images of an object is described for example in u s provisional patent application no 60 560 006 entitled u201c rendering for multiview holographic video u201d filed on apr 5 2004 the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference if the three dimensional image changes the viewlets can change for different scans for a stationary image however the modulation pattern is repeated each time the scanning mirror returns to the corresponding orientation in general the resolution of a three dimensional image generated by optical scanner 100 corresponds to the maximum number of viewlets that can be generated during a scan of mirror 176 this number depends on the resolution of slm 140 and the frame refresh rate of slm 140 generally the resolution of slm 140 can vary in some embodiments the resolution of slm 140 corresponds to a standard display mode resolution such as vga 640 u00d7 480 svga 800 u00d7 600 xga 1024 u00d7 768 sxga 1280 u00d7 1024 or uxga 1600 u00d7 1200 the frame refresh rate of slm 140 depends on the type of slm being used in some embodiments for example where slm 140 is a micro electro mechanical system mems e g a dmd u2122 the frame refresh rate can be relatively high e g about.