In recent years, computer scientists have been investigating a range of techniques for removing reflections from digital photographs shot through glass. Some have tried to use variability in focal distance or the polarization of light; others, like those at MIT, have exploited the fact that a pane of glass produces not one but two reflections, slightly offset from each other.
At the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing this week, members of the MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture Group will present a fundamentally different approach to image separation. Their system fires light into a scene and gauges the differences between the arrival times of light reflected by nearby objects — such as panes of glass — and more distant objects.
Read more details about this invention at MIT News website at http://news.mit.edu/2016/reflection-removing-camera-0325