Originally shared by Michael Sinz
Oh my - what a great idea (grate?) The force of the light from a solid state laser is used to cause frequency shifts and sweeping motions in the beam being sent out such that it can be used to map the target object in 3D with amazing accuracy and speed. Resolving 50-micrometer surface features even from targets that are 10+ meters away. And it can do these sweeps around a million times per second, providing very accurate motion information too.
The cool thing is that this is not just LiDAR with super accuracy and speed, but it also consumes a tiny fraction of the power that current LiDAR systems do.
http://news.berkeley.edu/2015/09/03/self-sweeping-laser/
http://news.berkeley.edu/2015/09/03/self-sweeping-laser