Quantum camera snaps objects it cannot 'see'

This article describes a camera that can produce an image of an object even though the camera hasn't seen a single photon reflected from the object.

Source

Journal reference: Physical Review A (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.77.041801)

In Shih's experiments a toy soldier was placed 45 centimetres away from a light source, which was split into two beams. One was pointed at the toy and the other at a digital camera. A photon detector was placed near the soldier, able only to record when a photon bounced off.

Photons from the light source constantly travel down both paths made by the splitter, either towards the soldier and the photon detector, or towards the camera. The detector and camera record a constant stream of those photons, and occasionally record a photon at exactly the same time.

When this happens, there is a direct relationship between where one of the photons hit the soldier, and where the other one hits the camera's sensor, says Shih, because of a quantum effect called "two-photon interference".

I would be interested in hearing any useful or cool applications for this device.

[edit on 26/7/2010 by LightFantastic]

That is amazing, the implications of this are endless.
reminds me of this thread : www.abovetopsecret.com...

this is amazing, im surprised this thread didnt get much attention by now, way over their heads i guess.

does this mean that once they learn how to read what is detected without compareing to the target object, they will be able to look at a flame with this device and see an image of everything it illuminates, or a light bulb, or the sun, or a distant sun.

its like every source of light just got turned into a full zoom high quality camera of everything seen from its perspective,
all they need to do is expand on the same thing they've done in this experiment,

gotta love science.

reply to post by pryingopen3rdeye



It certainly is amazing and who knows what amazing technology this will lead to? I was thinking of imaging distant targets such as a planet by using the photons from its sun. I'm sure they could eventually do away with the photon counter using statistical techniques.

Interesting threads usually don't get much attention on here, especially mine

aw but this ones so good,

it just doesnt have that sensationalist title, quick put the words rape, kittens, revolution, aliens, my country, and assassinate in the title.

oh and debunkinator, debunkers get all the attention,

well some people dont care about key words lol.
as for this camera I understand how it works and the only good reasion i can think of to us this is if you want to take a photo of something but dont want people to know you took it.
and even then it wouldnt help much as what you end up with is a ghost immage

The reminds me of that movie The Thirteenth Floor, where a group of scientists create a virtual reality that is extremely realistic, only to discover that they themselves are also created characters in a virtual reality. Perhaps this camera is detecting a bug in the programming of our personal Matrix.