Melbourne-based Iatia has been given $2.7 million by the Australian Defence Department to fund development of a military spy camera that could be used by troops on the ground or from helicopters to see through trees, cloud, fog, smoke and dust storms and allowing soldiers to distinguish between camouflaged targets and vegetation.

The technology, called Quantitative Phase Imaging, uses a sophisticated camera that captures three images simultaneously through a single lens. Images thus resolved from between the particles making up fog, smoke, and dust storms are formed into a single picture of the hidden target.

Further research and field trials will now be carried out to develop an operational camera capable of working over a range of about a kilometre.

The technology also has commercial application in industry, science and medicine.

From The Age, via Slashdot.