MIT Invented A Camera That Can Read Closed Books (gizmodo.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: In a breakthrough that will appeal to both spies and those who work with priceless but frail historical documents, researchers at MIT have developed a camera that uses terahertz radiation to peer at the text on pages of a book, without it having to be open. Terahertz radiation falls somewhere between the microwave and infrared spectrums, and the research team, including Barmak Heshmat, Ramesh Raskar, and Albert Redo Sanchez from MIT, and Justin Romberg and Alireza Aghasi from Georgia Tech, chose that particular flavor of radiation because of how it reacts with different chemicals. Different chemicals produce a distinct frequency as they react with different terahertz frequencies, which can be measured and distinguished. In this instance, it allows the researchers to tell the different between ink and blank paper. Complex algorithms and software is required to translate the frequencies being bounced back to the camera, allowing it to distinguish letters on a page. But it also relies on how far the short bursts of terahertz radiation are traveling, by precisely timing how long it takes to reach the 20-micrometer-thick air gaps between pages of a book, it's able to calculate when it moves from page to page. The report adds, "the researchers feel their system could be a fantastic tool for museums or other facilities who want to explore and catalog historical documents, without actually having to touch or open them, and risk damage."

Comments

Lotto Scratchers?

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me know when the camera can see through the latex covering of a lotto scratcher.
I might have a use for it then.

Re:Lotto Scratchers?

[ArmoredDragon]

To win the $500 jackpot? Here's a better idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Breakthough use of new technology always = porn

[MSTCrow5429]

You just know 13-year old boys are going to use this to look at the magazines in plastic wrappers.

Re:Breakthough use of new technology always = porn

[Anonymous Coward]

and he literally WILL be 'only reading it for the articles'

Re:Breakthough use of new technology always = porn

[geekmux]

You just know 13-year old boys are going to use this to look at the magazines in plastic wrappers.

Well, at least that's more believable than the bullshit cover story of using this to catalog ancient textbooks.

This will be used and abused as a spy tool, first and foremost. It's practically inevitable. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this technology disappears from headlines as quickly as it appeared.

Re:Breakthough use of new technology always = porn

[K. S. Kyosuke]

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this technology disappears from headlines as quickly as it appeared.

Cue Isaac Asimov's The Dead Past.

Re:Breakthough use of new technology always = porn

[Anonymous Coward]

That won't be doing that for long. The radiation from these spy devices will zap their sperm to death.

Re:Breakthough use of new technology always = porn

[ShanghaiBill]

That won't be doing that for long. The radiation from these spy devices will zap their sperm to death.

Unlikely. THz is about 300 um. The most it is going to do is make you feel warm.

Re:Breakthough use of new technology always = porn

[Anonymous Coward]

Magazines? What's that?

It's not 2003, go to xvideos or a dozen other sites and jerk off to any category you wish. For free. Under the privacy of your covers.

(BTW, I have paid for any magazine in 15 years. Haven't looked at one in 5.)

Re:Breakthough use of new technology always = porn

[stealth_finger]

You just know 13-year old boys are going to use this to look at the magazines in plastic wrappers.

Magazines? When they have internet enable devices in their pockets. Have you ever googled tits or pussy or something without safe search? Some of the stuff you can get would put hustler to shame. Magazines, how quaint.

Re:Breakthough use of new technology always = porn

[Anonymous Coward]

If kids could afford powerful THz radiation sources we would have far more powerful things in the world (like THz-induced Nickel-metal-hydride cold fusion - renamed LENR when NASA proved it worked.)

Re:Breakthough use of new technology always = porn

[Anonymous Coward]

The whooshing sound deafened us all.

Re:Breakthough use of new technology always = porn

[Anonymous Coward]

The US government has already had this technology for decades.

Re:Breakthough use of new technology always = porn

[david_thornley]

If the intelligence agency has physical possession of something, they're almost certainly going to be able to open and read it. They've put a lot of work into that over the years.

If the agency doesn't have physical possession, I'd suspect that using this technique requires too much equipment and time to be practical.

The obvious use is to read things that can't be safely opened, like ancient scrolls and the like.

Re:Breakthough use of new technology always = porn

[doccus]

You just know 13-year old boys are going to use this to look at the magazines in plastic wrappers.

Well, at least that's more believable than the bullshit cover story of using this to catalog ancient textbooks.

This will be used and abused as a spy tool, first and foremost. It's practically inevitable. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this technology disappears from headlines as quickly as it appeared.

