PIXELTEQ’s SpectroCam™ multispectral camera made an appearance on ABC’s “Zero Hour” television series last week — revealing the equation Albert Einstein erased from the chalkboard left behind in his Princeton office.
So, can SpectroCam do that?
SpectroCam does not use X-rays to map chemical composition at the atomic level, as “Zero Hour” characters claimed. But SpectroCam does use multispectral imaging to highlight differences in materials based on how they absorb and reflect different light colors. It can contrast and highlight objects like hidden text on a faded background, cancerous cells from healthy cells, or synthetic camouflage from natural forest.
How? Unlike our eyes, which have broad red, green and blue color sensors, a multispectral camera uses precise narrow visible bands plus near-infrared or ultraviolet spectral bands beyond our vision. This means the camera can separate out what you want to “see” from the background, making objects visible that can’t be seen by the naked human eye.
“Zero Hour” has since been cancelled, although 5 million viewers watched the SpectroCam episode. Although SpectroCam could not save the show, it can help companies in applications such as aerospace, art, agriculture, biomedical, industrial and scientific to provide live data-rich imaging. Find out more about multispectral applications here.