Despite the criminal implications that it may have, the researchers say that its benefits are key for risky situations such as fires, landslides or autonomous driving of vehicles.
The first thing that comes to mind when talking about a laser that scans our living room through the lock is a thief looking at what is inside and what can be stolen. It is normal, it is what they have sold us in the movies. But the reality is very different.
What we talk about today is called images without line of sight (NLOS) and is the work of researchers of the Stanford Computational Imaging Laboratory, who have expanded this technique so that with a single point of laser light entering a room you can see what physical objects are inside.
This NLOS is not a new idea, but it is a technique that has evolved in recent decades to reach the level of improvement we are talking about today.
Until now, the technique was based on flat surfaces, such as the floor or walls, that were in the line of sight of the camera and the obstructed object. A series of pulses of light bounce off these surfaces and then off the hidden object before returning to the sensors. of the camera.
Algorithms, at that moment, use information about the time it took for these reflections to return to generate an image than the camera can’t see. The results are not very sharp, but are usually detailed enough to easily determine which object is in question.
The problem is that these technical techniques had a great handicap: visualizing from the outside what is inside a closed room was impossible. Or at least it was.
The technique developed by the Stanford researchers, it’s called a keyhole because all you need to see what’s inside a closed room is a small hole (such as a lock or peephole) large enough to pass a laser beam.
Those responsible for the study believe that this invention could help police assess risks of walking into a room before slamming down the door and breaking into it, to create new techniques for autonomous navigation systems detect hidden dangers, or that the army can search for human lives in the landslides.
As you can see, the advantages of this new laser viewing technique far outweigh any danger that it can unravel. Everything changes when lives are involved.