...And disappears from MIT ;-) And from public memory. ....Hey, what were we just talking about? Something to do with... books.. radios? I can't seem to remember.. Must not have been important then..!

that's old

[Anonymous Coward]

oh... I got it! Sammy of turd is that retard gril from class that is addicted to Pucca... vesh, this gets worse by the detail.

Now that you can tell a book by it's cover . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

The real question is how long untl it is $1 to order a set of goggles with this technology out of the back of my vintage comic book without removing it from the plastic.

This is years behind

[Anonymous Coward]

Brent Seales at the University of Kentucky was doing this years ago. I do believe he's from the MIT camp though.

Re:This is years behind

[Dthief]

MIT has a great PR machine. Dont get me wrong, they do the most amazing things. But they make sure everyone knows what they are working on all the time. This is in its infancy, but this PR will likely help get more funding and interest to help make it into a niche tool, and far down the line a commercial product.

Re:This is years behind

[Anonymous Coward]

The real trick is to find someone who can effectively write grant proposals.

Re: This is years behind

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, notice how the headline says MIT, but the article says Georgia Tech AND MIT (the GT of the north).

Re: This is years behind

[Anonymous Coward]

And that funding will likely come from people who think the fourth amendment and the whole Constitution are obstacles to be overcome while they do their divinely annointed jobs to spy on everyone.

Not impressed

[Anonymous Coward]

How about doing something useful, like a camera that identifies black people creeping around and notifies the police before they can steal stuff or commit violent crimes? That would be extremely useful, as opposed to a pointless camera that can supposedly read closed books. Before you label me a racist, it's a fact that a disproportionate amount of crime, especially violent crime, is committed by blacks. No matter how much you don't like it, statistics are facts, and numbers aren't racist.

Re: Not impressed

[Anonymous Coward]

The police can't arrest all the black people, stupid.

Re: Not impressed

[Anonymous Coward]

Omg. There is a reason that crime is higher in predominantly black neighborhoods. It's the income and education levels. Look at a poor ass white neighborhood and you have the same crime being done by uneducated poor white trash males. Stats are the way they are because of reporting and the fact that blacks are targeted more, this theyear show up in the stats more and receive harsher penalties for lesser crimes.

Numbers are racist if the people doing the reporting are racist and get bonuses in terms of funding based on arrest records.

The problem is that the institution is racist.

Re: Not impressed

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately that's not entirely true. Even accounting for socioeconomic disparity crime has racial component that can't be explained away. People from poor white neighborhoods are not nearly as prone to commit crime as poor black neighborhoods.

It's much much more likely that the problems stem from the near universal lack of a cohesive family unit among low income black families, rather than low income itself being the problem. Low income and systematic prejudices certainly don't make the problem any better but fundamentally the problem that most likely negatively impacts racial crime stats is the epidemic of fatherlessness in the black community.

Re: Not impressed

[HBI]

The sin of this is that fatherlessness was not an issue in the black community until the Great Society programs of the 1960s. In 1938 the fatherless rate was 13% in the black community. Today, the number is more like 72%, vs less than 25% amongst whites. This was an induced feature of black society, and if BLM and company wanted to blame racism for something in today's society - this is it. White people assisted in making happen, in some misguided attempt to help via welfare transfer payments that only applied if you didn't have a man in the house. We literally paid black people to break up their nuclear families, and the social price remains to be paid today.

Ironically, it's this very broken family structure that essentially causes black poverty. Single parent/single earner homes are where poverty lives - only 2% of two earner black households are below the poverty rate.

Re: Not impressed

[ArmoredDragon]

I don't think crime is a result of being poor, rather it just goes along with it. For an analogy, compare the birth rates of poor people against that of wealthier people. Even though the wealthier can afford more kids, they're smart enough to not have so many. Poor people tend to smoke more compared to wealthier people, and you have to be pretty fucking dumb to start smoking these days given that for the last 40 years it's basically impossible to have grown up without hearing about just how bad smoking actually is, not to mention how costly it is.

There isn't any economic or societal pressure to "make" them do these things, in spite of what some people claim, it's just plain making stupid fucking choices, and I've seen plenty of people born into wealthy families end up poor when they're on their own because they make stupid fucking choices. Some people are naive enough to think that if you give poor people free money that they'll have less kids, abuse drugs less, and commit fewer crimes, and that poverty can be solved by just throwing money at it, but it's just that: Naive. If you give them free money, they'll just buy a new TV and switch from a pack a day to two packs a day.

