The Creative Cameras project is currently in development

Jul 4, 2014 06:57 GMT  ·  By

Photography is being taken to a whole new level in a joint project by the University of Glasgow and Heriot-Watt University of Edinburgh.

Researchers are developing a camera capable of capturing images and videos at the speed of light. And if that’s not amazing enough for you, the device also boats another interesting capability – it can see objects around corners.

Taking photos around corners is already possible and you’ll have to employ a periscope rig in order to do so, but the new camera does things a little bit different.

The device has been created by the Creative Cameras team and comes with the mind-blowing capacity of being able to photograph the movement of light itself by virtue of a system of lasers, combined with a camera that will image them faster than 15 billion frames per second.

That means the camera will be able to detect objects hidden from view around a wall without it having to be in the direct line of view.

Objects cast scattered light, so what the camera will do is record this particular light, thus detecting and “seeing” the object hidden from view.

Let’s say your cat is hidden around the corner, the laser will bounce off whatever surface (like the wall) to hit the animal, and then light will travel back the same route.

The camera bundles a 32x32 pixel sensor that is super sensitive, so each of its pixels will be able to detect individual photos coming back to it.

The recorded information is then sent to a computer, which reads the speed at which each photons hits home. This data allows computer algorithms to reconstruct the hidden object behind the corner.br /> However, this feature hasn't been exactly replicated in real life 100%, as Motherboard reports, but the team behind the project has been using computer simulation to see how this will go about.

In the near future, the team plans to move the project into laboratory setting and test it out, in order to determine if the project has real life applicability.

If the researchers can figure out how to embed this tech into a viable product, such a product could end up being used in complicated search and rescue operations but also for medical imaging purposes.

The Creative Cameras project is currently on display with the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition along with other two devices. One of them is capable of capturing images with just a single pixel, while the other can snap 3D images with a single lens.