The ability to see under the human skin is something that we are more used to finding in superhero cartoons, sci-fi movies, or really expensive medical equipment. With the HyperCam, that might be about to change – and in a potentially affordable way.

Our eyes have always been able to operate much better than our consumer camera equipment, allowing us to see things our cameras can’t. But as technology progresses, it was only a matter of time until that changed. Jointly developed by members of the University of Washington and Microsoft Research, the HyperCam uses both visible and invisible near-infrared light to see under the surface and reveal unseen details.

It does its magic by illuminating a scene with 17 different wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum and taking a photo for each of them. In a second stage, the HyperCam’s software is then able to separate the images that are most likely to contain detail that can’t be seen with the naked eye, or through conventional photography.

[Read More…]