Future of imaging and photography: From low cost medical devices to cameras that can look around corners

Prof Raskar will discuss a range of projects in his group and share his thoughts on innovation. Femto-photography: Can we look around corners beyond the line of sight? We exploit the finite speed of light to improve image capture and scene understanding. New theoretical analysis coupled with emerging ultra-high-speed imaging techniques can lead to a new source of computational visual perception. (http://raskar.info/femto) 

EyeNETRA: The ever increasing resolution of new LCDs and CMOS sensors in cellphones provides a new opportunity to build low-cost imaging and diagnostic platforms. NETRA is a cell phone based solution for estimating refractive errors in the human eye. The NETRA autorefractor-like system uses the dual of a Shack-Hartmann sensor, and replaces the laser with simple user interaction. (http://eyenetra.com) 

Innovation: If you hear a great idea 'X', how can you come up with what is neXt? The process of invention seems very unstructured and confusing. In this part, he will share his thoughts about the research process based on his own experience (see projects at http://cameraculture.info). 


About Prof. Ramesh Raskar: 


Ramesh Raskar joined the Media Lab from Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in 2008 as head of the Lab's Camera Culture research group. His research interests span the fields of computational light transport, computational photography, inverse problems in imaging and human-computer interaction. Recent projects and inventions include transient imaging to look around a corner, a next generation CAT-Scan machine, imperceptible markers for motion capture, long distance barcodes, touch+hover 3D interaction displays, low-cost eye care devices, new theoretical models to augment light fields etc. He is a recipient of TR100 award from Technology Review, 2004, Global Indus Technovator Award, top 20 Indian technology innovators worldwide, 2003, Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship award, 2009 and Darpa Young Faculty award, 2010, the Marr Prize honorable mention 2009, LAUNCH Health Innovation Award, 2010, Vodafone Wireless Innovation Project Award (first place), 2011. He holds over 40 US patents and has received four Mitsubishi Electric Invention Awards. He is currently co-authoring a book on Computational Photography. [Personal webpagehttp://raskar.info]