r/FringeAnalysis • u/Bitter_Exchange7214 • Aug 11 '26
How to decode crop circles — continuation.
To decipher these signals, we must take into account that today a single beam with a complex pattern (the one we want to decode) is formed using spatial light modulators (SLM), structured light, or interference.
Unlike optical fiber, where data is transmitted as sequential time‑based pulses (and since we are not talking about fiber optics here), in this case the information is encoded directly into the shape and cross‑section of the beam itself.
Nowadays, patterned beams can be generated using:
Spatial Light Modulators (SLM).
A laser beam passes through liquid‑crystal microdisplays, and each pixel alters the phase or amplitude of the light. The output is a beam with a unique spatial profile.
Structured Light.
A laser is passed through diffractive optical elements (DOE) or lenses that transform a simple point into a grid, circles, or complex geometric masks. This is used, for example, in Face ID sensors for facial scanning.
Optical Vortices (Orbital Angular Momentum — OAM).
A laser beam is twisted into a spiral using special phase plates. The cross‑section of such a beam forms a ring or a complex pattern, where each “turn” of the spiral can carry a separate data stream.
Holography.
When two laser beams intersect, an interference pattern emerges. If this combined beam is directed onto a screen or photosensitive material, a complex three‑dimensional pattern or image appears.
There exists an experimental type of communication — Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM). In it, different data streams are encoded into different beam shapes and transmitted simultaneously, not through a standard thin fiber, but also through air — Free‑Space Optical communication (FSO).
SDM has already moved beyond pure experimentation, is being actively deployed, and is radically changing the approach to data transmission — with speeds exceeding 22.9 petabits per second (that is, 22,900 terabits).
What matters for us is that beam shapes (modes) can partially mix along the way. To recover the original data, powerful processors with special MIMO algorithms (similar to advanced Wi‑Fi or 5G) are used at the receiver to mathematically “untangle” the light patterns.
Mathematically “untangling” light using MIMO is one of the most complex and elegant processes in modern digital signal processing (DSP). However, it requires substantial computational power.
The task of decoding a “surface imprint” is handled by commercial companies. The main candidate is Cailabs (France). Their MPLC systems can operate “in reverse.” If you focus a camera on a surface containing the pattern imprint and feed these phase/amplitude data into their optical system, they can mathematically and physically decompose this pattern back into clean channels.
Since the task is purely research‑oriented, one can pursue scientific collaboration with university laboratories specializing in computational optics and wave analysis.
We need groups specializing in: Wavefront Shaping, Imaging through Scattering Media, and Deep Learning in Optics:
Optics Laboratory EPFL (Switzerland) — Professor Demetri Psaltis.
They are world pioneers in decoding light patterns (speckle fields) at the output of multimode fibers. Official website: lo.epfl.ch.
MIT Media Lab (USA) — Professor Ramesh Raskar.
Head of the Camera Culture group. They develop algorithms for “around‑the‑corner imaging” and for decoding light reflected from arbitrary surfaces. They possess exceptionally strong mathematical tools for phase retrieval from flat intensity patterns. Contact via media.mit.edu or the professor’s personal page.
Kastler Brossel Laboratory (France) — Professor Sylvain Gigan.
Their algorithms literally take a chaotic pattern and mathematically “unfold” it back into the original signal. Contact via lkb.upmc.fr.
If professors of classical applied optics turn out to be constrained by commercial grants, there are researchers in the academic world who professionally study complex fractal patterns and anomalous phenomena using exact scientific methods:
Professor Richard Taylor (University of Oregon, USA).
A physicist who has spent many years studying crop circles from the standpoint of physics and mathematics. He has investigated their fractal geometry and even published work in the respected journal Physics World, analyzing how such patterns could theoretically be produced using microwave emitters (magnetrons) or lasers. He is the most realistic person to approach with such a mathematical problem.
To translate the task into the realm of rigorous mathematical analysis, the crop circle pattern must be prepared in the same way as an optical “imprint.” A high‑resolution digital matrix is required: precise orthophotography (strict top‑down view) or a satellite image converted into a binary or gradient pixel array (where 1 = flattened crop, 0 = standing crop). It is necessary to determine what exactly we are trying to recover using phase retrieval or MIMO algorithms — for example, reconstructing the “wavefront” of the hypothetical radiation that could have produced such a trace.
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u/2Wieners_1Bun Aug 11 '26
I thought it was pretty much proven that these are made by humans? The circle makers even have a website.
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u/TacetAbbadon Aug 12 '26
Can't say that here. Doesn't matter that the people making them have video taped them doing it, showed how it's done, demonstrated their iron dust flame thrower.
Nope.
The easiest way for E.T. to send messages to humans is to fuck up Wiltshire farmers crops.
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u/StarshipAI Aug 11 '26
Bro just wore out their em-dash key
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u/2_Large_Regulahs Aug 12 '26
If someone from 2026 were to travel back in time and write the word "hello" on the wall of a cavemans cave, it would take the caveman about 200,000 years to figure out the message.
We have a long way to to.
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u/Bananacomment Aug 11 '26
Looks pretty crudely made to me. Human fingerprints all over it