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MIT Develops Camera-Like Fabric
suraj.sun writes "Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a fabric made of a mesh of light-sensitive fibers that collectively act like a rudimentary camera. The fibers, which each can detect two frequencies of light, produced signals that when amplified and processed by a computer reproduced an image of a smiley face near the mesh. 'This is the first time that anybody has demonstrated that a single plane of fibers, or "fabric," can collect images just like a camera but without a lens,' said Yoel Fink, an associate professor of materials science, who along with colleagues described the approach in a the journal Nano Letters. MIT suggested that the technology, if developed further, could give a soldier a uniform that would help him see threats in all directions. Optical fiber webs, by distributing the chore across a large area, would be less susceptible to damage in one area."
live pants cam!
Give me a fabric that mimics the skin of a cuttlefish and I'll be impressed!
BTW, PBS's Nova just had a special on the cuttlefish...amazing creatures.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
Voyeur shoe company.
There is one character in William Gibson's "Neuromancer" who wears a bodysuit that has the ability to display images, forms or pictures that reflect the mood or mind of the wearer.
This technology may very well be the first step towards that realization.
When an orange goes bad, it actually rots from the outside in. So when you see a moldy orange at the store, it is possible that the insides are still perfectly fine. But you never get to see the insides of that fruit, much less eat it. What you don't know is, though, just how delicious moldy oranges can be. Like grapes, the oranges get the moisture taken out by the mold, so what's left is an enticingly sweet fruit. But since no one makes wine out of moldy oranges, you'll never know.
But cameras don't rot like that. Why would you write a story about new camera technology and not include the photograph results?
I can see an application the military are probably working on already - instead of reflecting exact copies of specific detail, rather morph the fabric to take the general color of its surroundings, adapting itself as the soldier moves, providing a chameleon suit to ensure stealth movement. Solid Snake's suit comes to mind, here.
Come on. We all know why they developed it. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more.
For a soldier to detect a threat the information coming from such a uniform has to be reliable:
- it should work in different weather (rain,snow) and light conditions (day,night)
- it should detect threats moving at different speeds (bullet,running person,vehicle) and different distances (helicopter, sniper)
- it should never produce "false negative" information: it's better to detect an invalid threat rather than miss the real one
Not a simple task
OutputLogic
MIT researchers: pics or it didn't happen
don't forget robbIE (pitiful suckup that you've become), the real bosses that you have no concept of (yet) are watching. delete that.
Professor Frink, Professor Frink,
He'll make you laugh, he'll make you think,
He likes to run, and then the thing,
with the... mm-m person...
Machine washable or Dry Clean Only?
A clothing camera was described by science fiction author George Turner in his 1991 novel Brain Child.
Wouldn't do not to reference related work such as the Stanford Camera Array - video here showing the multitude of neat tricks that can be done by processing images from multiple apertures into a single image:
http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/CameraArray/CameraArray.mp4
The advent of inexpensive digital image sensors has generated great interest in building sensing systems that incorporate large numbers of cameras. At the same time, advances in semiconductor technology have made increasing computing power available for decreasing cost, power, and package size. These trends raise the question - can we use clusters of inexpensive imagers and processors to create virtual cameras that outperform real ones? Can we combine large numbers of conventional images computationally to produce new kinds of images? In an effort to answer these questions, the Stanford Computer Graphics Laboratory has built an array of 100 CMOS-based cameras.
Multi-camera systems can function in many ways, depending on the arrangement and aiming of the cameras. In particular, if the cameras are packed close together, then the system effectively functions as a single-center-of-projection synthetic camera, which we can configure to provide unprecedented performance along one or more imaging dimensions, such as resolution, signal-to-noise ratio, dynamic range, depth of field, frame rate, or spectral sensitivity. If the cameras are placed farther apart, then the system functions as a multiple-center-of-projection camera, and the data it captures is called a light field. Of particular interest to us are novel methods for estimating 3D scene geometry from the dense imagery captured by the array, and novel ways to construct multi-perspective panoramas from light fields, whether captured by this array or not. Finally, if the cameras are placed at an intermediate spacing, then the system functions as a single camera with a large synthetic aperture, which allows us to see through partially occluding environments like foliage or crowds. If we augment the array of cameras with an array of video projectors, we can implement a discrete approximation of confocal microscopy, in which objects not lying on a selected plane become both blurry and dark, effectively disappearing. These techniques, which we explore in our CVPR and SIGGRAPH papers (listed below), have potential application in scientific imaging, remote sensing, underwater photography, surveillance, and cinematic special effects.
http://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/array/
I believe you are referring to this "Cloak [new scientist]", an interesting application seems to also be to project a faux object that isnt there.
Either way there is no need for sampling of the surrounding area, no camera fabric needed.
Many offices, courthouses, etc. ban cameras from the premises. "Excuse me ma'am -- you'll have to take off all your clothes before we'll let you in ... "
The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power. -- Daniel Webster
Now, if they would only support at least 16 colors...
