If you want to see through a window or door whose glass is fogged, patterned or otherwise made "unclear", would it be possible to "see" through it by using a light detector that is trained to detect how light is being bent by the glass? A perfectly clear image is impossible as much light is lost by reflection etc. To train the detector, put an image on the opposite side of the window. (This image would be designed in such a way that it contained many colours, straight and curved lines, etc.) The detector knows exactly what the image looks like before hand and thus expects photons of a certain wavelength to come through. The image could be rotated slowly while the detector gathers all the light information coming through the window. After a complete rotation, the detector has a rough idea as to how the window "encrypts" an image, and can therefore "decrypt" what's happening on the other side of the window (in a lossy way of course) perhaps in real-time. This idea might have applications in security, intelligence, etc., (in place of two-way mirrors for example)
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Sounds like your either talking about an LCD or Pepper's ghost.
In what way, DrLZRDMN? I just read about Pepper's Ghost and I see no connection. Also, how are LCDs similar? Thanks.
I see what he means and this is an interesting idea. It would fail though as the patterns on glass which distorts images are random, and fogged glass contains solids, not lenses.
Also the camera would only be able to focus on a point the same distance away as the image was, if you could get it to work at all.
What you seem to be saying is that a distortion filter such as a piece of badly made glass has a standard way of manipulating light that passes through it and if the distortions could be analysed and compensated for a true image could be reconstituted. There are telescopes now in use that do something of that in dealing with the fluctuations of light transmission through the atmosphere. It seems possible, but would it not be simpler to replace the bad glass? Two way mirrors are relatively cheap and require no intricate machinery to function.
I don't think this will work on frosted glass. The light will be too thoroughly diffused to reconstruct. It might be possible if you use a glass that is designed specifically for the purpose. But you would still need the camera and monitor which would make it unsuitable to replace a two-way mirror. If you're going to use a camera anyway, you could just as well peek through a tiny hole. By the way, you can make frosted glass far more transparent by simply spreading oil over its surface. "Frosted" glass does not contain opaque material despite Leo W's comment. The surface is merely etched to make it rough.