[Excerpt]

…The new device could help provide manufacturers with a way to inspect products too large to fit under a microscope and could also have uses in medicine, forensics and biometrics.

The GelSight acquires surface textures and shapes by pressing a block of clear rubber onto them, revealing high-resolution 3D details.

Once an object is pressed against the rubber, its reflective skin on one side distorts to determine the shape of the object.

A camera images the distortion multiple times through the other side of the rubber to help produce 3D images.  …

…Paul Debevec, an associate professor of graphics research at the University of Southern California…

Debevec’s lab has been investigating the use of polarized light to compensate for the irregular reflective properties of some surfaces, but, he says, “they’re getting detail at the level that’s, for little patches, well more than an order of magnitude better than I’ve ever seen measured for these kinds of surfaces.”

The device could be used to analyze fingerprints, bullet casings, product integrity, skin moles, and biometric features.

The GelSight was originally reported during a 2009 paper, but is being published in an updated paper at this week’s Siggraph 2011 computer graphics conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.

See the full story here: http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/2093456/new_3d_imaging_system_developed_at_mit/