A team of electrical and computer engineers at the University of Utah in the USA has found a way to develop an optical-less camera in which any window with a normal clear glass can become your lens.
This development opens up the possibility that in the future the windscreen of a car will become a large camera that can detect objects on the street, or even the windows of a house can become security cameras.
Rajesh Menon, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Utah and co-author of the study, says that all cameras were developed with the idea that people observe and decode images. However, the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) brings a new question mark, and it has to do with the possibility that an algorithm is now the one that interprets what is recognized by a camera.
With this in mind, Menon says, his team has devised a way to develop cameras that are optimized for machines rather than people. To achieve this, the researchers carried out a series of experiments and succeeded in producing images and even audiovisual material which, despite its poor quality in terms of pixels, was absolutely recognizable.
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In this process, a reflective tape is wound around the edge of the window. So most of the light coming from the object in the image goes through the glass, but only 1 percent is scattered through the window to the camera sensor so that the algorithm can decode the image.
As I said, the applications are diverse, the first of which are the security cameras, which could be the windows themselves in the future. This study could also be applied to augmented reality to reduce the volume of objects. After all, the windshield of a car could contain this technology to collect data on the road.
The researchers said that this study is only the beginning, and will further develop their system to include three-dimensional images, higher color resolution and the ability to capture objects in natural light at home.