MIT Develops Camera-Like Fabric 78
suraj.sun writes "Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a fabric made of a mesh of light-sensitive fibers that collectively act like a rudimentary camera. The fibers, which each can detect two frequencies of light, produced signals that when amplified and processed by a computer reproduced an image of a smiley face near the mesh. 'This is the first time that anybody has demonstrated that a single plane of fibers, or "fabric," can collect images just like a camera but without a lens,' said Yoel Fink, an associate professor of materials science, who along with colleagues described the approach in a the journal Nano Letters. MIT suggested that the technology, if developed further, could give a soldier a uniform that would help him see threats in all directions. Optical fiber webs, by distributing the chore across a large area, would be less susceptible to damage in one area."
TTIUWOP (Score:2, Insightful)
When an orange goes bad, it actually rots from the outside in. So when you see a moldy orange at the store, it is possible that the insides are still perfectly fine. But you never get to see the insides of that fruit, much less eat it. What you don't know is, though, just how delicious moldy oranges can be. Like grapes, the oranges get the moisture taken out by the mold, so what's left is an enticingly sweet fruit. But since no one makes wine out of moldy oranges, you'll never know.
But cameras don't rot like that. Why would you write a story about new camera technology and not include the photograph results?
Re:The information has to be reliable (Score:5, Insightful)
It doesn't have to detect a "threat" and perform complex Identify Friend or Foe logic. All it has to do is trigger some signal that your real eye detects as motion. Your retina, brain, and body can process the rest.
Put another way, if we had evolved with a light sensing organ on the back of our heads that couldn't focus or discern shapes, but could at least give us some sense of motion, we wouldn't complain that it's useless because it's not reliable. It would keep predators from sneaking up on us, and we'd quickly adapt to dealing with the "false positives".
Re:Uniforms for soldiers? (Score:3, Insightful)
Cloaking capabilities (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:MGS tech (Score:1, Insightful)
Startlingly amazing how anally retentive you are, and cant just see past your perfectionism and realize that most of the posters understand that its input tech as much as you do...they just extrapolating the possible uses of this tech to the extreme, sorta like having a wish or dream.
You remember wishes and dreams?, you used steal them from the kids in the neighborhood.....