News Tiny X-Ray vision chip can peer through nearby objects, like cardboard boxes and even walls — researchers say it is small enough to fit into a smar...

[Admin]

A Superman-inspired, CMOS-powered X-ray vision imager chip emerges.

Tiny X-Ray vision chip can peer through nearby objects, like cardboard boxes and even walls — researchers say it is small enough to fit into a smar... : Read more

 

[artk2219]

It will definitely cause some considerations, but from a medical perspective, a cheap, small, safe, and efficient portable medical imager would be an amazing breakthrough. Imagine those doctors offices located out in the middle of nowhere with no funding at all. Having the ability to take a quick look inside of a patient to search for anything obviously wrong could potentially save many many lives.

 

[Brian28]

I understand we don't have a good non-technical word for it, but we should avoid using "X-Ray" to describe THz radar, which does not use X-Ray radiation, even though it has some similar capabilities. X-Ray radiation has health risks that THz emissions do not. (X-Ray is exa-hertz, which is a million-tera-hertz.)
THz is less powerful than infrared.

 

[chaz_music]

I understand we don't have a good non-technical word for it, but we should avoid using "X-Ray" to describe THz radar, which does not use X-Ray radiation, even though it has some similar capabilities. X-Ray radiation has health risks that THz emissions do not. (X-Ray is exa-hertz, which is a million-tera-hertz.)
THz is less powerful than infrared.

I agree with your comment. When I first read the title I though "no way" they would purposely use X-ray band radiation. The 100THz band is still within infrared radiation range.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared

One observation: In the article, they have a way to create 100THz RF. If I remember correctly, this is only 7 octaves away from visible light. It would be cool to have light glowing from an RF antenna one day instead of an LED.

 

[ET3D]

From the article:

"With privacy issues in mind, the researchers designed the technology for use only at close range, about 1 inch from an object. For example, if a thief tried to scan the contents of someone’s bag, the thief would need to be so close that the person would be aware of what they were doing, O said. The next iteration of the imager chip should be able to capture images up to 5 inches away and make it easier to see smaller objects."

Seems strange that on one hand they'd say that 1 inch is for security reason, then say that a 5 inch device with better detail is in the works.

I can definitely see someone scanning everyone with this on public transport.

And yeah, it's annoying that the article calls it X-ray.

 

[TheyCallMeContra]

I understand we don't have a good non-technical word for it, but we should avoid using "X-Ray" to describe THz radar, which does not use X-Ray radiation, even though it has some similar capabilities. X-Ray radiation has health risks that THz emissions do not. (X-Ray is exa-hertz, which is a million-tera-hertz.)
THz is less powerful than infrared.

Author here: this is a much-appreciated note! The researchers use this term but don't clarify that difference.

I'll make an edit to the article sometime today or tomorrow (depending on the editing pipeline) to clarify this difference. THz radar. Well-caught.

 

[nightbird321]

Will be useful for locksmithing... both sides.

 

[bit_user]

Since it relies on an active emitter, I wonder if that will make it cheap & easy to build detectors. If so, defending against it might not be too hard.

Still, I might just go ahead and buy futures in lead foil.
; )

 

[bit_user]

a cheap, small, safe, and efficient portable medical imager would be an amazing breakthrough. Imagine those doctors offices located out in the middle of nowhere with no funding at all. Having the ability to take a quick look inside of a patient to search for anything obviously wrong could potentially save many many lives.

Sounds like a tricorder.

Maybe someone should combine it with an AI model for finding problems in x-ray images and enter it in this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricorder_X_Prize
​

 

[artk2219]

Sounds like a tricorder.

Maybe someone should combine it with an AI model for finding problems in x-ray images and enter it in this:

​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricorder_X_Prize​

​

That's actually exactly what i was thinking of, several medical sensors in one package. Ideally with some sort of database and "AI" (basically something that can look for statistically related anomalies in the data). It would help to interpret the results, and maybe point at something the doctor may have missed themselves, hopefully leading to a better diagnosis for the patient. Or at the very least lead to a "yeahhhhh, thats weird, we need to get you to a better facility" before something becomes a bigger problem.

 

[edzieba]

For those who remember Soli, another chip-scale THz system, that was down at 60GHz, so this is a decent reduction in operating wavelength for a similar packaging size.

 

[chaz_music]

For those who remember Soli, another chip-scale THz system, that was down at 60GHz, so this is a decent reduction in operating wavelength for a similar packaging size.

Man, when I saw this article I knew that I had seen this kind of tech before. Your post woke up those brain cells again.

Soli was to be on the Google Pixel circa 2019, and the article I read said that they used 60GHz like you said. They ran into problems due to added cost and it ran afoul that 60GHz band being used in India. I saw a post that it also could eat up battery life, but that might have been an anecdotal opinion. But wow, this kind of sensor keeps popping back up.

Isn't this also the frequency that WiGig used? D'oh! A WiGig router would probably blind this tech at 60GHz.

One post I read also said that they were looking at using this to replace capacitive touch tech. That would also be fantastic if they can get the cost to parity to the touch screen cost. And it is obvious that the RF being sent out could also be modulated, so that could be used for very short range communications (range limited/protected). If everyone's phones were belching out RF in this band, it would get unusable very quickly for comms in public settings, being only usable in an RF quiet environment (like home).

 

[parkerthon]

I understand we don't have a good non-technical word for it, but we should avoid using "X-Ray" to describe THz radar, which does not use X-Ray radiation, even though it has some similar capabilities. X-Ray radiation has health risks that THz emissions do not. (X-Ray is exa-hertz, which is a million-tera-hertz.)
THz is less powerful than infrared.

Thank you. I wondered about this. They really do need to not use that word when describing the technology, especially in a medical setting. The problem is xray has become a ubiquitous generic term for describing the ability to see through something solid.

 

[JustAnotherRandomDude]

Yes!! I device that makes people taking my valuable packages off my doorstep even easier lol