SMU Researchers Help Develop Technology That Allows Cameras To See Around The Corner
UNIVERSITY PARK, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - In a story that sounds more like science fiction than science fact, researchers at Southern Methodist University and Northwest University have developed new technology that allows cameras to capture high-resolution images and holograms of objects that are hidden around corners or obscured from view.
The technology, called synthetic wavelength holography, takes objects likes walls and changes them into illumination and imaging portals which can then be used to indirectly illuminate hidden objects.
In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, scientists said the new technology could be used to capture images through fog or develop systems that would allow drivers to detect what's coming around the corner at them.
Part of the technology was developed in SMU's Photonics Architecture Lab, led by Prasanna Rangarajan, an assistant professor in SMU's Lyle School of Engineering, and second author on the study.
"By combining laser light of two closely spaced colors, we synthesize an optical beat note, which bounces off obscured objects," Rangarajan said. "Monitoring the relative change in the phase of the transmitted and received optical beat note allows us to locate hidden objects (echolocation) and assemble a hologram of the hidden objects."