The year 2021 began with hope, as we watched millions of vaccines make their way across the country and into eager arms. While we are still not where we’d like to be — vaccination has stalled across the country and new variants have changed the rules — we are also a far cry from where we were in 2020, especially at UW–Madison, which boasts a vaccination rate of more than 95 percent. And among those who are vaccinated, COVID-19 has largely been reduced to a nuisance.
As Ji Hyun Nam slowly tosses a stuffed cat toy into the air, a real-time video captures the playful scene at a 20th century webcam clip — a mere five frames per second.
Here is a YouTube video of femto-photography: a novel imaging technique to capture and visualize the propagation of light!
One of the best things about being on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus is the opportunity to learn from its passionate scientists and students. Covering the research stories of the institution keeps us busy, but it also provides the opportunity to have some fun (but don’t tell the bosses!). While we believe that every story we do is important, here are some of the ones that taught us the most in 2019.
Along with flying and invisibility, high on the list of every child’s aspirational superpowers is the ability to see through or around walls or other visual obstacles.
Researchers in Wisconsin and Spain have developed a “virtual camera” that can see around corners, an important breakthrough with a wide array of possible applications, from helping searchers locate people lost in caves or rubble to allowing police outside a building to pinpoint an active shooter inside.
Many existing imaging modalities base on the common underlying theory of wave propagation. Our recent work shows that it is possible to apply existing methods from diffraction and wave imaging to Non-Line-of-Sight imaging problems.
Computer vision researchers have uncovered a world of visual signals hiding in our midst, including subtle motions that betray what’s being said and faint images of what’s around a corner.
Andreas Velten discusses "Imaging the Propagation of Light through Scenes at Picosecond Resolution", a research highlight published in the Communications of the ACM.
Andreas Velten, a Morgridge Institute Affiliate with the Medical Engineering Group and assistant scientist with UW-Madison Laboratory of Optical and Computational Instrumentation, has developed a technology that fires and recaptures scattered laser light to literally "see around corners." This will be used by NASA to illuminate and understand lunar caves.
University of Wisconsin - Madison, Daily Mail, Phys.Org, R&D Mag,
Andreas Velten won a grant for his work in imaging technology through the Air Force's Young Investigator Research Program.
LOCI Assistant Scientist Andreas Velten was recently featured in Inside UW-Madison for his work as a Morgridge Institute Affiliate to develop new tools in optical imaging with applications ranging from basic research labs to operating suites.
In an interview with Spectroscopy, Velten talks about the origins of the femto photography project as well as future applications of the technology.
USA TODAY published an article featuring the "looking around corners project," which uses a streak camera and laser to reconstruct 3D images of objects hidden around a corner. This article also includes the Nature Communications video explaining the project.
Prior to the release of the article in Nature Communications, MIT News published an article describing the Media Lab's new camera system that can reconstruct images of objects outside the direct line of sight.
MIT researchers created a new imaging system that is able to capture visual data at a rate of one trillion frames per second. Ramesh Raskar and Andreas Velten talk about how the camera works and future applications for the technology.
Femto photography and related work of MIT researchers, Andreas Velten and Ramesh Raskar, were featured in an article in The New York Times.
The You Tube video released by the MIT Media Lab explaining femto photography and showing some of the results.