Slashdot Mirror
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.
I predict the #1 use for this technology will eventually be peeking through woman's clothes.
-insert a witty something-
No more wishing for x-ray vision. Woman's locker room here I come!
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these taking pictures of Natalie Portman.
"x-ray goggles" based on REAL SCIENCE!!!!!
....
See what is going on at your neighbors house!
Protect yourself from armed muggers!
Free Online Dark Fantasy RPG - http://www.blackmud.com
hope they took pictures of some good looking hands, i mean, one without warts and stuff. I need new images for my hand fetish website!
--LordKaT
In Alias the terahertz camera could see thru 30 meters of earth.
100% Pure Evil With The Look And Feel Of Wholesome Goodness
Airport screening. This reminds me of the airport in Total Recall where Arnold had a gun. Very cool. 4th Amendment notwithstanding.
that's cool. What sort of astrnomy can be done with this?
fp?
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?
What the porn industry can do with this! No more fake celbrity nude photos!!
These things have been available in comic books for years.
. This sig unintentionally left blank. I meant to put something here, but I'm busy.
As if the black car sitting outside my house wasn't enough, now I have to deal with this kind of government surveillance too!? At least now I know where they got the pictures of my Anti RIAA boxers from...
Posting as directed.
until you can make out a nipple...
According to the article, the frequencies are used only certain moths. It also talks about using the frequency to carry terabit wireless networks...
Does this mean that that I could use the wireless network to create swarm of attack moths that can see through reams of paper.
I can finally overtake the pointy haired boss and rule the office!
A: "Wanna TeraHertz Donut?"
B: "Sure!"
A Hits B
B: "Ow!"
A: "TeraHertz, Donut?"
You are not the customer.
What kind of engineering is required to make the 'lead underwear' required to block these. Certainly not a simple tinfoil hat.
Where are those pictures ;-)? Weren't there some night-vision camera's that also did that?
--sex
Very popular slashdot journal for adul
maybe now we can see into the mind of a Teletubby, and figure out the deep ephemeral purpose to their existance: as well as our own. at least look into their skulls and see La-La's ball.
or does the repeated use of the "St(PICTURE OF A STAR)rTiger" logo on the pictures page make the whole thing look considerably less like a professional research project?
--
grep "xercist"
Didn't a japanese company sell a hoax camera not so long ago. Which was supposed to let you see through clothes?
I fought the corporate America, and the corporate America bought the law.
put up a URL of a webpage were you saw that so it can be confirmed.
Obama = Socialism.
Just thinking back to movies of X-Rays being used to show pictures of your foot, to see how it fit inside a new shoe. Sure, at the time it was a great selling gadget, but I wonder how much damage it did to the people who used it, and those who worked in the store with it. I'm thinking also of modern x-ray technicians, who wear special lead-lined vests, and limit the exposure as much as possible.
:(
It'd sure looch the large one if, after taking pictures of your hand, you suddenly developed bone cancer and died within a year.
Lemon curry?
Just wait, by tomorrow morning Apple will have an article on their webpage about the "Terahertz Myth." Soon afterwards AMD will release the Athlon XP 1100000+, but it will really run at 700000 Mhz.
Posted from Mac OS X.
Now I have to deal with wallhackers outside of Counter Strike.
An image of a hand in the 430-750 trillion Hz range shows remarkably more clarity than the new technology!
That reminds me. Where can I get one of these. I'm on my way to workout.
Just a matter of time...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Another quick note: a terabyte (as in Linux, and as in the terahertz as a measurement of computer clock speed) is actually 2^40 bytes.
-insert a witty something-
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these taking pictures of Natalie Portman..
14:35Tuesday 11th February 2003
Rupert Goodwins
A new area of remote sensing and communication is opening up, thanks to groundbreaking technology from the European Space Agency.
StarTiger, a European Space Agency project, has taken the first terahertz picture of a human hand. 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.
