Feel the Noise

Like spotting faces in a fog, computers also struggle to recognise objects when background noise – such as random light particles, called photons – obscures a scene. Here, a new 3D imaging technique copes with noise by making ‘useful’ photons easier to spot. Carefully timed pulses of laser light fired at the image are matched up with light bouncing back – weeding out the noisy photons, which don’t share the same timing, during analysis. Here the approach takes 3D images of a noisy scene (bottom row), then removes some of their troublesome photons, revealing Albert Einstein (top right), with similar clarity to an image taken without any background noise (top left). The method might be adapted for use in biomedical imaging too – where spotting cell and tissues in low light conditions is often a battle with noise – revealing details that make all the difference to diagnosis or treatment.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

Website

• Image from work by Patrick Rehain and colleagues
• Department of Physics, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, February 2020