Tech- This Camera Will Tell You Chemical Composition Of Any Object

A small hyperspectral imaging camera is being developed at Tel Aviv
University. It will allow you to take a picture or video of something
and determine its chemical composition. Hyperspectral imaging works
by scanning light spectra that is not visible to human eye while
identifying distinct electromagnetic ‘fingerprints’ of different materials
and substances.

The team is being led by Prof. David Mendlovic and is working on
coming up with a miniaturized optical component that can be
subsequently incorporated into a smartphone. It employs MEMS
(microelectromechanical systems) technology and as per the team is
‘suitable for mass production and compatible with standard
smartphone camera designs.’

It will, however, require a database of hyperspectral signatures
pertaining to different substances. According to Professor Mendlovic,
“The optical element acts as a tunable filter and the software – an
image fusion library – would support this new component and extract
all the relevant information from the image.”

A working prototype shall be completed by June while the core
system has already been showcased at the Mobile World Congress
that was held in Barcelona last month. The technology has been
named as Unispectral and is being developed by the university’s
Ramot tech transfer company. The applications of Unispectral include
consumer electronics, biotechnology, automotive industry and
homeland security.