Affordable Camera Sees Things Invisible To The Naked Eye

But the researchers at the University of Washington and Microsoft Research wanted to find a way to bring it to consumers.

In a paper that they presented at the UbiComp 2015 conference, the team describes how it uses both visible and near-infrared light to pierce through surfaces, and snap up details that would be otherwise invisible to the naked eye.

The new hardware solution costs roughly $800, or potentially as little as $50 to add to a mobile phone camera.

Researchers have developed a low-priced hyperspectral camera that can read detailed vein and skin texture patterns that are unique to each individual.

A pocket-sized hyperspectral camera could be used to judge whether food is safe to eat, for biometrics to identify a person, or even to recognise gestures for interactivity with a video game.

In a test of HyperCam’s utility as a biometric tool, the system was able to differentiate between hand images of users with 99 per cent accuracy among 25 different users. The team took images of various fruits, from avocados to strawberries, over a week.

HyperCam had 94 percent accuracy when predicting the ripeness of fruits, compared to just 62 percent for standard cameras.

The goal for the device is to be used in addition to a mobile phone camera for a more powerful device as you’re walking down the grocery store aisle. While hyperspectral imaging is already often used in areas like satellite imaging, energy monitoring, and other commercial fields, it still has a long way to go before the technology can fit into something small enough to attach to a smartphone.

Existing hyperspectral cameras are much more costly, the researchers said. “After building the camera we just started pointing it at everyday objects – really anything we could find in our homes and offices – and we were amazed at all the hidden information it revealed”.

Regular cameras separate visible light into blue, green, and red bands, creating images by mixing combinations of those colors.

The HyperCam uses technology called hyperspectral imaging that gathers images from across the electromagnetic spectrum and combines them into one picture. Thermal infrared cameras can visualize where heat is escaping from leaky windows or an overloaded electrical circuit. “You can say, ‘Oh, that’s a pair of blue trousers, ‘” explained lead author Mayank Goel, a UW computer science and engineering doctoral student and Microsoft Research graduate fellow, in a statement.