ESA originally investigated the radiation for sensing atmospheric and ground phenomena from satellites, but it is now examining terrestrial applications of the new frequencies. "We have recognised the huge potential in non-space applications, and in parallel to exploiting the use of terahertz waves and the StarTiger technology in space, we have kicked-off a commercialisation study to identify the best way of transferring it into terrestrial systems," said Pierre Brisson, head of ESA's Technology Transfer and Promotion Office.
One terahertz is 1,000 gigahertz, and most current radio technology stops at around 100 GHz: 0.1THz. Everything gives off terahertz radiation naturally, and like radio waves -- but unlike heat or light -- the waves can pass through some solid objects. Like light, it is possible to focus the radiation and create images as if the intervening material were translucent, and by analysing the frequencies given off the chemical and physical characteristics of the object can be worked out.
Terahertz radiation has wavelengths too short for normal radio antennae to pick up but too long for normal optical techniques and thus the band has been closed to experimenters and scientists. Until now, the only known user of the frequencies has been a species of moth. By using nano-engineering techniques to create micro-machined arrays of minute antennae, the StarTiger team has created a sensor array that can image objects at 0.2THz and 0.3THz.
"The final version was an enhanced imaging system incorporating a two-colour 16-pixel detector array of the size of a postage stamp. This advanced system incorporated revolutionary silicon micro-electrical-mechanical systems (MEMs) technology," said Chris Mann, the project manager at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories (RAL) in Oxfordshire, where most of the work has been done. "The enhanced system delivered images that confirmed the nature of terahertz waves. An imager can show details of features under the skin, confirming the potential of this technique." As well as images of a hand taken through 15mm of paper, the project has also released pictures of the human body imaged through clothing.
Because the field is so new and unexplored, many applications are still to be tested. Detecting explosives or biological agents in parcels, cancers beneath the skin, the state of wounds beneath dressings, and seeing through fog: all have been suggested by StarTiger and other researchers.
Today scientists have announced a new way to get more pornography online by using new technology.. I could see where this would be useful for X-rays and such iof it could get cleaner. it is kind of cool however. I just dont want to see this kind of technology coruppted. (By the way, i have no problems with porn, i like it just as much as the next guy. =) )
---
The picture of the hand, at least, was taken using just the rays the hand emits naturally.
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.
Imagine the X10 camera ads this will bring forth...
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
From the article:
Everything gives off terahertz radiation naturally, and like radio waves -- but unlike heat or light -- the waves can pass through some solid objects.
Light waves can't pass through solid objects? Except, you know, glass. Or clear plastic. Visible light can't pass through things that are opaque, moron. That's why they invented the damn word in the first place.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology /t-ray_camera_020613.html
Do not read this sig.
I don't get it...
This is what happens when you let the marketing team design literature, people!
J.
About time. Now Herr Reichmarshall Ashcroft can track Democr^H^H^H^H^H^H Commun^H^H^H^H^H^H terrorists. And we all know those who oppose this are probally doing something un-american. And of course Ashcroft, as the god-fearing american will never exploit this to violate our consitutional rights.
you are really sick you know that?
Obama = Socialism.
Locker room, they're already naked!
Banaaaana!
That is one of the most pitifull attempts at kharma-whoring I have ever seen. 23 of this guys last 24 comments are titled "Linux?" What a twat.
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
If they equipped that x-cam that is on all the pop-up ads with this I might actually buy one.
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
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.
MacGyver built a teraherz camera out of a banana peel and a rubber band.
YHBT
Since you're obviously new around here:
You Have Been Trolled
Unless you want retinal damage, don't click on the Goat Sex link.....
It seems like it would be a much easier and cheaper way of producing the Thz waveguide antennae.
Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
Well don't forget. For every action there's a reaction. I predict lead undies will become popular.
thanks,do you have any more from the artist or similar?
Thats like Intel stating they broke the Gigahertz barrier when they reached 300 MHz processor speeds (or rather 0.3GHz).
Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
There have been quite a few posts asking about cameras that can see through clothing. One even calling it an April's fools joke. Here is an article about Video Voyeurs from CyberCrime. If I remember correctly the infrared on the cameras work best in bright sunlight looking at tight dark clothing.
