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Visible Light 'X-Ray' Sees Through Solid Objects
disco_tracy writes "Some day we may not need X-rays to see inside people, thanks to a new way to decipher light that passes through opaque surfaces. Normally visible light becomes too scattered to detect after passing through opaque surfaces. But scientists in France have developed a way to reconstruct images from light passing through such surfaces by deciphering just how the material makes the light scatter. In the short term the research will help improve the strength of telecommunications signals and fiber optics cables, but years from now the technology could supplement or even replace traditional ultrasounds for baby imaging and X-rays for weapons detection at airports."
unless wikipedia is wrong, which is impossible
You make me want to go and edit the elephant entry again. ... Or maybe go and randomly edit something I know nothing about basing all my information off of other wikipedia articles, quoting them for authority. I think I might combine something about army ants, satellite antennas, and low-end computer speakers. Or maybe I'll just add the word "not" in front of a significant statement in one of the articles related to a student's upcoming paper to see if they bite the poison apple. Anyone else with me?
I've had this idea for a while now that low-heat, very bright LEDs are available as light sources: 1. take an existing CAT scanner: Xray source, detector, mounting system (with the rotating arm) and image processing software. 2. replace the Xray source with a bank of LEDs 3. replace the Xray detector (a scintillation screen? whatever it is) with a CCD 4. start scanning Obviously there's a whole bunch of experimentation needed to calibrate diffusion due to different types of tissue/bone/marshmallow but the software should be mostly unchanged, the mechanical mounting system would be mostly unchanged, and we'd be replacing a radioactive source with a low-power, low-heat light. Is anybody working on this? I've asked a couple of professor at a biomedical engineering department but much silence ensued. The ability to use off-the-shelf components seems like a big plus to me... There would also be a need to check at what intensity cold light is detrimental to cells (and other small issues like that)