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Technology

Any wall can be turned into a camera to see around corners

Researchers have developed algorithms that reconstruct a hidden image from the scrambled light waves that bounce off a wall, making it possible to see things behind a corner

By James Woodford

30 May 2025

Technology for seeing around corners would be of use to the military

Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

An ordinary camera could soon take photos of things that are out of sight, thanks to algorithms that interpret how light bounces off a wall.

“Normally, when light bounces off rough surfaces, like walls, it scrambles the scene into a messy blur,” says Wenwen Li at the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei. “Our goal was to ‘unscramble’ that blur and recover the hidden scene. Think of it like turning a rough wall into a mirror.”

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