Looking Around Corners using Femto-Photography
This camera can look around corners and beyond the line of sight. The camera uses light that travels from the object to the camera indirectly, by reflecting off walls or other obstacles, to reconstruct a 3D shape.
It has been developed by the MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture group' A laser pulse that lasts less than one trillionth of a second is used as a flash and the light returning from the scene is collected by a camera at the equivalent of close to 1 trillion frames per second. Because of this high speed, the camera is aware of the time it takes for the light to travel through the scene. This information is then used to reconstruct shape of objects that are visible from the position of the wall, but not from the laser or camera.
Potential applications include search and rescue planning in hazardous conditions, collision avoidance for cars, and robots in industrial environments. Transient imaging also has significant potential benefits in medical imaging that could allow endoscopes to view around obstacles inside the human body.
Camera Allows Sight Around a Corner
This video shows how scientists at the MIT Media Lab reconstruct a hidden object using scattered laser light. Future applications may include seeing in dangerous or inaccessible locations, such as inside machinery with moving parts, or in highly contaminated areas.
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Go to the project's homepage for a full explanation and additional videos.
