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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."
I think this would be perfect to start a company that supplies towels, robes, etc to sorority houses the world over.
Of course there would need to be some adaptations, like a small wireless transmitter.
All of the sales come with specialized hampers that in the frame contain a transceiver to relay all of the images to a centralized server.
Imagine the possibilities.
"Excuse me ma'am -- you'll have to take off all your clothes before we'll let you in ... "
This would only be bad in America, every else in the world where the population isn't the size of whales it would be pr0nerific.