Holographic Technology Helps Find Needle in a Haystack

Researchers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) ¹ have invented an augmented reality headset that uses holographic principles to allow humans to ‘see’ through opaque surfaces. The invention, dubbed ‘X-AR’, combines wireless sensing with computer vision and a floating holographic sphere to enable users to see hidden items.

X-AR (© MIT).

This new invention relies on a new flexible conformal antenna. The researchers designed the antenna to fit on the Microsoft HoloLens without blocking any of its cameras and sensors. The system leverages RFID tags that are battery-less, cheap and already deployed on billions of items such as apparel, consumer products and inventory items.

First, the user can choose the item that they would like to find in the inventory, for example a specific T-shirt. In order to find hidden items X-AR sends wireless signals that power up the RFID tags in the environment. The tags then respond back with their unique identifier even when they’re inside boxes or behind other objects. X-AR creates a virtual 3D map of the environment. As the user walks around the scene, X-AR tracks the headset’s trajectory and combines it with RF (radio-frequency) measurements to estimate the location of the RFID tag. X-AR uses the natural head motion of the user to take measurements from various locations and narrow in on the position of the requested item.