'Seeing' around corners: DARPA research into holographic imaging

May 5, 2016 10:44 AM

Announcing the Revolutionary Enhancement of Visibility by Exploiting Active Light-fields (REVEAL) project. Researchers from SMU's Lyle School of Engineering will lead a multi-university team funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to build a theoretical framework for creating a computer-generated image of an object hidden from sight around a corner or behind a wall.

Similar to techniques used by the same MIT researchers who 'captured' a video of light moving through a scene (previously).

posted by smokysunday (18 comments total)

and it's all made from currently existing technology!
posted by dismas at 10:49 AM on May 5, 2016

couldn't they just poke their heads around the corner to see? it'd be a lot cheaper.
posted by mittens at 10:53 AM on May 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

So basically it's reverse multi-bounce raytracing? Not to make it sound trivial, just trying to sum up the concept.
posted by JauntyFedora at 10:54 AM on May 5, 2016

I suppose the more complex the light field is, the more CPU power will be required to unscamble it.

Finally we have a military application for glitter.
posted by Western Infidels at 10:56 AM on May 5, 2016 [17 favorites]

I (a complete layperson) hit upon this same idea a few years ago, that a photon would be carrying information beyond intensity and frequency that our current technology should be able to decode. I spent several fun months investigating and learning about optics, but it was readily apparent I had neither the time, money, nor expertise to pursue this idea beyond the theoretical. Fortunately I'm not the only person who noticed this - the news (DARPA funding, specifically) is immensely exciting.
posted by smokysunday at 10:58 AM on May 5, 2016

Wow, I thought REVEAL was a pretty forced acronym until I read about OMNISCIENT (Obtaining Multipath & Non-line-of-sight Information by Sensing Coherence & Intensity with Emerging Novel Techniques). (Do PANOPTICON next!)
posted by The Tensor at 10:59 AM on May 5, 2016

JUST IN TIME! Can replicants be far behind?
posted by entropicamericana at 11:00 AM on May 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

couldn't they just poke their heads around the corner to see? it'd be a lot cheaper.

A mirror attached to a stick would also be cost-effective, robust, and immediately field deployable. Hire me, DARPA!
posted by Existential Dread at 11:02 AM on May 5, 2016 [3 favorites]

Is that a banana in your pocket or are you holographically projecting ?
posted by y2karl at 11:21 AM on May 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

Finally we have a military application for glitter.

If the next Metal Gear Solid game doesn't include the option for tactical Ziggy Stardust makeup, I'll be very disappointed.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:22 AM on May 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

FYI, there are 8 multi-institutional teams working on REVEAL, all investigating different methods. The SMU-led team in the news release above is one of the 8 teams.
posted by BlueDuke at 11:31 AM on May 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Forget military, the real money to be made with this technology will be law enforcement.

What you people are missing is "poking head" and "mirror on a stick" are *searches*, and so require a warrant. Where as just passively gathering light that is already coming out of a location means they can spy monitor for illicit activity without the pesky need of getting a judge involved. </dystopian future>
posted by fings at 11:42 AM on May 5, 2016 [8 favorites]

You won't get anywhere calling it a 'mirror on a stick'. You want something like a fixed plane electromagnetic wave vector inverter with linear deployment using biological single dimension extension technology.
posted by Segundus at 11:53 AM on May 5, 2016 [19 favorites]

Previously on Metafilter, NY police using actual X-rays to look through walls.

In response to 'why not just look around the corner'...why use a phone when you can just walk over and talk to someone in person ;-)
posted by smokysunday at 12:51 PM on May 5, 2016

What you people are missing is "poking head" and "mirror on a stick" are *searches*, and so require a warrant. Where as just passively gathering light that is already coming out of a location means they can spy monitor for illicit activity without the pesky need of getting a judge involved.

Thermal imaging counts as a "search", which is just as passive.
posted by BungaDunga at 12:58 PM on May 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

I suspect (at least for the MIT approach) you need very precise information about the environment -- the exact location and orientation of the "bounce" wall, and probably some knowledge of its surface characteristics. So this might be much more difficult to implement in the real world.

Still, it's pretty amazing what you can do with pretty simple math if you combine it with precise measurement and lots and lots of computing power.
posted by srt19170 at 1:05 PM on May 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

You won't get anywhere calling it a 'mirror on a stick'. You want something like a fixed plane electromagnetic wave vector inverter with linear deployment using biological single dimension extension technology.

FPEWVILDBSDET? It doesn't exactly trip off the tongue. I feel like we're within striking (Levenshtein) distance of FLIBBERTIGIBBET, though...
posted by The Tensor at 1:48 PM on May 5, 2016 [3 favorites]

Next: Can you detect and analyze ripples in photons in such way that lets you see what happened there yesterday? You know, a sort of tralfamadorian continuity.
posted by mule98J at 10:46 AM on May 6, 2016