[nomel]

Does this fall under holography?

As a layperson, do I understand this correctly?

There are point spread functions, but they vary, in an extreme way, across the "image plane". The diffraction patterns scatter the coherent light. Since the light is coherent, the output image brightness is the result of the number of photons, and the interference from all their waves coming from the patterns. This can't be reversed because the phase is a degree of freedom that means, even though we know how any ray of light will pass through, the image that made it is undetermined?

I assume these diffraction patterns, and the "film" have to be placed with sub-wavelength accuracy?

If you exposed this with holographic film, what would you see? Maybe a bright "2" protruding from a rough, bumpy, background? Surely it's 3d, that falls into chaos right behind, right?

[ggm]

This is almost exactly how I mentally framed the question.