Maybe you should educate the morons of tomorrow so they'll stop believing the leaders of tomorrow. - Dogbert
I'm thinking for search and rescue puposes..
How feasible would it be to focus though multiple layers of different materials, or though one layer of unknown thickness (eg. snow from an avelanche) to look for people and/or things like shipwrecks?
If they can do that, and have it be portable, the military would likely be interested too. In either case, I can see scientific and medical applications for this.
Surprisingly, the Supreme Court ruled last year -- in an opinion written by Scalia (conservative) and joined by Souter (moderate) and Thomas (conservative), as well as Ginsburg and Breyer (both liberal) -- that the use of thermal imaging to detect marijuana grow lamps inside a house was illegal: It looks to me like terahertz imaging would fall under this ruling, and thus be illegal without a warrant. For now, anyway...
Are these waves blocked by tinfoil?
Could you imagine your voyeuristic neighbor with a Thz ban scanner? Your bedroom life would no longer be sacred. Imagine if the same individual had access to the rendering software for the Thz scanner. What a neat home movie they would have.
To know is to have knowledge....to understand is to be enlightened.
Time Domain corporation has Ultra Wide band .
.
.
o no mist.htm
and is a better all around product
It does the X-ray vision trick, and it will
make hyper accurate GPS possible
It has many other possibilites including
incredible wireless connectivity
http://www.timedomain.com/Files/HTML/news/TheEc
Check it out !!!
Ex_MislTech
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
I work for an observatory that uses these wavelengths to do astronomy. At these wavelengths you're mostly looking at the cold material in the universe --- stuff like interstellar gas, dust, and so on.
This post is strictly my own opinion and not necessarily that of my employer.
I'm just waiting for the terahertz filter for Sony digicams that'll let you see nekkid women under their clothes THROUGH walls. *snicker*
http://www.spy.th.com/through.html
-Christopher Wu
http://www.christopherwu.net/
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;
If this is so groundbreaking, why do they fail to mention that "terahertz radiation" also goes by another name: infrared? If it's so hard to detect and analyze, how come my $10 radio-shack universal remote control can do it?
Tinfoil hats will soon be superceded by tinfoil longjohns and tinfoil wallpaper. Time to invest in aluminium futures I think.
Seriously though - this is too easy to beat for anyone who feels the need to.
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.
This smells suspiciously of renaming something old so it seems new.
In the early 1980s, the IRAS satellite did an all-sky survey at wavelengths up to 100 micron - i.e. about 3 THz.
The article says "most current radio technology stops at around 100 GHz." I myself have observed at 345GHz (0.345 THz) using radio astronomy techniques, and this was over 10 years ago. (This was at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, but it is not the only such observatory in the world.)
There is some new stuff here, however - at CSO, we had only one pixel, and they are talking about a compact 16 pixel detector (working at 0.2 to 0.3 THz - I.e. much the same frequencies as we were using.)
From an astronomical point of view, although detectors are a fairly big issue, our main problem was noise from the atmosphere - i.e. the atmosphere 'glows' at these wavelenghts, which tends to drown out the astronomical objects you are looking for.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
You are preaching to the choir. We need to have a beer and figure out what to do. I quit once (and I'm not a irrational person) and spent two months traveling in New Zealand, best damn time of my life. I think about that often.
I would add the following to your list:
+ Sick fantasy of your wife dying (but not because I want here harmed or dead) so that you get the life insurance. Pay off the house, travel.
+ Thinking about doing something besides computer shit, like a hobby or something, but end up playing games on the computer, email on the computer, etc.
+ Realized that college was a lot more fun than I realized at the time, you got to learn new things, sex, drink beer, and somehow 2 hours of sleep was enough!
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
That's one place I don't want to get the resulting lead-poisoning/tetanus. Nope, no lead undies for me. If they want to see me naked, though, they're going to have to at least buy me dinner!
A terabyte is a terabyte 2^40 in all circumstances.
Some HDD manufacturers say 10^12 but that is just so that they can pass off a 0.91 terabyte disc as a 1 terabyte disc.
