[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/7002\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EPushing the bounds of vision could reveal hidden worlds\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHuman senses have already been highly tuned by millions of years of evolution. Our eyes, for example, sit on the front of our faces, allowing us to see in three dimensions, while the cells of our retina are sensitive to different wavelengths of light, giving us colour vision.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut our senses have limits. A speeding bullet, for example, travels too fast for the human eye to see.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018There are a lot of things we have a hard time perceiving with the senses we have,\u2019 said Professor Albrecht Schmidt, a computer scientist at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany and leader of a project called \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/rcn\/207264\/factsheet\/en\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003EAMPLIFY\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Our project is focused on finding ways of extending the traditional senses to enhance human perception with digital technologies.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECameras, for example, can capture light that is beyond the visible spectrum and reveal movements that are too fast for the human eye.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u0026#039;There are a lot of things we have a hard time perceiving with the senses we have.\u0026#039;\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProfessor Albrecht Schmidt, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The question is how do we make them intuitive to use,\u2019 said Prof. Schmidt. A lot of people focus on creating implants, he says, but the issue is that they cannot be taken off.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018If you have something integrated into a pair of glasses, which I wear without consciously realising most of the time, we could amplify the senses only when needed.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EPrototypes\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Schmidt, together with colleagues at the University of Stuttgart, has built \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/amp.ubicomp.net\/prototypes\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003Ea number of prototypes\u003C\/a\u003E to do just this.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne is a pair of glasses that triggers a thermal image when the wearer squints their eyes. A camera incorporated into the frame produces images using visible light, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/citation.cfm?doid=3123024.3124450\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003Enear infrared and far infrared\u003C\/a\u003E. These give the wearer the ability to see normal visible scenes, but also three-dimensional thermal images.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESensors capable of detecting the faint electrical signals produced by muscles are also built into the frames to pick up the movements associated with the eyes narrowing or squinting.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team have created a version that can be\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/citation.cfm?doid=3123024.3129269\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E built into the helmets worn by fire-fighters\u003C\/a\u003E, giving them the ability to spot hidden fires or find people who are trapped inside buildings.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It\u2019s very different from using a thermal camera as you have to actively look away to see what is going on,\u2019 said Prof. Schmidt. \u2018This way you can change the way you see very easily, even subconsciously.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe envisages a similar device that might be able to zoom into a far-off scene or slow down the action.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018If I look out of the window I can see some trees, but I could squint my eyes to zoom in and I would see a bird on a branch,\u2019 explained Prof. Schmidt. \u2018If the bird takes off, my \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/citation.cfm?doid=3139486.3130898\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003Ecognitive load might go up\u003C\/a\u003E, which could be measured from my brain activity, and that would tell the camera to slow down the motion.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Then when I look back to my computer in from of me, it could return to normal. All of this happens without me having to think much about it and it is this control we have been focusing on.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt is the team\u2019s overall aim to try to create devices that can be either immediately intuitive to use or can very quickly become second nature.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cfigure role=\u0022group\u0022 class=\u0022@alignlft@\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cimg alt=\u0022Scientists have developed a prototype infrared camera that is triggered when the wearer squints their eyes. Image Credit - Amplify project\u0022 height=\u0022747\u0022 src=\u0022\/research-and-innovation\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/IMCEUpload\/thermalgoggles.jpg\u0022 title=\u0022Scientists have developed a prototype infrared camera that is triggered when the wearer squints their eyes. Image Credit - Amplify project \u0022 width=\u00221328\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cfigcaption class=\u0022tw-italic tw-mb-4\u0022\u003EScientists have developed a prototype infrared camera that is triggered when the wearer squints their eyes. Image Credit - Amplify project\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\n\u003C\/figure\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnother prototype is a pair of swimming goggles that help the wearer orientate themselves while their head is submerged under water. Open water swimmers in particular can have difficulty swimming in the right direction as the lack of visual information can disorientate them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut by fitting a pair of goggles with an accelerometer and magnetometer, the team were able to provide navigational cues using LED lights in the peripheral vision.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThey have also been testing another pair of glasses that gives the wearer eyes in the back of their head by using cameras to give a 360-degree view. By displaying images in the peripheral vision, it allows the wearer to spot potential hazards, such as when crossing the road, and so turn to look at them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut even when armed with the latest in camera technology, there are also some things that will escape our eyes. Chemical reactions, for example, happen in time scales that are too fast to capture with modern high-speed cameras \u2013 they can be over in just a couple of trillionths (a millionth of a millionth) of a second.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Maria Ana Cataluna, a physicist at the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK, is leading a project aimed at overcoming this. The \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/rcn\/193727\/factsheet\/en\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003EUPTIME\u003C\/a\u003E project is attempting to build the fastest camera on the planet.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy exploiting new ultrafast lasers that send a flash of light lasting just between 10-100 femtoseconds (million billionths of a second) and sampling systems that can rapidly capture the photons reflected, they hope to be able to capture events that were previously impossible for us to see.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECapture\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018If we can\u2019t visualise it, we can\u2019t further understand it,\u2019 said Dr Cataluna. \u2018This means that the inner machinery of irreversible process widely present in physics, biology and engineering remain, in essence, unobservable.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAmong the events she hopes to be able to capture with the new camera are high speed biochemical reactions, to help reveal their inner workings. It could also allow scientists to capture phase changes, such as the ethereal moment when a liquid turns into a gas. And it could also help better understand what happens to a material when it is transformed using laser-based manufacturing processes. This new knowledge could be used to help optimise the processes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018A short burst of light lasting for only one microsecond enables a fast camera to capture a bullet in mid-flight,\u2019 explained Dr Cataluna.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018In a timescale more than six orders of magnitude below this, optical pulses with sub-picosecond or femtosecond durations enable the capture of microscopic ultrafast phenomena. We want to be able to take snapshots of these.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile she is reluctant to say too much about how the technology would work until she has filed a patent for it, she is currently developing the core components that will be necessary to build the camera. She hopes, however, that the new ultrafast camera will become a reality within three years.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs new technology gives us the ability to perceive in ways that have never been possible before, Prof. Schmidt urges caution. He believes that once we have these devices, the digital and social divides will widen.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We will get into a space where digital technology will create many more superpowers, and those who have it will have a great advantage.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We will need to be careful to ensure those who cannot afford the technology are not left behind.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe research in this article was funded by the European Research Council. 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