Air is reasonably transparent, but over long distances, things
such as humidity, turbulence, and the like can distort images.
This is because the density of air isn't the same everywhere,
and it changes in time and space. The situation becomes even
more complicated when trying to look through fog, biological
tissues, or other inhomogeneous materials. Similarly, reflection
off most (non-polished) surfaces doesn't produce coherent
images, no matter how shiny the surface looks. Despite the loss
of information, researchers have developed a number of
techniques to reconstruct the appearance of the original object.
Ori Katz, Eran Small, and Yaron Silberberg have now shown they
can produce a fully three-dimensional image even after light has
gone through thin, inhomogeneous layers. Known as turbid
materials, these layers contain microscopic particles or density
fluctuations that scatter light, preventing focusing. To
accomplish this, they used wavefront shaping, whereby they pass
the scattered light through a specia