Microsoft Research's HyperCam Camera Reveals Hidden Details Invisible To Naked Eye

Microsoft Research along with University of Washington is developing an affordable camera technology called HyperCam. This hyperspectral camera uses both visible and invisible near-infrared light to “see” beneath surfaces and capture unseen details. This is nothing new, there are many such camera being used in the industries for various purposes. But HyperCam is aiming to be an affordable camera which everyone can use. They are experimenting with lots of different applications for this camera.

• When HyperCam captured images of a person’s hand, for instance, they revealed detailed vein and skin texture patterns that are unique to that individual. That can aid in everything from gesture recognition to biometrics to distinguishing between two different people playing the same video game.
• In another test, the team also took hyperspectral images of 10 different fruits, from strawberries to mangoes to avocados, over the course of a week. The HyperCam images predicted the relative ripeness of the fruits with 94 percent accuracy, compared with only 62 percent for a typical camera.
• “With this kind of camera, you could go to the grocery store and know what produce to pick by looking underneath the skin and seeing if there’s anything wrong inside. It’s like having a food safety app in your pocket,” Patel said.

You can read more about HyperCam: HyperSpectral Imaging for Ubiquitous Computing Applications here.