfeiting of credit cards and identification cards.[6]

His research in holography helped in the advancement of holographic technology integral to medical imaging devices like CT and MRI scanners.[1]

In 1988, Dr. Benton patented methods and devices for projecting and recording holographic stereograms. This invention utilized a semi-cylindrical "alcove" display system in front of which an image is projected. This provides the viewer with a wider angle of view compared to the traditional hologram (180 degrees compared to 30 degrees), allowing viewers to look around most of the image content.[9]

Benton and his students optimized the production of pseudocolor holograms, which was patented in 1989. This had implications as a way of rendering three dimensional computer generated designs.[10]

In this invention, users are able to interact with and modify an electronic holographic image using a force-feedback (or haptic) device. This device can sense, report the position, and display appropriate forces to the user. The user can feel and modify specified shapes in the workspace. The haptic workspace is linked with the free-standing, spatial image displayed by a holographic video (holovideo) system. This interactive workspace allows a user to see, feel, and interact with synthetic objects that feel like real ones. The display allows these objects to become a part of the user's workspace.[11]