Light sensitive fabric as a photosensor

Physicists from the University of Massachusetts have developed a fabric of photosensitive optical fiber, woven so that a large piece of similar fabric can work as a matrix of a digital camera. The science project is funded from the military budget of the DARPA agency.

Each fabric fiber with a built-in semiconductor (see photo) reacts to light in a limited spectrum, generates pulses and transmits them through electrodes. The signal is captured and amplified by digital processors, after which a single photo is compiled. Now the fabric works only if it is connected to a full-fledged PC, but in the future you can create a mobile solution.

Since there is no optics here, the picture will in any case be very blurred and will only be able to register nearby objects. But even in this form, you can come up with several useful applications for “cameras” of a fundamentally new type. For example, a military uniform from this fabric will provide a panoramic view and allow you to instantly react to the appearance of danger (if someone's shadow falls on the soldier). Or such a fabric can be used to sheathe the walls of buildings, so that outdoor video surveillance systems will reach a fundamentally new level (covering 100% of the territory). Perhaps such a fabric will be used in virtual reality systems.
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The results of their work, Professor Yoel Fink (Yoel Fink) and colleagues published in the journal Nano Letters .

via LiveScience