Around the Corner Camera System

December 21st, 2015 by

Researchers from Heriot Watt University in the UK have developed a camera system can locate objects outside the field-of-view and track movements in real time with centimeter precision. The camera, which can captures images from around corners, could be used for search and rescue scenarios and in vehicle collision avoidance applications. The system uses numerous short laser pulses, which scatter in every direction as a spherical light wave. When the photons bounce off objects, they again scatter and some of them reach the field-of-view of the camera, which is directed in the same direction as the laser. The system calculates an object’s position by looking at how long it takes for light to go from the laser to the object and back, and at the shape and direction of the returning spherical wave. Part of the system is a new sensitive, ultra-fast single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) camera, which can collect images at a rate of 20 billion frames per second. The camera has a temporal resolution of 50 picoseconds. The researchers want to make the system faster and effective at longer distances along with reconstructing 3-D targets and multiple moving objects.

Source: Heriot Watt University

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