Researchers at MIT have created a camera system that allows the creation of a 3D model of an object hidden from line of site of the camera. The solution relies on lasers being bounced off nearby surfaces onto the object to create a reconstructed computer model accurate to within one tenth of an inch. Watch this video from the USA Today website to see how it works!
The camera emits laser pulses in 50-femtosecond (quadrillionth of a second) pulses at various spots on the side-angled backing wall. The light pulses reflect off the obscured object and reflect back onto the wall. The camera collects these scattered reflections and feeds them into a computer, which knits them together like a jigsaw puzzle, creating a three-dimensional picture of the hidden object within 15 millionths of a second.