Live From The MIT Media Lab: A Camera Can Look Around Corners and Microdot QR Codes

I’m hanging out at the MIT Media Lab today and watching some of the great presentations by some of the Lab’s current members and alumni. For example, Ramesh Raskar is currently showing off his system of Femtosecond Transient Imaging, essentially a type of camera that can take pictures around corners using high speed lasers.

The project has been designed to “see” around corners using high speed laser scanning. Yeah, I don’t get it either.

We are developing the theoretical foundation for sensing and reasoning using transient light transport, and experimenting with scenarios in which transient reasoning exposes scene properties that are beyond the reach of traditional machine vision.

The second project Raskar demonstrated was a system called Bokodes, a microdot that is invisible when its in focus but is clear when you defocus the surface. This means you can create a tiny tag that is completely invisible until you “don’t” look at it. The system can be used to test eyesight as well.

I’ll find other cool stuff as it comes up.