Building a camera that sees behind things

[@StuffMadeHere]

If you’re interested in messing around with data from the camera I’ll be posting some of the raw data for these pictures on my Patreon: patreon.com/stuffmadehere. Also, THANK YOU to all the patrons who support these projects!

[@Keenora]

Ohhh new video, I am down! x3

[@Lavassin]

He made stuff

[@dogefort8410]

What's the key benefits of Patreon membership again? 🤔

[@Basement_CNC]

Who needs drugs when you can have engineering???? I DO.... It's called coffee and red bull.....I'd also go for something stronger and less legal, but I've already blown my budget on the parts of the engineering project 😂

[@ikesau]

i am so grateful that you continue to defy the incentives to make "lightning vs laser" videos or whatever. gonna finally sign up to your patreon now to hopefully help keep it that way 🤞

[@VenseyNess]

All you need to see around walls is a dense enough object to perform gravitational lensing. Can your CNC work on singularities?

[@MrBubmer]

Don't give him ideas, next thing we'll know is there's an apocalyptic event at a warehouse

[@BlueGamingRage]

Bending light is a solution

[@a64738]

Or just use mirrors and make a periscope...

[@SkinnyObelix]

or a window

[@cyanhacker]

Brick is dense enough to hit the wall

[@RyanMercer]

Oh this should be fun, and semi-safe for once.

[@Runefrag]

A giant steel weight spinning around on an arm with exposed electrical wiring touching. Yeah, super safe.

[@RyanMercer]

@@Runefrag safer than several of his last projects though.

[@rhetorical1488]

engage your safety squints as prudence the safety goat is on the case.

[@robertschwien6396]

You may want to use a first surface mirror if you're not already doing so. I used to make machine vision applications and if the camera angle needed to be changed. Using a regular mirror would result in the primary image from the reflective surface on the back of the glass, and a second ghost image reflected from the front of the glass.

[@Spirit532]

Fun fact: all of these wacky lenses simulated in this video actually exist, and are widely used in manufacturing and inspection! Telecentric(no perspective) lenses are most common and very popular in metrology, but pericentric(seeing more than one side of the object), hypercentric(seeing behind and/or underneath the object), and even wacky combinations with mirrors. This allows you, as a common example, to inspect the cap on a plastic bottle from all sides, at the same time, using the same camera. Above, around the corners, from the side, AND from below!

[@FlorenceTerry-j1i]

To create an instructional video that teaches perspective, you should utilize this camera to record various simple shapes, such as cubes, cylinders, and cones. It might be very helpful for drafting and art classes.

[@CharlieKellyEsq]

I know it takes a REALLY long time to create your projects and edit them. But I'm going to need you to take stimulants, stay up 72 hours per day and pump out one of these every 3 or 4 days

[@drake1636]

He already does

[@artiumromanov9798]

Crazy comment. Hilarious too

[@MrCandyPants]

He owes it to humanity

[@MonkeMan54]

Definitely

[@Vik1919]

​@@MrCandyPants He owes nothing. You need to contribute instead, he's already doing it by being himself.

[@omahuvisoongaro1207]

So, you basically put a camera on a stick, which is long enough to look behind a small barier the same way you'd put a mirror on a stick to look aroud edges.

[@FirstLast-gw5mg]

It's kinda like a digital periscope.

[@adrien5568]

He did, feels like cheating.

[@nicholas4839]

Was thinking the same thing if the camera sticks past the edge then it could see him and not seeing behind walls

[@linnickschlanter4712]

Yeah, had the same feeling

[@TheSupsnow]

"This camera can see behind things when I put it where the thing isn't obstructing what's behind"

[@Franch3ttz]

Never clicked so fast

[@Yellowsam4145]

Same

[@Ravin428]

You should use this camera to film some basic shapes like cubes, cylinders and cones to make a education video for teaching perspective. It could be super useful for art classes and drafting classes.

[@smartereveryday]

When you made the real life Orthographic Photo I was so happy for you. That's a huge deal. Awesome video!

[@SS001-w3e]

❤

[@spencereaston8292]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="680">11:20</a> was rough. I remember checking in a one line of code change after a week of debugging to have the boss ask me what I was doing all week. My soul was already broken and her question felt like a boot to the neck. Hang in there champ! You are doing good.

[@privacyvalued4134]

Nah. You should just find a new boss. Some bugs take a long time (weeks to months) to track down and are one-line fixes.

[@joshd79]

@@privacyvalued4134debugging is a skill you can improve. And one that should be taken into account for compensation…

[@Houdini111]

@@privacyvalued4134 100%. There's a phrase usually used for repair people that's also relevant here. Don't remember the exact phrasing but it's basically "You don't pay $1000 to fix it, you pay me $100 to fix it and $900 for knowing how". Most people could do the same thing (literally just changing a character in a file) but most people also would have no idea how to find out what to change.

