A bubblegram is a 3D image composed of points suspended in a medium, typically a plastic block. It can be described as a 3D version of the late 19th century, European, 2D art of pointillism.

Laser bubblegrams gained wide commercial success in the early 2000s as a fad in the United States; 3D representations of monuments, corporate symbols, and nature scenes appeared in gift shops. The 3D images are created by intersecting lasers in appropriately-doped plastic, which may induce a chemical reaction via heat or photonic excitation, resulting in the formation of an air bubble or of plastic with a different index of refraction.

Some subsurface laser etching machines produce bubblegrams using a single conically-focused laser to create 0.1 mm fractures within a glass block.

There also exist companies which will take custom photographs of people, convert them to a heightmap, and render them as a bubblegram as a memento.

[edit] External links

• Laser Crystal Technique How a single conical laser beam makes a bubblegram

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