LIDAR tagged posts

Smartphones may soon be able to track hidden objects using LiDAR

How smartphones may soon be able to track hidden objects using LiDAR
Consumer NLOS imaging. Credit: Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10502-x

Modern smartphones are packed with incredible technology, from high-resolution cameras and advanced graphics chips to AI processors. In premium models, this hardware includes LiDAR (light detection and ranging), which helps power augmented reality features and improve depth sensing.

Seeing around corners
And that capability could soon be in for a seriously impressive upgrade. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed an algorithm that lets a phone’s LiDAR sensor detect objects hidden around corners. Details are in a paper published in the journal Nature.

Typically, this type of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) capability is found in labs and relies on bulky, expensive resear...

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Leaky-Wave Metasurfaces: A Perfect Interface between Free-Space and Integrated Optical Systems

Six holographic images produced by leaky-wave metasurfaces
Left two figures: Two holographic images produced by a leaky-wave metasurface at two different distances from the device surface. Right four figures: Four distinct holographic images produced by a single leaky-wave metasurface at two different distances from the device surface and at two orthogonal polarization states. Credit: Heqing Huang, Adam Overvig, and Nanfang Yu/Columbia Engineering

Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a new class of integrated photonic devices – “leaky-wave metasurfaces” – that can convert light initially confined in an optical waveguide to an arbitrary optical pattern in free space...

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New Chip-based Beam Steering – Device Lays Groundwork for Smaller, Cheaper Lidar

Caption: The new OPA that replaces the multiple emitters of traditional OPAs with a slab grating to create a single emitter. This design enables a wide field of view without sacrificing beam quality.
Image Credit: Hao Hu, Technical University of Denmark

Technology could benefit lidar applications from autonomous driving to virtual reality. Researchers have developed a new chip-based beam steering technology that provides a promising route to small, cost-effective and high-performance lidar (or light detection and ranging) systems. Lidar, which uses laser pulses to acquire 3D information about a scene or object, is used in a wide range of applications such as autonomous driving, free-space optical communications, 3D holography, biomedical sensing and virtual reality.

“Optical beam ste...

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3D Holographic Head-up Display could improve Road Safety

Image based on LiDAR data (left), converted to a hologram (right).
Image based on LiDAR data (left), converted to a hologram (right).

Researchers have developed the first LiDAR-based augmented reality head-up display for use in vehicles. Tests on a prototype version of the technology suggest that it could improve road safety by ‘seeing through’ objects to alert of potential hazards without distracting the driver.

The technology, developed by researchers from the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and University College London (UCL), is based on LiDAR (light detection and ranging), and uses LiDAR data to create ultra high-definition holographic representations of road objects which are beamed directly to the driver’s eyes, instead of 2D windscreen projections used in most head-up displays.

While the technology has not yet been test...

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