Non-Invasively Tracking an Arbitrary Deformable Object Through Scattering Media and Around Corners via Speckle...

Area of Science:

• Optics
• Image Processing
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Tracking hidden objects is crucial in various fields.
• Existing methods for tracking behind scattering media have limitations, often requiring invariant object shapes or prior information.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a non-invasive method for tracking moving deformable objects behind or inside scattering media and around corners.
• To achieve tracking without requiring any prior information about the object.

Main Methods:

• Speckle correlation centroid localization method (SCCLM).
• Capturing speckle patterns at different moments.
• Determining relative centroid displacements by locating centroids of speckle auto-correlation (SAC) and speckle cross-correlation (SCC).
• Reconstructing object trajectories by superimposing displacements.

Main Results:

• SCCLM successfully tracks hidden deformable objects beyond the memory effect region.
• The method accommodates objects that scale, rotate, stretch, and change shape.
• Effective tracking demonstrated through dynamic scattering media (e.g., chicken breast tissue) and around corners.
• Robustness shown even in complex scenes with multiple objects.

Conclusions:

• SCCLM offers a versatile and non-invasive solution for tracking deformable objects in challenging environments.
• The method overcomes limitations of previous techniques by not requiring prior object information or shape invariance.
• This technique has broad applicability in fields requiring hidden object tracking.