1 kilobyte = 2^10 bytes
1 megabyte = 2^20 bytes
1 gigabyte = 2^30 bytes
1 terabyte = 2^40 bytes
There are words like kibibyte and all sorts of other stupid ideas. They were invented to confuse things. Even Micro$oft Windows seems to have this one right. I just looked at a PC running it. It said 38,050,996,224 bytes = 35.4 MB. If they can get it right, so can you!
When you get your terabyte disc, make sure you get 1,099,511,627,776 bytes. If you get just 10^12 bytes, they are stealing nearly 93MB of drive space from you!
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
if you were in a hotel with a camera like that, and you looked through the wall, and what you saw was someone spying on YOU from the other side of the wall.... because then... its like, what can you do? can't call the police or anything... mabey just take the guy out for a beer, really. share storys....
-You're wasting your time. Alfador only likes me.
I live very close to QinetiQ - those responsible for the picture of the guy with the hidden gun on that site.
:/
There was a press release some time ago about the potential uses for this, and one of the major ones was for the fire service to enable them to see people in fires.
One of the more concerning things was that there was a somewhat odd camera-like device pointing out of their window straight towards my house for a significant amount of time a couple of years ago.. that somewhat disturbs me
Did anyone else look at their diagrams of the terahertz pixels? They were massive, stacked silicon structures. I can't imagine them getting the densities of those things anywhere near the densities of your run-of-the-mill digital camera anytime soon. It also explains the rather poor resolution of the sample images.
:)
Hopefully improvements will let them be rolled into low cost medical equipment (fairly) soon. Or cheap, light x-ray goggles, as everyone seems to want
Did the image get cut off, I wonder? or is one of the researchers missing a finger?
Someone already said this, but there was not pics and I know you all love and want pics, you sick perverts... ermmm...
Here are the pics anywayz
Note this is informative not inappropriate neither offensive! =)
Sigs are for morons... Wait a minute...
There's a small company in Ann Arbor, Michigan that has a commercial terahertz imaging device called the T-Ray 2000. Check it out. http://www.picometrix.com/t-ray/index.html
We'll finally be able to definitively state that yes, indeed, the cat is in the box.
take a few crappy pics of my hand, and say it was some terra-thingy, and I can get millions of hits on my webserver from slashdotters? yay!!
This space for rent, inquire within.
First, the metal detector alarm goes off like hell. Then you were invited into a dark room where you're striped for inspection of firearms.
From the article:
The whole point of engineering notation, in which you only express numbers in terms of powers of ten which are multiples of three, is that your number which gets multiplied is greater than one and less than 1,000, which would put you in the next bracket. It's Kilo Mega Giga Tera, for 10^3, 10^6, 10^9, and 10^12 respectively.
Hence .3 THz is not proper use of engineering notation, and thus it is not proper use of the name Tera. This is still Gigahertz range. When they get past .999(bar) THz and up to 1 THz, then this is terahertz imaging. This isn't even almost terahertz imaging, it's less than a third of the way there.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
well, it IS a news site, and not a "news for nerds" site (yes, i can read the banner :D) most people who read CNN are there strictly for what is going on, and dont really care if they see first hand what is happening in the world, which is a frightening, and disheartening thought
OK, all im really worried about is this:
will it be used to make a new microwave that cookes food in literal moments, instead of making me wait 3 and a half for easy-mac???
Terahertz radiation lies on the boundary between radio and light waves...
Right...like how Kansas City lies on the boundary between Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
...just my 2 gil.
Terahertz? Screw that! I want teraBYTE images!
And in other news, a webserver blew up in Europe earlier today, taking out most of France.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
By "beat" do you mean "jam"? The US carries a law that says it is illegal to jam electromagnetic wave communication (domestic of course). That is why it is illegal to suppress cell phones in hospitals, hotels, any residence, etc... by using electronic equipment whose sole purpose is to "jam" communications. Purhaps we will all need to live in concrete homes with 6 inch thick windows!
To know is to have knowledge....to understand is to be enlightened.