Recent UMBC Ph.D. alumnus Sanjit Karmakar ’12, physics, has been featured in a Baltimore Sun story focusing on his work in “ghost imaging,” the process by which a picture can be taken without actually “seeing” the object which is being photographed.
The camera Karmakar designed, which Sun reporter Jonathan Pitts described as “look[ing] like a cross between an 1890s camera and a bulky steamer trunk,” utilizes the light of the sun as the source for images, which are generated on a computer using mathematics associated with quantum physics. This process can be used to generate images of objects on other continents and planets without the distortion of traditional photography, according to the piece.
Karmakar’s research has made a splash in physics research circles, the article said, and has implications in defense and other areas.
Speaking on the still-unknown aspects of the nature of light, Karmakar was quoted as saying that “[m]any people still don’t understand its true properties.”
