Computer scientists and electrical engineers have developed an affordable hyper-spectral camera that uses both visible and invisible near-infrared light to “see” beneath surfaces and capture unseen details. HyperCam, which uses the visible and near-infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, illuminates a scene with 17 different wavelengths and generates an image for each. The camera then sorts through the hundreds of frames and chooses the ones that are most different from what the naked eye sees. With these pictures, the camera is able to identify veins lying just under the skin, and can identify different textures of objects. For example, when taking a picture of an avocado, the camera reveals whether or not the fruit is ripe.
This technology has been around for several years and is used in everything from satellite imaging and energy monitoring to infrastructure and food safety inspections. However the technology’s high cost has made it unsuitable for personal use. With this new design, the scientists have concluded the camera would only cost $50 to be implemented with smart phones.
If this technology becomes incorporated into cell phones, it would make grocery shopping much easier and would make finding veins on a person’s arm a much less difficult job for nurses.
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This type of technology has great potential in a multitude of areas from medicine to produce. This can implemented in a dermatologists office or perhaps implemented in the aid of diagnosing skin cancer patients through the use of the infrared technology. The potential for price reduction is also a major benefit to this technology’s use because it can be provided to many people to help aid with their tasks. This could also perhaps be used for the produce industry for companies to improve their quality assurance which can always be improved for the majority of companies. It can also possibly be used for a cheap form of security measure to detect the smuggling of goods through materials allowing an security official to look beneath the surface of a good without having to open the actual item up which can be beneficial to a lot of people who can’t afford x-ray monitoring. Depending on how easy and smoothly implemented this technology can be into cell phones will truly effect its popularity and success. If an application can be easily facilitated to accompany this technology with a user friendly interface their could be a great deal of potential for this products success in the very near future.
I like how this “camera” can be produced for cheap. If right actions and marketing is done, it will definitely make waves and change everyday life dramatically. But remember everything happens for a reason. In class, we talked about how technology gets cheaper. Like how Apple would release a new model iPhone every year and be able to just drop the price of the previous model by however much price (normally by $100). The explanation to this was that technology gets cheaper and older and fades out by time. Thats why gadgets drop in price by time. What I’m trying to say is that there might be better “cameras”made and out there that is more top notch, thats why this particular one can be produced for cheap.