Caltech, California Institute of Technology, developed a high-resolution, tiny 3D imager. The compact, cheap yet accurate newly invented device named as the nanophotonic coherent imager makes use of the economical silicon chip, which size is smaller than a millimeter. NCI offers the highest level of accuracy compared to all other nanophotonic 3D imaging counterparts.
Ali Hajimiri, an electrical engineering professor said, "The small size and high quality of this new chip-based imager will result in significant cost reductions, which will enable thousands of new uses for such systems by incorporating them into personal devices such as smartphones."
The chip utilizes a well-founded ranging and detection technology called LIDAR, where a targeted object is highlighted with the use of the scanner's laser beams. NCI's first proof of this advanced concept has 16 pixels only, which implies that the produced 3D images could only hold 16 pixels, all the time, the Verge reported.
While LIDAR is not a new technology at all, having numerous tiny LIDARS on an imager, an object's different parts could be taken simultaneously minus the need to perform mechanical movements with the imager.
Hajimiri also explained that in the near future, its present 16 pixel array could be scaled easily to figures that could reach hundreds of thousands. The 3D imager could be used for a wide array of applications from precise 3D printing and scanning projects to aiding unmanned running vehicles prevent collisions by enhancing its motion sensitivity with the help of superfine machine platforms, the Optics Express journal wrote.