A photo from open sources A modern smartphone easily replaces many other devices: alarm clock, camera, pedometer, audio player, portable game console and so on. Soon time phones can become real 3D scanners thanks to the efforts of specialists from the Technological University California
US engineers have developed a unique miniature chip “Nanophotonic Coherent Imager” that allows you to aim at objects are laser beams and receive three-dimensional images of the desired objects. The chip analyzes the length of each beam, determining how it is distant from the surface of the subject compared to neighboring rays, and thus creates a three-dimensional digital image of the subject.
Prototype technology, according to the Americans, still requires significant improvements. In the illustration you can see scanned obverse of a cent with the image of Abraham Lincoln. Despite the fact that the 3D model is not the clearest, the portrait of the president clearly visible. You can also read the word “Liberty” and see the year, in which the coin was minted.
The Nanophotonic Coherent Imager chip has tiny sizes – about one square millimeter. This allows you to install it to any electronics: tablet, smartphone, portable camera, even Wrist Watch. The prototype so far allows you to scan only small items, but the creators plan to create in the near the future final version of the chip, thanks to which it will be possible digitize and large objects.
The real lazy dream was created by others, no less talented, inventors.
Smartphones
