News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Show HN: Wave-based non-line-of-sight computational imaging in Julia. Parent comment

Re:Show HN: Wave-based non-line-of-sight computational imagi... by etatoby on Wednesday August 28, 2019 @06:31AM (#20818431)
> The detector elements of a camera could be made pretty sensitive, but they can't detect fewer than one photon.

Or can they?

If the detector elements were part of a quantum computer (or a quantum computing "chip", whatever that will turn out to be) they would be able to analyze all the photon paths (Feynman paths) bouncing back from the subject, even those that would decohere / collapse away in a traditional detector.

IANAP, but wouldn't a quantum chip be able to perform some amount of NLOS by analyzing the paths of even a single photon?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: Wave-based non-line-of-sight computational imagi... by darkmighty on Thursday August 29, 2019 @09:10PM (#20835158)
As soon as your photon interacts with a realistic scene (thermal), I believe it loses coherence with any apparatus you might have prepared in the detector. In short, no, I don't think this is possible, unless you consider idealized environments.
[ Parent | on HN ]