An international group of researchers, led by a team at MIT, has developed a programmable, wireless device that can control light, such as by focusing a beam in a specific direction or manipulating the light’s intensity and doing it orders of magnitude more quickly than commercial devices. Their device, called spatial light modulator, could create super-fast lidar (light detection and ranging) sensors for self-driving cars, which could image a scene about a million times faster than existing mechanical systems. It could also accelerate brain scanners, which use light to “see” through tissue.