You may be very happy with the camera technology in your latest smartphone, which can recognize your face and take slow action
Mo video in Ultra-HD.
But these technological feats are just the beginning of a bigger revolution that is going on.
The latest camera research is shifting from increasing the number of giant cameras
Processing pixels of Fusion camera data with calculations.
That is to say, we are not referring to the Photoshop style of processing, that is, adding effects and filters to the picture, but a completely new method, in which, the data entered may not be like an image at all.
It becomes an image only after a series of computational steps that often involve complex mathematical and modeling how light passes through a scene or camera.
This extra layer of computing processing magically frees us from the chain of traditional imaging technologies.
One day, we may not even need cameras in the traditional sense.
Instead, we will use light detectors that we have never considered for imaging only a few years ago.
They will be able to do something incredible, such as in the fog, inside the human body, and even behind the walls.
An extreme example of a single pixel camera is a single pixel camera, which relies on a very simple principle.
A large number of pixels are used for typical cameras (
Tiny sensor elements)
Capture scenes that may be illuminated by a single light source.
But you can also do it in turn, capturing information from many sources with one pixel.
To do this, you need a controlled light source, such as a simple data projector that lights up a point at a time, or illuminates the scene with a series of different patterns.
Then, for each lighting point or pattern, you can measure the amount of light reflected and create the final image with everything in phase.
Obviously, the disadvantage of taking pictures in this way is that in order to produce an image you have to send out a large number of lighting points or patterns (
This only requires a snapshot of a normal camera).
But this form of imaging will allow you to create a camera that is otherwise impossible, for example, working at a wavelength that exceeds the visible spectrum, in which case a good detector cannot be made into a camera.
Read more: these cameras can see amazing cameras around the corner and can be used to take pictures in fog or thick snow.
Or they can imitate the eyes of some animals and automatically improve the resolution of the image (
The amount of detail it captures)
Depends on what is in the scene.
It is even possible to capture images from light particles that never interact with the objects we want to take.
This will take advantage of the concept of "quantum entanglement" that two particles can be connected in one way, which means that either one particle occurs on the other even if they are far apart.
This has interesting possibilities for observing objects, and when lit up, the properties of these objects may change, such as eyes.
For example, does the retina look the same in the dark as in the light? Single-
Pixel Imaging is just one of the simplest innovations in the upcoming camera technology, and it relies on the traditional concept of forming pictures.
However, we are currently seeing a surge in interest in systems that use large amounts of information but traditional technologies collect only a small portion of it.
We can use more than one here.
Involves many sensor methods where different detectors point to the same scene.
The Hubble telescope is a pioneering example of this, which is made up of many different images taken at different wavelengths.
But now you can buy a commercial version of this technology, like the Lytro camera, which collects information about the intensity and direction of light on the same sensor, to produce images that can be refocused after the image is taken.
The next generation camera may look like a light L16 camera, which is characterized by the ground
Crushing technology based on more than ten different sensors.
Combine their data together using a computer to provide a 50 mb re-
Focus and re-focus
Professional scalablequality image.
The camera itself looks like Picasso's very exciting interpretation of a crazy cellphone camera.
However, these are just the first steps of a new generation of cameras that will change the way we think and shoot images.
The researchers are also trying to solve the problem of looking through the fog, looking behind the wall, and even imaging deep in the human body and brain.
All of these technologies rely on combining images with models that explain how light travels through or around different substances.
Another interesting way is to rely on artificial intelligence to "learn" to recognize objects from data.
These technologies, inspired by the learning process of the human brain, may play an important role in future imaging systems.
Single-photon and quantum imaging technologies are also maturing, and they can take photos at incredible low-light levels and videos at trillions of frames per second.
This is even enough to capture the image of the light itself as a scene propagation.
Some of these applications may take a little time to fully develop, but we now know that basic physics should allow us to solve these and other problems through the clever combination of new technologies and computational intelligence.
The article was originally published in the dialogue.
Read the original text.
Daniele Faccio receives funding from QuantIC's EPSRC
Quantum Center for Imaging, Leverhulme Trust, DSTL.