Portable surface-capture tool could find use in forensics

It achieves resolutions previously possible only with large, expensive laboratory equipment and as such could provide manufacturers with a way to inspect products too large to fit under a microscope.

A team led by Edward Adelson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed the device, which is based on a technology dubbed ‘GelSight’.

Essentially, what this comprises is a slab of transparent, synthetic rubber — one of whose sides is coated with a paint containing tiny flecks of metal. When pressed against the surface of an object, the paint-coated side of the slab deforms. Cameras mounted on the other side of the slab photograph the results and computer vision algorithms analyse the images to create 3D renderings.

The latest prototype device incorporating GelSight looks like an elongated drinks can and can be moved across the surface of a structure to register physical features of less than a micrometre in depth and about two micrometres across.