The accidental camera - It’s news to me

The accidental camera - It’s news to me - I picked up an off-beat article - like so much on the Internet, I got to it with almost a random sequence of clicks. At first, Natalie Wolchover’s “The New Science of Seeing Around Corners” (Quanta Magazine Algorithms Column, Aug 30, 2018) seemed damn stupid to me. A scientist looks at light on the wall and sees movement. Big deal – so what? I read on a bit, put the article down, but soon it seemed I was seeing everyday things a little differently. Thanks to Cecelia, as well, I found the pond ripple effect of reflection of light on a lobster pot. It was the reflection of overhead kitchen light as the fan spun. The article discusses natural camera shots that are formed by sun rays passing through a window and alighting on a surface. They were seen by an MIT scientist, noticed as color patches on a wall while in a hotel room on vacation in Spain – good idea that – and he theorized the existence of something called an “accidental camera.” These are formed by windows, houseplants and other objects that render images of their surroundings – kind of like the desperado one might see in an ice-filled jigger of tequila coming to get you with knife. It’s high-faluting, I grant you. But illuminating nonetheless. People theorize that you can see around corners – say intercept a dog rounding the bend and able to nip you. There may even be ways to suss out hidden trends in big data sets, if only you can apply a trusty accidental camera algorithm. With the handy supercomputer in pocket – iPhone – it is not so hard to take extended exposures of sun moving across the room that effectively paint a picture of the outside surroundings. I’d actually done it in the bye and bye after a fashion, not knowing I was on to the idea of the accidental camera. Being able to see these extraordinary images masked by everyday reality may be overblown. Probably, this stuff is something known to people like the Daily Lotto and David ‘Grasshopper’ Carradine. But, well, it’s news to me. - Jack Vaughan

Related
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-new-science-of-seeing-around-corners-20180830/