[@SystemsPlanet]

If your bugs take weeks to find, find another profession

[@gk5947]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="699">11:39</a> wait, isn't the hydra the creature that grows back their heads?

[@fikus7879]

That's what i wanted to say!

[@Jack93885]

Yup, Medusa was the mortal Gorgon (a creature that can turn people who look at them to stone) who was killed by Perseus

[@gabriyeldoll1502]

"Who needs drugs when you have engineering" - <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="730">12:10</a>

[@syntactyx]

In the future, I would choose Shane with a bottle of Adderall as humanity's champion in defense against the machines.

[@nicknack125]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="630">10:30</a> I 'm a EE at Thorlabs and couldn't agree more - even when prototyping a new product, I'll end up copying the a lot of the analog design from our dark magic wizard analog design engineers, or slapping one of those amplifiers in-line to verify everything works before trying a design myself. The analog stuff gets real funky real fast and it's always best to use something you know will work at first.

[@williamcox8491]

Does Thorlabs still send the goodie boxes? That was the best part of my PhD

[@nicknack125]

@williamcox8491 Yes! Still doing the labsnacks with all the orders :)

[@briankoonce]

The "no perspective" and "reverse perspective" results are still boggling my mind. Incredible!

[@bad_noob1221]

KZbins notifications actually worked for once. Glad to catch this early

[@RandomPerson-vz3lc]

the camera isn’t seeing behind the wall though, you are just reaching the camera around the wall

[@1813boo]

Yeah it's cool but not really a camera that can look around walls...

[@ForeverHobbit]

yeah, the camera is peeking around different corners and then creating a flat image by combining different sides of the subject of the photos into 1. I love his projects but this is just not what he says it does

[@neb_setabed]

Like if I was to take a normal camera and put it at the same place as his sensor I could take a better picture

[@robinhood4640]

Thanks for saving me 20 minutes. The spinning arm was enough for me to doubt the claim.

[@timothybradford8216]

@@neb_setabed His sensor is in thousands of places. It would take you a very long time to put a normal camera at the same place as his sensor. Especially accurately.

[@Lockwren]

We need a spin off series of shorts called Stuff Made Here: Failure Diary. Around <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="695">11:35</a> you mention 'fixing all the issues', it'd be cool to get a look at a few of the problems you solved going over "What is supposed to happen", "What IS happening", "What you suspect is causing the issue", "What IS causing the issue", and what decisions or misunderstandings led you to having the issue in the first place.

[@hipstersavage]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1012">16:52</a> unironically would go super hard as an album cover

[@Questerer]

“You look like Thomas the tank” guess who sleeps on the couch tonight?

[@HeyV63]

Just a quick note at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="858">14:18</a> a true orthographic projection is AWESOME in that you can measure anything in the picture and get accurate measurements off of it. To say it more clearly once you know the measure of one thing you can measure everything else, because everything else will be to perfect scale.

[@AlexsProjects]

I love that you share your passion with your family. Best content ever.❤

[@jatin3355]

*10 missed calls from Lockheed Martin*

[@AbbasHiridjee]

This channel never ceases to amaze me. Thank you.

[@blar2112]

You made a reverse cd player

[@dalyxia]

So you didnt made a camera that can see behind walls... Your camera just looks around the sides of the wall in a difficult way

[@ekasm8000]

Thats what i thought too, not gonna lie, intresting video, but kinda disapointing.

[@ElliotMitchellR]

@3blue1brown *creates an entire library to articulate physics on video* @StuffMadeHere proceeds to scribble on an ipad while recording

[@multiarray2320]

manim might be more visually pleasing, but doing it with an ipad is way faster and most of the time good enough to understand the concept.

[@mehmetcaneksi8388]

@@multiarray2320 stuffmadehere actually builds the thing. that helps. if it were only a ipad drawing you wouldnt watch it probably :) love them both

[@JuliaDragocena]

*ANYONE in 2025* ??!!

[@mstreich]

"Looks like I've seen some stuff." Yes, ma'am, you have seen some stuff. <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1347">22:27</a>

[@franciscot]

You should showcase these photographs in a gallery. This is so freaking cool!

[@foxthroat3410]

especially the orthographic and reverse perspective! Basically he's the first one to every take those kind of perspectives.(correct me if I'm wrong)

[@evanwhite8639]

Wow! <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="900">15:00</a> is exactly how I felt! Another incredible video! The pictures are so interesting!