Anyways...it's interesting to note the difference in behaviors between poor white people and poor black people. Poor black people tend to live in inner city projects, and poor white people tend to live in trailers. Poor black people tend to commit more crimes against other people (i.e. robbery, assault, vandalism) and poor white people tend to commit "victimless" crimes (i.e. moonshiners, drugs, prostitution.) That said, I wouldn't be surprised if the crimes that white people commit are just noticed less because nobody is exactly going to call the police and report that they just had sex with a prostitute.

Re: Not impressed

[phayes]

The question then becomes why didn't poor white families suffer the same consequences and splinter the way black families have?

Re:Not impressed

[Anonymous Coward]

...and there goes the thread.

Thought this might be an interesting discussion about the technology involved, no, it's got to be hijacked by some fucking twat's off-topic obsession.

To follow, on every fucking thread for ever: trump/hilary, systemd, SJWs

Yes, and I do remember when /. was about intelligent technology-related discussions. Seems a long time ago now.

Re: Not impressed

[HBI]

The answer is "they did", but no one was running through poor white communities and advocating people take these benefits. In urban areas, you had activists and social workers campaigning for people to take these benefits and accept the consequences. Also, incidentally, breaking down the resistance to taking alms amongst blacks. No one did the same in white communities, so here we are.

Remember, people thought they were "helping". Before the consequences were known, people were proud of their part in doing this.

Re: Not impressed

[RabidReindeer]

Much of the modern black attitude is based on not being "disrespected". Not by earning respect, but by applying violence to those who "disrespect" you. By being the biggest, baddest (word not allowed for white people) in the 'hood.

That's not how Dr. King taught people to handle adversity, but Dr. King is dead.

Like most underclass minorities, they find it's not nearly as easy to stick it to The Man as it is to each other. So they do. And just for good measure, they fire their anger with a fantasy of "getting even" for generations of slavery.

The slavery thing needs to go away. Slavery has been illegal in the USA for well over 150 years now. Everyone responsible - both offender and victim - are long dead. At the present rate of interracial marriage, even the blackest of families is likely to be partially descended from slaveholders, even the whitest have ancestors who were slaves. And slavery isn't some sort of magical black-only thing anyway. The first slaves of Westerners in the New World were Carib Indians, thank you Christopher Columbus. And on top of that, with the immigration rate we've got, a lot of the people in the USA had ancestors who were nowhere near the American Slavery thing.

Yes, slavery is despicable, but you don't march into the future if you never take your eyes off the past. It's not 1860 or even 1960. There's a black president now and has been for nearly a decade. He may not be the best president we've ever had, but I'd wager that at least 8 people out of 10 would rather vote for him than either of the sad cases we've been offered as his successor.

But slavery is at best an excuse. Ongoing violence is like fire. As long as you feed it, it burns. To stop it, you have to stop dumping fuel on it. There are other, better ways to solve problems.

Re: Not impressed

[stealth_finger]

The police can't arrest all the black people, stupid.

They certainly seem to be trying.

Re: Not impressed

[Anonymous Coward]

I was unaware that these programs were unavailable to poor white families. Obvously they weren't since they dont have the same problem.

Re: Not impressed

[Anonymous Coward]

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Or put another way, when somebody tells you "I'm from the government and I'm here to help", lock the fucking door.

Re: Not impressed

[HBI]

Exactly.

Re: Not impressed

[interstellarsurfer]

Slavery, or minimum wage employment with government benefits. It hasn't gone away, we just have a different name for it these days.

Re: Not impressed

[Anonymous Coward]

Says the angry white guy in his mom's basement.

In units of Libraries of Congress ...

[macklin01]

... this could handily digitize 1 LOC.

More seriously, this could be fantastic for opening up old archives and making searchable.

Other uses

[dpidcoe]

The summary focuses on being able to see through pages, but how fast can it scan them? Assuming cost/complexity factors don't make it prohibitive, I could see something like this being used to rapidly digitize a printed book without having to pause to turn pages or slice the spine open to feed them individually through a scanner.

Re:Other uses

[Anonymous Coward]

While I don't know much about this tech, I imagine the computing power needed will be much more than scanning optically and the results much poorer for anything illustrated and it will come out like old style faxes at best.

For books that have anything over 100 copies, so well over 99% of any book after 1750, it will not be worth it.

Re:Other uses

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder how it would go with all of the manuscripts of ancient texts that were scrubbed over by monks and reused for Christian texts. It would be nice if you could rebuild a buried layer of text (there will have been ink residues left at some depth in the page) in this way.

Re:Other uses

[RabidReindeer]

Different ink formulations, among other things. We take advantage of stuff like that even now to read many of these old palimpsests.

