A team at the University of Glasgow has developed “Ghost Imaging”, an artificial intelligence technique that is the closest thing to X-ray vision you can get at the moment. In summary: it uses the way the brain works to see through walls and obstacles, or around corners. The technology will be presented starting today atOptics Imaging and Applied Objects Congress of Washington.
Brain waves to see through walls
The researchers “trained” the AI to examine the brain waves of a human while observing bright shapes on a wall. This experiment is part of an emerging technological area called non-line-of-sight (NLoS), in Italian “Offline propagation of sight“. It aims to build transmission networks that can bypass physical obstacles.
The experiment in the laboratory
During the test, human participants had to wear an EEG helmet while watching successive lights of different shapes projected onto the wall. A 2D screen and projector behind the barrier separating them from the object bounced light off the image.
While the volunteer on duty observed the light, theartificial intelligence it could analyze brain waves and “see” through walls, determining what the image was based on the curves of the light patterns. The brightness of the light impacted the AI's ability to “understand” and reproduce the image.
The system was tested on three images of 16 x 16 pixels each. The light frequency was approximately 6 Hz, the transmission duration of each image was approximately two seconds. It took the AI about a minute to correctly detect the image.
Next steps
Daniele Faccio, professor of Quantum Technologies at the University of Glasgow, believes that this experiment is only the first step towards a sea of possibilities.
Collaboration in terms of surveillance, or rescue of people in difficulty and not otherwise accessible are only the first of the possible applications of this technology.
The next tests of "collaboration" between the human eye (and brain) and artificial intelligence will not include simple luminous shapes but 3D objects: the technological ability to see through walls has just taken its first steps.