[@hclnet]

When you started describing this it immediately reminded me of things like mechanical tvs or the scanning cameras on satellites.There is a great video from Applied science where a similar effect is made with a big Fresnel lens. Making a scanner just rebuilds the lens one pixel at a time and that is so neat.

[@MoctezumaStudios]

I could have swore I saw this on a ted talk 15 years ago. Currently at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="159">2:39</a> excited to see this project com to fruition :D

[@darrens3]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="35">0:35</a> Haha! I was not prepared for the laser eyes! Well done with this project!

[@solomarkgulo]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="729">12:09</a> "Who needs Drugs when you have engineering?" needs to be a motivational poster

[@lordmwa25]

"It's a very weird camera" I'd be very disappointed on this channel if it wasn't...... 😂

[@lukestoolbox]

i bet by the end of next year we get to see a homemade MRI machine🫡

[@grungko]

"I asked my wife to see what my interior looks like" "Looks like a crab."

[@timothybradford8216]

I love your explanations! Some of those pictures were really trippy.

[@CEOofNothingTakes]

The photos out of this look really cool and it's all "in" camera, love the sweeping artifacts and slight warping misalignment on the colour photos.

[@Ibrahim-1234]

Using two cameras seems unnecessarily redundant-it mainly acts as a counterweight to balance the setup (via centripetal force) while slightly speeding up the imaging process. Also, are we really being told that moving a camera around an object lets you see more of it? Shocking revelation… I usually enjoy your videos, but this one felt a bit off. Looking forward to more thoughtful content in the future-thanks for all your hard work!

[@douglatins]

Omg reverse perspective got him so excited that put a smile on my face.

[@Ryan-xc4em]

No way people find this video through the search bar

[@snosaf1757]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="893">14:53</a> That is actually an artpiece that you can interpret a lot into. One of those pieces where it's actually interesting

[@AhmedMostafa-kn7ii]

What a crazy concept to start with, never clicked faster

[@jacobbkgaard6735]

I never thought I would ever experience something like this .. beautiful .. mind melting .. amazing!

[@jbartl87]

Never actually looked through a wall, but still really fucking cool.

[@aserta]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="232">3:52</a> if you printed that part... might as well print the threads with it. Cutting the material will invariably weaken it. Just my 2 cents. Printed threads are stronger than cut threads with both resin types and fdm types (with the caveat that it depends on how you print the part. Obviously a 20% or cheap resin won't be able to compete).

[@enitalp]

It would be best to take a large CoreXY 3D printer's chassis and scan it in X Y instead of in a circle where you lose density on the edge.

[@JeffGeerling]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="324">5:24</a> - Pi 5: spotted!

[@nick.100]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1071">17:51</a> this is how that one satellite that’s like the furthest from earth takes pictures isn’t it?

[@zacharydefeciani7890]

Destin from smarter every day is gonna be all about this

[@rising_1rish978]

Literally just posted a comment saying I'd love to see a collab 😂😂😂

[@tcurdt]

The ideas you come up with is the real gold here.

[@bennettwettengel6754]

I was literally checking yesterday to see if you'd uploaded recently. Let's goooo

[@MisterItchy]

The answer is, 'no'. We can't see behind walls. We can see behind walls that are not connected to other walls so, we can move the camera. I didn't get this one.

[@neb_setabed]

I feel like if he would have titled it something along the lines of "I made a different perspective camera" that would be better

[@npotufsstrugas6390]

He reached around the wall.

[@sirjorm]

the camera sees behind walls, but not *through* walls

[@IEIDIDO]

👍 for the big chunk of wood

[@bluegizmo1983]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="714">11:54</a> Nothing better than that feeling when it _finally_ works!

[@Madagon367]

Oh no, only 23 minutes. I assume there is more on Patreon which I am too cheap to buy. So I'm happy with what we got for free of course but still I could watch a lot more of how this came together. Awesome stuff as always.

[@CookiePixl]

This is so cool! Looking around something with it is basically like putting something between your eyes. Up to a certain size you can see around it

[@_spartan11796]

Always exciting to see you post!

[@MichaelEllisYT]

This was a great project! What I liked best was the orthographic photo. Removing perspective was WILD.

[@daanzen]

This is probably my favorite video you have ever made! Thank you!

[@FirstLast-gw5mg]

The basic concept here is the same as a periscope, shifting your field of view by some distance orthoganally to see around or past something directly ahead. The fact that you can simulate wacky lenses in software is pretty neat though.

[@ConnerWithAnE_]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1335">22:15</a> Hilarious, comedy gold lmfao. The look up at the camera, cherry on top hahaha

[@wcrb15]

This project is awesome. I can feel your excitement when it started working.

