The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is fast tracking a novel technology to develop a special "camera" that can see around corners and behind walls. The technology, however, can't be used for ordinary cameras such as those on mobile phones.

DARPA is providing the $4.4 million grant to the Morgridge Institute for Research, a private, nonprofit biomedical research institute in Madison, Wisconsin affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison).

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The DARPA grant will allow the Morgridge research team to explore the limitations of the technology and develop fully-functional hardware that can be used by U.S. soldiers, civilians, firemen and policemen.

It will fund four years of research. The first two years will be dedicated to investigating the full potential of the technology. The second two years will be spent developing the hardware, making it viable for production and implementation.

UW-Madison is one of eight universities to receive DAPRA grants this year to investigate different forms and applications of non-line-of-sight imaging.

The see around the corner technology was first developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist Andreas Velten and demonstrated for the first time in 2012.

Velten's technology relies on the camera firing a rapid pulse of laser light into a room. The laser light scatters when it hits a wall, ceiling, a person and other objects in a room.  Many photons are eventually reflected back to an extremely sensitive sensor in camera. The sensor uses that information to digitally reconstruct an image of the room, including any people inside of it.

Recording the photons that reflected back to the camera requires highly specialized equipment. The very sensitive sensor is also able to see around multiple walls, a goal the team is currently working toward.

"The more times you can bounce this light within a scene, the more possible data you can collect," said Velten. "Since the first light is the strongest, and each proceeding bounce gets weaker and weaker, the sensor has to be sensitive enough to capture even a few photons of light."

Velten is collaborating with Mohit Gupta, assistant professor of computer sciences at UW-Madison, to develop the technology further. They are creating new versions of the camera where laser light bounces six or more times to uncover objects or persons outside the field of view, an advantage especially useful for soldiers.

TagsDefense Advanced Research Projects Agenc, DARPA, Morgridge Institute for Research, Andreas Velten, Mohit Gupta