Firm developing “see-through” cam gets US$ 14M
If you claim to have developed a camera designed to see through walls, you’re either going to get a cool US$ 14 million, or have the entire world laugh you out of the building. For Israeli-based tech firm Camero, the first option was the result after they showed off a prototype of its Xaver800 “see-through” camera.
Camero claims it doesn’t work like a camera would, which is to capture light reflected off a subject and imprint it onto a negative. Rather, as reported by CNET, it issues ultrawideband signals, and the data harvested (from reflecting the signal off, well, a wall and everything behind it, we guess) is processed to create a 3D image of everything it bounced off. “The trick is that the camera can capture the signals in cluttered environments or through solid objects. Researchers at U.S. universities are working on similar projects.”
Is it possible? Theoretically – if a certain signal (God knows what it is in the entire frequency spectrum – unless it’s ultrasonic or something…) is capable of being transmitted through an offending wall, but be reflected by what’s behind the wall… Radar techniques meant to defeat the passive stealth of planes like the F-22 raptor work the same way, by sending a spread-spectrum of radar signals, and collating and analyzing the received signals together to unmask the stealth. Of course, no F-22 Raptor had to worry about a concrete wall up in the air…
Suddenly, the idea of an invisibility cloak feels like a warm blanket on a cold day right now… Yes, a blanket worth as much as US$ 14 million, too.
If you claim to have developed a camera designed to see through walls, you’re either going to get a cool US$ 14 million, or have the entire world laugh you out of the building. For Israeli-based tech firm Camero, the first option was the result after they showed off a prototype of its Xaver800 “see-through” camera.
Camero claims it doesn’t work like a camera would, which is to capture light reflected off a subject and imprint it onto a negative. Rather, as reported by CNET, it issues ultrawideband signals, and the data harvested (from reflecting the signal off, well, a wall and everything behind it, we guess) is processed to create a 3D image of everything it bounced off. “The trick is that the camera can capture the signals in cluttered environments or through solid objects. Researchers at U.S. universities are working on similar projects.”
Is it possible? Theoretically – if a certain signal (God knows what it is in the entire frequency spectrum – unless it’s ultrasonic or something…) is capable of being transmitted through an offending wall, but be reflected by what’s behind the wall… Radar techniques meant to defeat the passive stealth of planes like the F-22 raptor work the same way, by sending a spread-spectrum of radar signals, and collating and analyzing the received signals together to unmask the stealth. Of course, no F-22 Raptor had to worry about a concrete wall up in the air…
Suddenly, the idea of an invisibility cloak feels like a warm blanket on a cold day right now… Yes, a blanket worth as much as US$ 14 million, too.
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