[@void_creature]

Someone please give him infinite funding

[@acapellaacapella4723]

Never disappointed with your innovations! Can't wait till April or May for the next one!

[@NBear50]

An answer to a question I never had. It's perfect!

[@ehcropydoc]

Smartest human to ever exist. By far.

[@PumpiPie]

Happy to see that you aren't good at everything! <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="673">11:13</a> 😂 Brings a little hope for the rest of us.

[@QuintBUILDs]

Professor: This is linear algebra. Me: When would I ever use that stuff? Me today: Oh...

[@Steedie]

WOAH this is incredible! Nice work

[@robotics_and_stuff]

I liked the ortho camera. Thanks for sharing!

[@rasmus9311]

The reverse perspective thing was very cool, would love to see more examples of it

[@Zakk_Ross]

This is beautiful. also the coolest profile pic creator. So cool!!! and I would love to see landscape photos and what not with weird lenses! that's art man!!!

[@LetsPlay4Free]

Another banger Stuff Made Here Video. Can't wait for the next one!

[@user-fm5ju8cx4v]

It's not useless, it makes great black metal album cover pictures iI think

[@nicolaslab1814]

I have been waiting so long for an upload.

[@number1eclipse]

Once I saw that thing in action for the first time I was like huh, he adopted the MRI moving camera approach. At the very least it immediately reminded me of that spinning rig. I understand the tech is different, but implementing similar design for a reason.

[@tomasnemec5680]

Dude, you are awesome! I so much enjoy watching your projects. This one blew me away

[@EDKFtravels]

WOW!!! Amazing!!! Thanks for the video!!! Keep up the good work.

[@jckf]

The concept of looking "around" something is actually the least interesting here. Any camera can do this if placed on a long stick like this machine. Everything else is really cool though, especially the elimination of perspective!

[@owngamesgamer4030]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1074">17:54</a> VOYAGER COREEE (this is a very similar way to how the voyager probes made color pictures)

[@Moesbi689]

These tablet explanations are so nice:)

[@balomueller]

Very impressive tech and I think the results are actual art!

[@MikeDS49]

It's an an absolutely incredible device, and takes a large chunk of brilliance. Eliminating perspective is so cool and it's a key feature of a Synthetic Apeture Radar. That said, the creation process is not teaching the viewers a good methodology for creating a complicated system. I don't know if you did it off camera, but instead of trying to eat the elephant in one bite, show stepping up from simple prototypes first to make a proof of concept work for each element of the system. It would avoid a lot of the nearly impossible debugging of the full scale complicated system simultaneously with 100s or 1000s of possible interacting sources of error.

[@MikeDS49]

The mathematics alone describing what the camera sees in these odd lens configurations take a very large feat of mental might.

[@RFC3514]

Applied Science did something similar a few years ago using huge fresnel lenses. The video is called "Hypercentric optics: A camera lens that can see behind objects".

[@Will-bp4ri]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="697">11:37</a> Hydra wack-a-mole

[@michaeldufresne9428]

I applaud your tenacity. I don't know how you manage to do it every time instead of giving up before succeeding in the end.

[@biocyd3]

@StuffMadeHere I thought for sure you were going to try and scatter a laser or something to try and bounce around objects. Then somehow read it. Isnt what you did kinda just the same as if someone just walked to the left or right until they could see you behind the wall? Still amazing and I love your vids. Just think this one is kinda cheating. More looking behind than seeing behind the wall. :)

[@MonkeMan54]

This man is a genius

[@oryxwhite7555]

The last photo process is literally digital cubism which is really cool!

[@DynoosHD]

You can shorten the exposure by using multible arms and let them expose different sections of the image.

[@starshipx1282]

You are an inspiration to many young engineers to try and make things on their own and experiment and test. Its wonderful.

[@timwildauer5063]

There actually are cameras that see around corners. They measure the time it takes photons to bounce off a wall, hit the object, off the wall again, and then hit the detector. Then with tons of math you can get the general shape of an object that’s occluded. The Smithsonian Magazine has an article about it from 2012 if anyone is interested.

[@steveb0503]

I was going to bring this up - it's an interesting ability that emerged out of the research methodology referred to as "femtophotography".

[@Deja117]

This is epic. I wonder what would happen if you added thermal imaging or radar cameras, would you be able to see partially through blocked areas if they were in the middle? Or even use the data they give for better alignment of the final coloured image?

[@DeadlyNancy]

Seeing the effort you put into spinning the camera balanced really makes you appreciate the engineering of a CT scanning machine.

[@oscar________]

Easily the best channel out there!!👌

[@ifconceptvideos]

This spiraled within control real fast.