What they need to do now to recoup some of their R&D Time Effort and Money is to start selling rectangles of these light-sensitive fibers that are equal to the standard sizes of modern Flat-Screen TV's so that Fair Use can be maintained for people who wish to copy Blu-Ray discs in an analog manner while still maintaining a high level of visual quality, since the MPAA and RIAA themselves have suggested using Camcorders pointed at TVs so that customers can make fair use copies of the media that they purchase since it is considered a lawful way of reproduction as opposed to breaking encryption.
Integrate imaging of area behind fabric wearer to render back to viewers angle.
1. Use this cloth to take a picture that vaguely looks like the Virgin Mary.
2. Publicize the cloth.
3. Charge people to see it.
4. Profit!!!
I am officially gone from
...a roll-up flatbed scanner.
In "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" (1968), Dr. Jones wears a sensor web to compensate for her blindness.
i knew wearing my underwear inside out would be cool one day
Just photo-fabric condoms.
2030s are going to be a very strange time for porn industry.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
You may be joking, but I could foresee a fabric that could blend in seamlessly with it's surroundings. Sort of like a chameleon affect.
"give a soldier a uniform that would help him see threats in all directions. Optical fiber webs, by distributing the chore across a large area, would be less susceptible to damage in one area"
Ok... that doesn't seem like a terribly practical idea to me.
Suppose the "one area" that's damaged is the processing unit, or the interface that relays threat information to the wearer.
Let's suppose we solve that problem. Maybe we can distribute the processing across the fabric - some sort of nanoprocessor for every square inch of fabric. Maybe we can leverage the soldier's tactile sense to take input everywhere so we don't need in-tact signal paths outside of his body. (And maybe the jokes that go along with that idea aren't worth repeating...)
Now, your soldier is going to have to take some sort of sensory input representing information from all around him in a way that the mind doesn't normally process. This will require considerable training to handle and respond to. It would be pretty much manditory to have some sort of fiiltering on this information, or the soldier will quickly tune himself/herself to ignore it and/or be overwhelmed. How much is "enough" pre-processing? I guess we'll only know if someone decides to try.
Further developing the sensors is only one dimension of the problem if you want to realize this application. Apart from being a new way to conceal a camera (assuming the fabric isn't conspicuuos), I don't see this as good for much, at least for a long while to come.
How do you think they can pull up a camera display from anywhere on the Enterprise? Weave this stuff into the walls.
Oh, wait...
/me adjusts tinfoil hat.
There may be no "I" in team, but there's also no "F" in way.
You don't need anything more than the demonstrated capabilities and the ability to display color patterns in specific directions. (That second part's going to be a significant challenge, though.) Even though the cloth can't sense *exactly* what's behind you in a certain direction, that's not needed. All you need to do is approximate what's behind you. This would work for a large variety of backgrounds: tree Leaves, savannah grass, concrete, gravel, sand, asphalt, etc...
If you have a computer attached to the cloth programmed for specific sets of environments, then you can have a set of camouflage patterns tailored for the specific situation you are in. You don't have to be able to process the exact pattern behind you, just recognize what it is so you can project a close match from your database. (With some tailoring for ambient lighting, etc.) This way, you can project "leaves in sunlight" to your enemy to the north, but "tall meadow with wildflowers" to the guy to the west. Your two enemies radio each other, and they both can't spot you from two different directions, so they're *really* confident you're not there -- right up to when you shoot them.
It's just a step away from Ghost in the Shell Optocam!
Cameras on the inside, display on the outside. 1-to-1 correspondence. Except you're warmer/cooler than you would normally be, and could take more damage at the risk of losing some imagery.
Plus, you could have presets that morph or replace whatever's really there with the "Arnold" or "Jenna" (or "Predator") versions...
If the cloth can be developed to capture light/dark/color impressions of the space immediately around it and could transmit that info to a camo wrap (camo paint?) it could be used to mask really big objects, like the clapboard house your spouse has been trying to get you to paint for the past five years. "That isn't a grove of trees. That's my unpainted house. Watch for falling paint chips." No end of uses. Nighttime raids to cover garden gnomes. Teenagers who are heard but not seen.
That is thinking panty cam?
We've been staring at his balls for hours.
We had this in the 80s with HyperColor shirts. Drop a stencil on the shirt and leave it in the sun and the design would be duplicated on the shirt. Hey! It's photosensitive!
Sexual Predator?
In the hands of the Pr0n (or, maybe Real Doll) industry, this could... be... very..... skin-tail-lating even titillating... Attach the sklens, point and SHOOT. I wonder how much depth of feel (hehehe) this "digital" camera can "probe". I bet it will have a NICE f-stop, and the fokkel point will have a wide range of vividness in emulsion production. Properly used, this skintaillating camera will have the subject shuttering and shuddering. But, which will have priority: Shudder or Appherchur?
Give a hole nude mean-ning to SLR: Sex, Lies and Ripple Tape... Butt, at least this will take "digital photography" to a whole hole new depth of feel as the subject is framed and jammed up into a pent-up prism taking/receiving multiple skingasm shots per second, singly reflexing and mirroring the input of the sklens... Whupps... battery juices winding down....
End...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Hehehe... Looks like mine above was comment 69.... LOL....
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Specifically, Star Trek (TOS):
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Sensor_web
Might work as a helmet cover. A whole suit might be a bit much...how do you interpret that much information? LSD?