[HN Gopher] Non-line-of-sight imaging over 1.43km [pdf]
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       Non-line-of-sight imaging over 1.43km [pdf]
        
       Author : walterbell
       Score  : 74 points
       Date   : 2021-03-22 07:59 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.pnas.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.pnas.org)
        
       | drjasonharrison wrote:
       | 2s exposure time, 64x64 raster grid, looking behind a barrier
       | 1.43km away.
       | 
       | Summary: by bouncing light off of a target barrier and having the
       | light scatter around the barrier, you can compute an image of
       | objects behind the barrier.
        
         | patentatt wrote:
         | Isn't this just using the 'visible wall' as a really dull
         | mirror? Or am I not getting something here.
        
         | rzzzt wrote:
         | I was immediately reminded of the Dual Photography paper (well,
         | I had to look it up first; I only remembered the "photographing
         | a playing card that is facing away" demo at the end):
         | 
         | - http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/dual_photography/
         | 
         | - https://youtu.be/p5_tpq5ejFQ
        
           | phildenhoff wrote:
           | That's an absolutely science-fiction-esque paper. I can't
           | believe that's real, and I'm surprised to see such little
           | follow-up research. I assume it's not practical to generate
           | the light transport data with any reasonable speed?
        
       | cs702 wrote:
       | So these guys successfully got images of objects sitting behind a
       | solid barrier from nearly a mile away by analyzing photons
       | scattered around the barrier.
       | 
       | I imagine the only way to hide objects from this technology is to
       | enclose them well enough to prevent most photons that bounce off
       | the objects from leaving the enclosure.
       | 
       | And this is just an early-stage proof-of-concept. There's a good
       | chance the technology can and will improve significantly over
       | time.
       | 
       | Just saying.
        
       | buro9 wrote:
       | This is neat. Assuming the usual things about costs going down
       | and capabilities increasing, both exponentially of course... then
       | one can imagine some novel and non-military applications.
       | 
       | For example, vehicles seeing around corners to avoid collisions
       | or being able to see further into damaged industrial sites than
       | robots can go today (i.e. Fukushima), or for cave explorations
       | (especially if they improve significantly and start building
       | images from multiple reflections - see around the corners that
       | themselves are around corners).
        
       | yourself92 wrote:
       | What are some of the applications of this technology?
       | 
       | Edit: I'm also wondering if anyone has any idea as to the
       | estimated cost of such a technology? Thousands, tens/hundred of
       | thousands, millions? A quick search of lidar sensors seem to be
       | in the range of $2500 - ~$10000 for ranges of sub 30 meters.
       | 
       | This technology seems similar(?) to lidar from what I can tell.
        
         | tyingq wrote:
         | First one that comes to mind is military. Where to aim (or not
         | aim) your high powered weapon that can shoot through a wall.
        
         | j-pb wrote:
         | Military, police, surveillance. The usual suspects when it
         | comes to oppressive regimes like china.
         | 
         | On a more upbeat note though, imagine the possibility of
         | producing a 3d image of your internals during keyhole surgery
         | or inspecting remote structures like solar panels and dams via
         | satellite.
        
           | EarthIsHome wrote:
           | My local police department would be really interested in this
           | tech. They've been using automated license plate readers,
           | facial recognition tech, drones, predictive policing, and
           | have a Ring doorbell partnership.
        
             | titzer wrote:
             | Where do you live? Remind me not to visit.
        
               | MsMowz wrote:
               | Any major city in the United States has all of these
               | features
        
               | titzer wrote:
               | It's really incredible that we just let ourselves slide
               | into this surveillance dystopia, isn't it? I yearn for
               | the halcyon days of August 2001.
        
               | EarthIsHome wrote:
               | [0]: https://atlasofsurveillance.org/
               | 
               | [1]: https://www.eff.org/issues/street-level-surveillance
        
             | MPSimmons wrote:
             | In a very real way, American police departments are
             | functioning in roles that the military serves in most
             | dystopian societies.
        
         | twobitshifter wrote:
         | Teslas have been shown to prevent accidents by braking based on
         | things drivers can't see.
         | https://www.mobilescout.com/tech/news/n77946/tesla-autopilot...
         | 
         | I imagine that idea could be improved more with this
         | technology, but Tesla is very anti lidar so it's have to be
         | someone else.
        
         | mlyle wrote:
         | Dirt cheap. Laser with galvo (like many laser projectors for
         | light shows have), plus 3 photodiode detectors and optics.
         | 
         | Most of the cost will be in the telescopes.
         | 
         | If you don't count personnel time integrating/fiddling around,
         | maybe $1000 at qty 1?
        
         | IshKebab wrote:
         | Realistically there aren't any practical applications. It's a
         | very cool demo though.
        
           | mlyle wrote:
           | Seeing inside a building has no practical applications?
           | 
           | Or other non-line-of-sight things, like sensing through an
           | aperture in a body?
        
         | baybal2 wrote:
         | Electro-optical reconnaisance spacecrafts
        
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       (page generated 2021-03-23 23:02 UTC)