Terahertz Imagery Progresses

ke4roh writes "Since Slashdot last discussed terahertz imaging, the European Space Agency's Star Tiger project has taken terahertz images of a human hand. Some of the pictures show just how useful the imagery might be for peering through walls and such - one of the images is through a 15mm pad of paper." The EE Times has another story.

Comments

Practical Application

[BoomerSooner]

Airport screening. This reminds me of the airport in Total Recall where Arnold had a gun. Very cool. 4th Amendment notwithstanding.

Thermal imaging

[Adam9]

Snip of some info from the tiger page:

Terahertz imaging can be achieved by observing the natural terahertz waves emitted by pretty much everything. Unlike light, terahertz waves are able to propagate through cloud and smoke providing a powerful advantage for certain remote sensing measurements. From a practical aspect they are also able to pass through windows, paper, clothing and in certain instances even walls.

Sounds like thermal imaging on steroids. Eventually, would this become the standard military surveillance method that could be used on a UAV in enemy or (god forbid) domestic airspace?

Re:Thermal imaging

[mmol_6453]

Using an IR camera, a firefighter can see animated fire behind a sheet of 1/2" drywall.

Good to see some constuctive devices being made

[Neophytus]

A device that can be used to see through walls has potential anti-terrorism uses, and if tweaked it could probably be used as a replacement for the mildly-dangerous xray technology. Also being able to be used for communications, this is a step in the right direction for research into radio technologys.

Interesting medical applications

[chrae]

When this becomes more developed this could lead to less of a need for Doctors to use exploritative surgery to see what is going on in the deep tissues. To find things such as torn tissues or tumors.

And from what I understand from the article, TeraHertz radiation is something that objects emmit naturally. So I'd assume devices using this technique would not be exposing you to radiation, as X-rays do.

Security checkpoints might adopt this also. Airports currently use x-rays which can be damaging to high speed film and has other negative issues also. The article mentioned that certain chemical characteristics could also be gleaned from an imaging system such as this, since the object itself (and the chemicals it contains) is the thing emmitting the radiation. Possibilities include detecting explosives and drugs.

Also, just as a side note, the pictures of a human body through clothing referred to in the article are of some fat guy with flabby tits. View at your own risk.

Re:Dude

[Yorrike]

You'll want one of these then.

Inkjet fabrication instead of photolithography?

[mikeophile]

It seems like it would be a much easier and cheaper way of producing the Thz waveguide antennae.

Re:Terehertz Specs

[u19925]

much simple solution exist for peeking through women's clothes. remember sony camcorder night vision mode? if used in day time and if a woman is wearing tight clothing which is transparent to IR light, then that IR light gets reflected by your body. So by using an IR filter, you can almost see through. Sony removed this feature in new camcorders (they added a sensor, so it can't be used in day light. i guess, it can still be fooled. also, there is some rumor that they changed the CCD chip somewhat). This was all sometime in 97-98.

What exactly is 'terabit speeds'?

[jerrytcow]

Terahertz radiation lies on the boundary between radio and light waves and is far more difficult to detect and analyse than either, but is of huge interest for medical, security, environmental and communication uses; the technology could, for instance, theoretically carry wireless data at terabit speeds.

Do these waves travel faster than 2.4 GHz waves? That would be news - I was under the impression that all waves traveled at the same speed.