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New MIT Camera Takes 3D Photos in the Dark

Posted by Unknown on from the point-clouds-in-the-dark dept.

smf28 writes "In a recent research paper published in Science, a team of researchers at MIT describe a new imaging technique that produces three-dimensional photos with only a single photon per pixel, using essentially one-hundredth the light of the best existing imaging technologies. The researchers say the technology could have a wide variety of low-light imaging applications from military to biological use."

16 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Meh by bob_super · · Score: 5, Funny

    Doesn't matter, you WILL step on the Lego.

    1. Re:Meh by couchslug · · Score: 2

      "Doesn't matter, you WILL step on the Lego."

      Good thing anti-personnel mine designers never figured that out.

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  2. Definition of "Dark" by sunderland56 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > a single photon per pixel

    Isn't that "low light", not dark? Dark == zero photons.

    1. Re:Definition of "Dark" by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, "Dark" means not enough light to see well with the human eye. It's "Dark" even when the moons out. What you're talking about is called "Absolute Zero" and if the room were that "Dark" you'd have a lot more problems than just seeing.

    2. Re:Definition of "Dark" by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

      There is the alternative explanation that you're just stupid and pedantic. Like me.

      Is that what you call dark humor?

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      Table-ized A.I.
    3. Re:Definition of "Dark" by Cryacin · · Score: 2

      Exactly the same level of content as the article.

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      Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
    4. Re:Definition of "Dark" by Tablizer · · Score: 2

      "Dark" means you can't see what you just stubbed your toe on.

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      Table-ized A.I.
    5. Re:Definition of "Dark" by kimvette · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No. "low light" for photography is in a wedding where the human eye can see perfectly fine but even with an f/1.8 lens you are shooting at ISO 800 or higher if you want a reasonably fast shutter speed. "extremely low light" where photography is in a bar or a club and are shooting at ISO 3200 or better in effort to get reasonable shutter speeds. "Dark" starts when reading is uncomfortable but not impossible. The kind of photography discussed in the article is an amazing feat.

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    6. Re:Definition of "Dark" by bickerdyke · · Score: 2

      Check out your AD&D Rulebook.

      That is the difference between darkvision and nightvision.

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      bickerdyke
    7. Re:Definition of "Dark" by benlad · · Score: 2

      You could say a normal camera can take pictures in the dark with a flash. This one uses a laser.

  3. New Camera? Nope. by enoz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    New MIT Camera Takes 3D Photos in the Dark? Nope... see TFA

    “We didn’t invent a new laser or a new detector,” notes Kirmani. Instead, he explains, the team applied a new imaging algorithm that can be used with a standard, off-the-shelf photon detector.

    Even with this technology the /. editors would remain blind /rant

    1. Re:New Camera? Nope. by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2

      You can have the same laser and the same detector and still have a new camera. Those are all different things in a parts/whole relationship. I seem to recall one of the DSLR manufacturers has sold the same body with different firmware to different markets with different model numbers and much different capabilities.

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  4. Pffft by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can do that with a regular 3D camera. True, the results are all black, but it's 3D blackness, just like real life in a dark room.

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    Table-ized A.I.
  5. other applications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is a neat thing. There are several possible applications for a 1-photon sensitive ccd.

    Firstly, (and sadly what will actually get them funding), it means ultra-tiny aperature size cameras are possibl. Since you don't need very many photons, we are talking "micrometer-sized" aperatures. Uncy sam can get his surveilence porn fix with super teeny tiny spy devices. Er... smaller even than they are now.

    Secondly, it means "radically more sensitive astronomical sensors". Using a lense to "disperse" rather than concentrate light would allow a normal sized aperature to focus on absurdly distant objects with very high fidelity.

    Eventually, consumer grade devices that never need a flash.

    Possible uses as a precision light species assay tool for spectroscopy. (Depends on how sensitive to a waide variety of photon energies this 1-photon/pixel ccd tech is. If it is very wide, then it could be used to assay a wide spectral signature quickly, by measuring photon absorptions individually)

    I am sure there would be many more. As a "3d scanner", the tech seems misapplied. I would much rather have a space telescope that can directly image distant exoplanets with an occulting disc to block out the target system's starlight than ÷ would some consumer crap that promises the world and a bag of chips, doing a function I really don't have a need for.

  6. it's LIDAR, not a camera that shoots in the dark by dutchwhizzman · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's a LIDAR system. They shoot a laser at a pre-determined location and they measure the time it takes a single photon to hit their sensor. That's the distance part. They use some funky math to come up with a more detailed picture/model. The combination of the math and the fact that they only need one photon in a working apparatus makes this "special".

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  7. Check out the detail on the t-shirt! by umafuckit · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't know about the 3-D aspect, but the level of detail these guys can get back is crazy: http://www.nature.com/news/stealth-camera-takes-pictures-virtually-in-the-dark-1.14260 Compare the t-shirt text in the first and last images. It's almost like those shitty scenes in CSI where information seems to come from nowhere.

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