This is just another arrow in the quiver, but it's an important one, since a lot of old texts are stuck together and frequently too brittle to separate. I'm thinking especially of the charred works recovered from the remains of the Library at Alexandria.

Re:Other uses

[Anonymous Coward]

One can envision postal services throughout the world using this technology to scan every piece of mail at central sorting facilities.

Re: Other uses

[Anonymous Coward]

They already do.

Re:Other uses

[myth24601]

Depends on if they used BleachBit.

Herculaneum Papyri

[Dr.Altaica]

Could this technique be used to read the Herculaneum Papyri?

Re:Herculaneum Papyri

[Anonymous Coward]

Wikipedia says there's some head start on that using some more primitive, but common, technology, so unless these guys require a flat surface somebody should have a chat with them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herculaneum_papyri#Modern_attempts

"In 2015, a team led by Dr. Vito Mocella, from the National Research Council's Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems (CNR-IMM),[11] [12] has announced that "... X-ray phase-contrast tomography (XPCT) can reveal various letters hidden inside the precious papyri without unrolling them"

Other ideas

[AHuxley]

Researchers use synchrotron to read ancient, burned scrolls from Rome 3/22/2016
http://arstechnica.com/science...
"But now, a massive X-ray microscope at the European Radiation Synchrotron Facility has allowed researchers to see what was written on these ruined documents."
More at http://www.bbc.com/news/scienc... too.

Inherit the Stars

[localroger]

This is exactly the machine that started James P. Hogan's Giants trilogy (although in SF it used neutrinos instead of terahertz waves). Now all we need is the lunar colonization program and ... OH SNAP.

Re:Inherit the Stars

[K. S. Kyosuke]

That was exactly my first thought. ;) My second thought was former Eastern Bloc's routine letter interception by the various secret police organizations.

Re:Inherit the Stars

[I'm New Around Here]

Glad to see I wasn't the only one who reads. :^)

I'll just wait for the giants to come talk to us now.

Re:Inherit the Stars

[K. S. Kyosuke]

"Why can't he open a book if he wants to know what's inside?" Heh. :D Little does he know...

New old saying.

[fahrbot-bot]

Now we can judge a book through its cover.

Can I borrow it?

[Anonymous Coward]

I want to take a look at the scratch-offs at the gas station :)

Somewhere!

[Anonymous Coward]

...lies somewhere between microwave and infrared...

srsly? somewhere?

According to this chart[1], it lies exactly between far infrared and near ultraviolet. Which also includes most (human) visible light

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

Re:Somewhere!

[legRoom]

The band commonly refered to as "terahertz radiation" is from 300 GHz to 3 THz. It overlaps the bottom end of the "far infrared" band on the chart you linked, just above EHF microwave - nowhere near the visible spectrum.

Re:Somewhere!

[Anonymous Coward]

So 300THz somehow doesn't count as Terahertz radiation? The Wikipedia article you cite seems to be semi confused about whether 300GHz-3THz is "Tremendously High Frequency" radiation (1mm - 100um) or "Terahertz" radiation. That's my read; since you're mister snarky today, you'll probably have something witty to say about that too.

And 3THz to 300THz most certainly does include near ultraviolet and the visible light spectrum.

Re: Somewhere!

[Anonymous Coward]

3thz is the top end, not 300...

300ghz is the low end, you swapped those numerals a bit.

Re:Somewhere!

[legRoom]

The Wikipedia article you cite seems to be semi confused about whether 300GHz-3THz is "Tremendously High Frequency" radiation (1mm - 100um) or "Terahertz" radiation.

It's both. Like many things, that band has more than just one name.

And 3THz to 300THz most certainly does include near ultraviolet...

I said 300 GIGAhertz, not 300 TERAhertz.

Your confusion is understandable, given the unfortunate etymology of the phrase "terahertz radiation". But, etymology is often misleading.

Ultimately, the only way to be sure about the meaning of a term of art like this, is to look it up. While not every source I have found agree with the precise frequency range specified by the article I linked, all agree that the upper end of the band in question is somewhere in the infrared, and that it does not include visible light (let alone ultraviolet).

since you're mister snarky today

There is nothing sarcastic or mocking (the definition of "snark") in either of my comments in this thread. I simply pointed out your error. The fact that you automatically perceive that as "snarky" comes across either as proud or insecure (I will not speculate as to which).

Re:Somewhere!

[Anonymous Coward]

And 3THz to 300THz most certainly does include near ultraviolet...

I said 300 GIGAhertz, not 300 TERAhertz.

