What do robots and birds have in common? They both have difficulty recognizing transparent objects. That’s because these objects have their own challenges: other objects can be reflected on them, they can be dazzling, or they can be completely transparent. Researchers at Fraunhofer IOF came up with an idea for enabling robots to “see” through glass. In our interactive exhibit “Seeing and Feeling in the Future,”we ’ll showyou the technology that will enable robots and machines to recognize and interact with transparent objects in the future. You’ll also see an ultra-compact multispectral camera here that makes the invisible visible to the human eye. This camera can be used to determine the ripeness of fruit or, in the future, to detect when a plant needs water.
