Holographic Imaging System Could Let Firefighters See Through Flames To Rescue Victims
Rescue workers may soon have a new tool to locate victims amid the blinding smoke and chaotic flames of a house fire. When firefighters go looking for victims trapped inside a burning building, they often encounter rooms and hallways filled with thick, blinding smoke. If no flames are present, a rescuer can use an infrared camera to spot the heat signatures of warm, living bodies. But in the midst of a raging inferno, heat from the flames will overwhelm the camera's sensors and obscure nearby objects. Researchers in Italy may have found a solution: a digital imaging system that captures infrared signals in 3-D and converts them to holographic video in real-time, thus allowing firefighters to distinguish flames from heat-emitting objects behind them. Here's a demonstration video the researchers made to show the system in action (right), compared with a standard infrared camera (left): brightcove.createExperiences(); The imaging system generates video using the basic...