The polarization of light carries interesting information about our visual environment of which we are unaware because human vision is virtually insensitive to polarization. Some animals have evolved the capability to see polarization as a distinct characteristic of light, and rely critically on this sense for navigation and survival. Many fish, arthropods, and octopuses use polarization vision as a compass for navigation, to detect water surfaces, and to enhance the detection of prey and predators. Polarization cameras do exist, but at over $50,000, they are mostly research curiosities that have found few practical uses outside the lab. The DOLPi project aims to widely open the field of polarization imaging by constructing a very low cost polarimetric camera that can be used to research and develop game-changing applications across a wide range of fields; spanning all the way from environmental monitoring and medical diagnostics, to security and antiterrorism applications.
Read more and check out the polarized photo below!
Featured Adafruit Products!
PiTFT – Assembled 480×320 3.5″ TFT+Touchscreen for Raspberry Pi: Is this not the cutest, little display for the Raspberry Pi? It features a 3.5″ display with 480×320 16-bit color pixels and a resistive touch overlay so is slightly larger than our popular original. The plate uses the high speed SPI interface on the Pi and can use the mini display as a console, X window port, displaying images or video etc. Best of all it plugs right in on top! Read more.
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
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