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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."
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
It doesn't have to detect a "threat" and perform complex Identify Friend or Foe logic. All it has to do is trigger some signal that your real eye detects as motion. Your retina, brain, and body can process the rest.
Put another way, if we had evolved with a light sensing organ on the back of our heads that couldn't focus or discern shapes, but could at least give us some sense of motion, we wouldn't complain that it's useless because it's not reliable. It would keep predators from sneaking up on us, and we'd quickly adapt to dealing with the "false positives".
John
This is a camera not a display. It seems it only reads what is around, it cant display anything to mimic it. To repoduce the image on the suit for camo or whatever you would probably have to interweave the camera fabric with a fabric that can display images, but then youd have to be very careful not to fall into some feedback loop.
Of course. I'd love to see what's inside of that burly sergeant's uniform.
What a depressingly stupid machine.
Machine washable or Dry Clean Only?
A clothing camera was described by science fiction author George Turner in his 1991 novel Brain Child.
Actually, I wonder if that's true. The only thing that would offer us is notice of an absolutely silent thing moving behind us that is not casting a shadow towards us. If there were already other movement behind us, it wouldn't even provide that.
It seems to me a very small back-mounted camera would provide a lot more info than a full-body fabric-camera that only shows motion.
I think the camo-cloth option is a lot more useful. Camo was never meant to truly conceal, it just does an excellent job of breaking up your lines when you're hiding. If someone is looking your way intently, they're going to see you. It's when they're scanning quickly that they'll miss you. This could do exactly the same, but would always match the colors behind you to create the camo pattern.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
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
In "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" (1968), Dr. Jones wears a sensor web to compensate for her blindness.