See through walls with Augmented Reality

Augmented reality has been getting a lot of hype lately especially in the mobile world as it gives GPS aided phones a rather nifty HUD-like layer to their normal map applications. So far, developers are just barely scratching the surface of the potential that AR holds. Though researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are quickly turning “sci-fi” into reality and giving AR a new, unique application — seeing through walls.

By using two cameras, one giving the drivers view as well as one giving the view of the area in question, the system allows drivers to essentially see through walls. The image taken by the driver view camera gets overlaid with the hidden view camera and presto chango we have a see through wall. Quite a novel and highly useful idea. Only thing is we don’t have that many cameras lining the streets here in the U.S., though that trait is changing. As long as your city has cameras, they can be made to work with this see-thru-wall technology. Don’t get too excited too much as the underlying technology to make this work is available now,it isn’t fast enough to work in the real world in real time just yet.

A unique and clever solution? Most definitely. Do I still want my x-ray goggles? You can bet on it!

TechChee > Gizmowatch > New Scientist