Thursday, February 28, 2013

Holographic camera that can detect survivors behind flames


Firefighters are always handicapped to find survivors in a building on fire as flames restrict their view.

But now thanks to advancement in technology that soon fire fighters will be able to see 'behind' the flames and look for survivors.


This will be made possible thanks to a radical holographic infrared camera, invented by Italian researchers at the National Research Council of Italy, that uses digital holography to spot trapped people behind flames.

Although, the firefighters already use infrared cameras to find people in burning buildings, but the current technology becomes overwhelmed, and cannot distinguish between a person's heat and that of the surrounding fire.


The new system does not use a traditional lens, instead using digital holography to capture a 3D image.

Here is how the camera works:


  • In the new imaging system, a beam of infrared laser light is widely dispersed throughout a room. 
  • Unlike visible light, which cannot penetrate thick smoke and flames, the IR rays pass through largely unhindered.
  • The IR light does, however, reflect off of any objects or people in the room, and the information carried by this reflected light is recorded by a holographic imager. 
  • It is then decoded to reveal the objects beyond the smoke and flames. 
  • The result is a live, 3-D movie of the room and its contents.
'IR cameras cannot 'see' objects or humans behind flames because of the need for a zoom lens that concentrates the rays on the sensor to form the image,' said Pietro Ferraro of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) Istituto Nazionale di Ottica in Italy.

'By eliminating the need for the zoom lens, the new technique avoids this drawback.

Watch the video below:


Read more about it at: Mail Online

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