SMU Collaborates on High-Res Cameras That See Around (and Through) Hidden Objects » Dallas Innovates

Researchers at Southern Methodist University and Northwestern University are collaborating on powerful new technology that will allow cameras to see through almost anything – including people. A groundbreaking holographic camera has been developed that can capture high resolution images and holograms of objects hidden around corners or hidden from view.

In this way, drivers could avoid accidents around dead corners and “see” soldiers behind walls. Researchers say the applications for defense, hazard detection, and medical uses are wide-ranging. Examples include early warning navigation systems for cars and industrial inspections such as jet engines for fatigue. In medicine, it could replace colonoscopies by looking inside the intestines.

The technology called Synthetic Wavelength Holography transforms real surfaces into “lighting and image portals,” said SMU in a press release. AI is used to reconstruct hidden objects that are indirectly illuminated by light scattered on them. That means images could be captured through fog and faces around corners could be identified, the researchers detailed in a study recently published in Nature Communications.

DARPA project

Researchers at SMU Lyle School started working on the imaging technology in 2016. As part of a multi-million dollar effort funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, SMU Lyle received $ 5.06 million from DARPA under the school’s REVEAL program.

The SMU named the overall project OMNISCIENT, which focuses on a “light-based see-through wall / corner X-ray vision technology”. The OMNISCIENT / REVEAL project brings together researchers from the fields of computer-aided imaging, computer vision, signal processing, information theory and computer graphics. The SMU leads the overall work and works with other engineers from Rice, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, and Harvard University.

In 2016, Marc Christensen, dean of the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering at SMU and lead researcher on the DARPA project, said his work would enable the school to create a 3D holographic of something that is not visible.

“Your eyes can’t do that,” Christensen said at the time. “That doesn’t mean we can’t.”

Marc Christensen from SMU

Today Christensen is satisfied with the progress. “We are confident that our work in this area will lead to new inventions and approaches in multiple industries as technology continues to evolve and improve the way we sense different wavelengths of light, both visible and invisible interpret. This is yet another example of the Lyle School’s commitment to creating new economic opportunities while addressing society’s toughest challenges, ”he said in a statement.

Christensen is supported by Duncan MacFarlan, Deputy Dean of Engineering Entrepreneurship, Bobby B. Lyle Centennial Chair in Engineering Entrepreneurship and Professor of Electrical Engineering, and Prasanna Rangarajan, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

How it works

Parts of the new technology were developed in SMU’s Photonics Architecture Lab, which is headed by Rangarajan, the study’s co-author. He says the scientific principles underlying the latest study bear a striking resemblance to the human perception of hit notes. Beat notes are a periodic variation in sound level that results from the interaction of two closely spaced tones or audio frequencies, he explains.

“By combining laser light of two closely spaced colors, we synthesize an optical beat note that is reflected by hidden objects,” Rangarajan said in a statement. “Monitoring the relative phase change of the transmitted and received optical beat note enables us to localize hidden objects (echolocation) and to compile a hologram of the hidden objects.”

Rangarajan’s group has partnered with researchers from the Northwest to develop non-line-of-site (NLoS) cameras based on synthetic wavelength holography.

The study’s lead author, Northwest researcher Florian Willomitzer, says the current sensor prototypes use visible (or invisible) infrared light, but because the principle is universal, it could be extended to other wavelengths. “The same method could be applied to radio waves for space exploration or underwater acoustic imaging, for example. It can be applied to many areas and we have only scratched the surface, ”he said in a statement.

Murali Balaji, PhD student at SMU Lyle School and co-author of the study, sees another extension.

“Perhaps it will soon be possible to build cameras that not only see through the scattered media, but also detect trace chemicals in the scattered media. The technology relies on photo mixers to convert optical beats into physical waves at TeraHertz’s synthetic wavelength, ”Balaji said in a statement.

Complementary innovation

According to SMU, the new technology complements an earlier innovation by his team. Last year, the group partnered with Rice University to demonstrate NLoS “highest resolution” cameras. Combining insights from lensless imaging techniques from the Cold War era with modern deep learning techniques released tiny features on hidden objects, says SMU.

Come on the list.
Dallas innovates every day.

Sign up to keep an eye on what’s new and new in Dallas-Fort Worth every day.

CONTINUE READING

  • High-Tech High Heels North Texas will be partnered with a $ 500,000 grant from the US Foundation of Toyota.

    The north Texas nonprofit is receiving half a million dollars from the Toyota USA Foundation to help increase the number of girls taking college-level STEM programs.

  • SMU is investing $ 11.5 million in a powerful new supercomputing research system with an NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD. Connected to the NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand network platform in the SMU’s data center, it will theoretically produce 100 petaflops of computing power – which will enable the university network to perform “an insane 100 quadrillion operations per second”. The new capability will accelerate SMU’s AI and supercomputing exploration and fuel the growth of North Texas as a technology hub.

  • Dallas 100 winners 2021

    Together, the 100 privately held companies contributed $ 8.5 billion to the Dallas-Fort Worth economy over three years – and 10,000 jobs. The MTX Group, based in Frisco, whose founders were awarded the EY “Entrepreneur Of The Year 2021” prize last week, took first place in the annual ranking. Here is the full list.

  • The report ranks Dallas-Fort Worth 8th for employment growth in high-tech software and services, up 12.7 percent over the past two years.

  • A traffic study team is investigating a potential Dallas-Arlington-Fort Worth high-speed line along Corridor I-30. The North Central Texas Governing Council is holding open-house presentations about the project – which could ultimately result in a bullet train or hyperloop whizzing us back and forth between cities.

[ad_1]

SMU Collaborates on High-Res Cameras That See Around (and Through) Hidden Objects