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  • Perspective
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Imaging and computing with disorder

Nature Physics volume 18, pages 980–985 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Complex and inhomogeneous media are ubiquitous around us. Snow, fog, biological tissues and turbid water — even just a piece of frosted glass — are opaque to light due to scattering. Similarly, radio waves bounce and mix around buildings in cities, and acoustic waves reverberate in our bodies or across the Earth’s mantle. Although this scattering process seems to mix and completely destroy all information, thus preventing imaging or communication, a different approach has emerged — exploiting this apparently detrimental effect to one’s advantage by processing information carried by waves. This Perspective discusses how this powerful concept has recently triggered a wealth of advances in imaging and computing.

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Fig. 1: Complex media as perfect mixers.
Fig. 2: Two examples of computational imaging in complex media.
Fig. 3: Computing with disorder.

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Acknowledgements

S.G. acknowledges support from the European Research council (SMARTIES).

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  1. Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, École Normale Supérieure - Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) Research University, Sorbonne Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Collège de France, Paris, France

    Sylvain Gigan

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S.G. acknowledges financial interest in the startup LightOn.

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Gigan, S. Imaging and computing with disorder. Nat. Phys. 18, 980–985 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01681-1

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