As a physicist, Cross' research started in the 1950s, and focused primarily on masers and lasers at Willow Run Laboratories, at the University of Michigan.
[1] In 1968, he and Canadian sculptor Jerry Pethick, developed a simplistic stabilization system for holographic cameras, that for the first time did not require expensive optics and an isolation table, effectively making the medium accessible to artists.
During the same year, Cross founded Editions Inc. in Ann Arbor which, in effect, became the world's first nonindustrial holographic studio focused on producing, exhibiting, and selling art holograms.
[3] In 1972, he developed the "integral hologram" by combining holography with conventional cinematography to produce three-dimensional images that appeared to move.
Sequential frames of two-dimensional movie footage of a rotating subject are recorded on holographic film.