Scientists from the UK have unveiled a new slim camera that can capture 3D images. The system uses a cable with a diameter of 50 micrometers.
A fiber optic cable, the thickness of a human hair, can transmit accurate 3D images in real time with a tiny flexible camera.
Miles Padgett of the University of Glasgow (UK) and his colleagues have developed a system several orders of magnitude smaller than existing fiber-optic cameras. The system uses a cable 40 centimeters long and 50 micrometers in diameter. It can take 3D images of objects up to 2.5 meters away.
Early researchers used a similar approach and introduced a new microscopy technique that allows the visualization of animal tissue. It will help to study biological phenomena in even more detail.
The new approach is advanced microscopy based on spontaneous emission suppression (STED), a breakthrough technique that allows you to achieve nanoscale resolution by breaking the diffraction limit of optical microscopes. For the development of this technique, Stefan Hell received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014.
