New Technology Allows Cameras to Capture Colors Invisible to the Human Eye
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New research from Tel Aviv University will allow cameras to recognize colors that the human eye and even ordinary cameras are unable to perceive.
The technology makes it possible to image gases and substances such as hydrogen, carbon and sodium, each of which has a unique color in the infrared spectrum, as well as biological compounds that are found in nature but are "invisible" to the naked eye or ordinary cameras. It has groundbreaking applications in a variety of fields from computer gaming and photography as well as the disciplines of security, medicine and astronomy.
The research was conducted by Dr. Michael Mrejen, Yoni Erlich, Dr. Assaf Levanon and Prof. Haim Suchowski of TAU's Department of Physics of Condensed Material. The results of the study were published in the October 2020 issue of Laser & Photonics Reviews.
[...] "We humans can see between red and blue. If we could see in the infrared realm, we would see that elements like hydrogen, carbon and sodium have a unique color," explains Prof. Suchowski. "So an environmental monitoring satellite could 'see' a pollutant being emitted from a plant, or a spy satellite would see where explosives or uranium are being hidden. In addition, since every object emits heat in the infrared, all this information could be seen even at night."
Journal Reference:
Michael Mrejen, Yoni Erlich, Assaf Levanon, et al. Multicolor TimeResolved Upconversion Imaging by Adiabatic Sum Frequency Conversion, Laser & Photonics Reviews (DOI: 10.1002/lpor.202000040)
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