German scientists have developed a camera which can see around corners without using any sort of mirror system, a gadget undoubtedly worthy of James Bond. This is not the first time we’re being introduced to such a marvel considering that MIT did something similar way back in 2011.
It apparently required the use of expensive and very sensitive equipment in the form of a streak camera and a femtosecond laser. Coming back to the present, the new technology basically needs a time-of-flight camera, laser light and a diffuse mirror to see what’s behind an obstruction.
If you spare a glance for the pciture posted above, the blue represents the camera and where it’s looking, while the red gives an indication of where the accompanying laser is pointed. The green area marks the object that the setup is trying to ‘see’ through indirect reflections
More: Smartphone camera with high quality zoom capabilities not far away
The white portion clearly shows where the standard time-of-flight camera and laser are faced, with the first mentioned acting as a mirror of sorts. It works with diffusely reflected light from the laser in order to provide information to the device.
The laser serves as a source of scattered light as well as data. The camera reconstructs the shape of objects falling outside the field of view with the help of the information it receives. To put it down very simply, the whole apparatus is capable of turning any wall into a mirror.
The project partners for the development of this camera are named as University of Bonn, University of British Columbia, University of Toronto and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
