As a Private Investigator, I have to stay up to date with the newest cameras that are out in the field. Having the best camera helps you get the best evidence and video of your subjects, but sometimes things get in the way. You have no idea how many times I sit in my vehicle waiting to get the “money shot,” when out of nowhere comes a delivery truck and parks in front of my target and blocks my view.
During one of those cases I had this day dream about how cool it would be for a camera to be able to bend light and record the other side of walls, or trucks – and thanks to a group of scientist, that day dream may soon become a reality.
They were able to get a camera to record through walls, not by seeing through them, but by bouncing light from other objects, then bouncing the light from the objects back to the camera. Sounds tricky, but it makes a lot of sense when you watch the video I posted below.
Andres Velten, the study lead author on this project, says, “There is no new physics here – improvements are just a matter of laser, camera and computer technologies that are constantly improving.” The camera shoots lasers into a wall, the lasers then bounce in every direction until they hit something else – in this case the small model – once they hit something they bounce back towards the first point of impact and from there they bounce back to the camera. The camera gathers these reflections, feeds them into a computer that pieces them all together and recreates the 3d Model.
If you look at the video, you can see that the image is a bit off, you don’t get the real “color” details or even the kinds of details that you would get with an 8bit Gameboy Camera. Instead, the model that the computer reproduces looks more like a model that’s made out of clay, but the mere fact that they managed to record and picture an object across a wall by using light is impressive. [USA Today]
