Imaging

When it comes to taking high-res aerial photographs, we generally look to satellites, drones or full-size aircraft. Colorado-based Urban Sky's new Microballoon system, however, is claimed to deliver higher-resolution images at a much lower cost.

MRI is a powerful diagnostic tool, but the size and cost limits where it can be used. A compact, affordable new MRI system uses a much smaller magnetic field and doesn’t require shielding, and is still able to diagnose brain disorders in patients.

Princeton and the University of Washington researchers have developed a camera the size of a grain of salt that can snap sharp, full-color images. It’s made with a metasurface that captures light and could be scaled up to turn entire surfaces into sensors.

Blind corners have long troubled drivers, but researchers have now developed a holographic camera technology that can peer around corners by reconstructing scattered light waves, quickly enough to spot fast-moving objects like cars or pedestrians.

The microscopic world is important to understand, but tricky to study in detail. Researchers at EPFL have now developed a new microscopy technique that combines two existing ones, allowing scientists to build high-definition 3D images of cells inside and out.

DARPA's new Fast Event-based Neuromorphic Camera and Electronics (FENCE) program will seek to make computer vision cameras more efficient by mimicking how the human brain processes information.

Medical endoscopes may look small, but their tips are actually several millimeters wide, making them too big to image living cells within the body. A new system, however, lets users view images through a single ultra-thin strand of optical fiber.

Researchers have demonstrated a quantum microscope that can break through a fundamental barrier faced by regular microscopes and see tiny structures that are normally invisible. The device “squeezes” light to snap images with far greater clarity.

Researchers at Cornell University have snapped the clearest images of atoms ever taken. Aided by new noise-reducing algorithms, the images are of such high resolution that, the team says, they almost reach the ultimate limit possible.

An advanced microscopy technique has snapped “super-resolution” 3D images inside the brains of living mice. The method is so precise it imaged the tiny twigs on the branches of neurons, and could watch how they changed over the course of a few days.

As we saw last month with the winners of the Mobile Photography Awards, phone cameras can be used to capture truly incredible images. But OnePlus is looking to take things to the next level, announcing a three-year partnership with Hasselblad.

When someone has a skin condition such as eczema, it helps to be able to see all of the tiny ridges and grooves in the affected area. That's where a portable new device comes in, which is designed to produce 3D images of skin in a matter of minutes.