The 'spy camera' that takes 3D photos in almost COMPLETE darkness by measuring photon particles in the air

The 'spy camera' that takes 3D photos in almost COMPLETE darkness by measuring photon particles in the air

 

·         MIT scientists developed a camera that works by reconstructing 3D images from photons reflected from barely visible objects
·         The technology could be used in next generation spy cameras or to treat eyes that are easily damaged by bright light
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Spies operating under the cover of darkness might find that their job is about to get easier as U.S. scientists have developed a camera that can take photographs of objects and people that are only very dimly lit.

The camera works by reconstructing 3D images from photons reflected from barely visible objects.

The technology could be used in next generation spy cameras or to treat eyes that are easily damaged by bright light.

The camera works by reconstructing 3D images from photons reflected from barely visible objects. On the left is an image created by using current technologies, while the image on the right uses the scientists' new device

HOW DOES THE CAMERA WORK?

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·         The camera works by scanning an object using low-intensity pulses of laser light. 
·          
·         Each pulse of light is fired until a reflected photon is recorded by a detector in the camera.

·         Using the algorithm, each illuminated location is matched to a pixel in the image that is created. 
·          
·         The time it takes for photons from the laser pulses to be reflected back from the object and read by the detector, provides information about the depth of the object being examined.
·          
Researchers from MIT have managed to create sharp images of dimly lit objects using photons, which are elementary particles that are not composed of smaller particles.

Using mathematics, they stitched together information gleaned from the tiny particles of light, which were recorded by a solid-state detector in the camera.

Electrical engineer Ahmed Kirmani and his colleagues at the university developed an algorithm to look at correlations between neighbouring parts of an object lit by pulses of light as well as the science of low light measurements, Nature reported.
  
The time it takes for photons from the laser pulses to be reflected back from the object and read by the detector, provides information about the depth of the object being examined

The camera works by scanning an object using low-intensity pulses of laser light. Each pulse is fired until a reflected photon is recorded by a detector and using the algorithm, each illuminated location is matched to a pixel in the image that is created

Mr Kirmani said they did not invent a new type of laser or detector, but applied their algorithm to an off-the-shelf photon detector.

The camera works by scanning an object using low-intensity pulses of laser light. 

Each pulse is fired until a reflected photon is recorded by a detector and using the algorithm, each illuminated location is matched to a pixel in the image that is created, according to the journal Science. 

The camera uses a process made up of multiple steps to remove noise from the laser scan made by detecting a single photon for each pixel. This process produces the final image, which is sharper than that created by rival technologies

The time it takes for photons from the laser pulses to be reflected back from the object and read by the detector, provides information about the depth of the object being examined.

This technique is currently used in hi-tech devices to determine the nature of 3D structures, but the team’s algorithm provides the same information using one-hundredth the number of photons required by other light detection and ranging techniques, which are used to map areas remotely.

The images are in black and white as the laser produces light of a single wavelength, but the device can pick out some different materials because of the rate they reflect the laser’s colour.

Darker regions of objects tend to need more pulses of light to hit them before being reflects, according to the scientists.



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