Terahertz Imaging:Another Way to See Through Walls

311Stylee writes: "Wow. I've never even heard of this before, but it looks genuine with a writeup on MSNBC and Space.com . Existing technology is used to measure sea temperatures through clouds via satellite, but newer cameras could be used in a huge array of applications because of their ability to see through walls, clothing, smoke and clouds. Google gets 546 hits on T-rays, inlcuding one from AT+T Bell Labs."

Comments

Half IR, Half MW

[Alien54]

This is one of those things that shares characteristics of both Infrared and Microwaves. The area of the spctrum has been called "far infrared". I can see that it has been under developed. Frrom the AT&T paper.

The image of a slice of bacon shows different levels of T-ray transparency for lean and fatty areas. Since fat absorbs almost no T-rays, it looks white; meat absorbs roughly 25 times as many T-rays, so it looks dark.

Many compounds changed the T-rays in characteristic ways, due to absorption or reflection. Molecules and chemical compounds, particularly in the gas phase, showed strong absorption lines that can serve as "fingerprints" of the molecules. Metals and other materials with high electrical conductivity were completely opaque to terahertz radiation.

The T-ray imaging technique is notable in that it can distinguish between different chemical compositions inside a material even when the object looks uniform in visible light. Also, most plastics are transparent to T-rays, so it can "see" inside plastic packaging.

I believe they use pulses to illuminate the targets, just so that you don't cook them

The Zen of Optics

[GroovBird]

If you can see through everything, what do you see?

Dave