A hyperspectral camera built by researchers at the University of Washington uses both visible and invisible near-infrared light to “see” beneath surfaces and capture unseen details. The HyperCam captures detailed images of vein and skin texture patterns that are unique to an individual.

HyperCam, which uses the visible and near-infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, illuminates a scene with 17 different wavelengths and generates an image for each.

The UW software analyzes a scene and automatically generates an optimal set of images for a specific user. Collected frames are compared against RGB images, which are used as an estimate of human perception. Images with the greatest contrast are considered most revealing and relevant to the user. A preferred "HyperFrame" can be saved as a preset object, and then applied to a whole data set.

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