Autonomous vehicles are getting much better at sensing their surroundings, but even they still need to be able to directly see a hazard to react to it. Now, a Stanford team is developing a laser-based system that may allow driverless cars to see around blind corners, and come to a stop before a child runs out or another car speeds by.
In order to image objects beyond direct line-of-sight, the technique involves bouncing laser pulses around a corner, off the desired object and back. A highly sensitive sensor captures the returning photons of light, an algorithm analyzes them and the end result is a fuzzy snapshot of something lurking just out of sight.
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