A team of Edinburgh physicists at Heriott-Watt University developed a high-resolution camera capable of producing 3D images up to one kilometer (0.62 miles) away. The technique used is best known as time-of-flight (ToF), which is commonly used in cars as vision navigation systems and many other applications, but are usually short ranged with poor imaging. This technique can capture laser pulses from objects that do not easily reflect laser pulses, such as fabric, making it useful in a variety of situations.
The images are generated by a low-power infrared laser beam that rapidly scans an object, as well as records the flight time of the beam in which the light travels back to the source. The primary use of the system is to scan immobile, human made objects such as cars, in addition to identifying objects behind clutter. It is unable to depict human faces because, unlike other objects, skin does not bounce back enough photons. With the ability to extend the camera’s range, the new photon-counting depth imaging technology can detect rock movement as far as 10 kilometers away. Dr. Aongus McCarthy, a Research Fellow at Heriot-Watt University, believes that with this potential range that “a lightweight, fully portable scanning depth imager is possible and could be a product in less than five years.”
Story via: bbc.co.uk
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