And I originally wrote3THz to 300THz. THz, as in Tera Hertz. And I meant that. WTF is your point? Is that not Tera Hertz radiation? And yeah, you came across as snarky. I'm neither proud or insecure, and now you come across as an arrogant asshat. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Fucking twit.

Re:Somewhere!

[legRoom]

And I originally wrote3THz to 300THz. THz, as in Tera Hertz. ... Is that not Tera Hertz radiation?

No, it is not. You attempted to criticize the original article for misusing the phrase "terahertz radiation", but you are the one misusing it. Your definition is etymologically reasonable, but it's not the one used by the rest of the world, so it's wrong.

Re: Breakthough use of new technology always = por

[Anonymous Coward]

Think this is really new? Government first, then consumer for this type of tech. Of course, a top secret foil ... Bla bla bla.

interesting but

[bloodhawk]

besides the limitation of it only working with about 10 pages and they have to be somewhat transparent, i wonder how it will work with pages of overlapping text/ink, writing is usually on both sides of each page and hence no airgap to calculate depth.

Re:interesting but

[Anonymous Coward]

If the language isn't unknown it shouldn't be much harder to read than some captchas.
You get two texts, one in each direction. Figuring out what that words are might be trickier, but not impossible.

Re:interesting but

[Anonymous Coward]

add in the blurriness you get from each image and you are probably going to end up with a lot of sections that are unreadable. FYI: there are quite a few captcha's I find near impossible to correctly decipher.

Re: interesting but

[Anonymous Coward]

If only there was some substance between the images on each side of it to separate them. Something like paper maybe?

Re: interesting but

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey genius, it isn't that it is on both sides of a piece of paper, but two of these pieces of paper actually touch, and two images are mashed up against each other.

Don't try to be a smart ass when you are really just a dumb ass.

Good News Everybody, Prof. Farnsworth's F-Ray

[mykepredko]

"Fry and the Slurm Factory" with one of the great lines of the series:

"Ow, my sperm!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Compression Comprehension

[bheerssen]

They guys from the Hydraulic Press Channel should send them a book.

"Try to read this, suckers!"

Is Microwaving Old Documents Wise?

[Anonymous Coward]

The frequencies are "between the microwave and infrared spectrums". Will the ink/paper be damaged due to heating effects?

I tried reading a potato with my microwave.

Re: Is Microwaving Old Documents Wise?

[Anonymous Coward]

Microwaving is not enough... You need to chew thoroughly to properly digest the information in the potato.

Another Hollywood spy gadget is realized?

[Hypoon]

This sounds almost exactly like a gadget from Alias... Season 5, Episode 5, 'Out of the Box':

"There is a tomographic camera right on the bottom there. It basically acts like an X-RAY or a CAT scan. It takes images layer by layer. See? Look at that. This will allow us to take images of the Desantis files... without ever having to remove them from their storage container."

That episode aired in late 2005. Perhaps the writer should have patented it...

Alias is still on Netflix until the 15th of this month, for what it's worth.

Re:Another Hollywood spy gadget is realized?

[Anonymous Coward]

just wait until the TSA hears about this. coming soon to a security theater near you: wrinkly old grandmas in 3D HD; oh yea, and your kids, too.

Book Scanning

[speedplane]

One of the major potential uses for this technology is the ability to scan and OCR books. The current process requires either cutting the binding and then scanning each page one by one, or using error prone page flipping machines. Both are slow and expensive to operate. With this tech, one could conceivably take a single 3D image, and capture all of the pages in the book without ever opening it.

"the different between ink and paper"...

[Anonymous Coward]

... and proofreading. Or basic grammar.

Tell the different

[wonkey_monkey]

it allows the researchers to tell the different between ink and blank paper.

But it can't tell the different between "different" and "difference."

Other materials?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can it see through clothes too? Asking for a friend.

Hoping

[ThatsNotPudding]

I'm hoping they made sure all that energy can't do long-term damage to the book they scan.
Still, it does remind me of what they did in Inherit The Stars.

here in the future we do this differently

[ionymous]

Using this terahertz method, once you get deeper into the book the paper and print from previous pages get in the way.
Here in the future we do things differently. We collide waves from two different directions that could permeate the paper and print unaffected, such that they intersect at the point of interest, and then emit some new wave with a characteristic dependent on the material in which they intersected (blank paper, air, or ink), which can also permeate the paper and print unaffected, and can be detected externally. I will give details at a later time.

Spying on Sealed Documents

[Anonymous Coward]

Spying on sealed documents just became a lot easier. One use to be concerned about is mass scanning of everyone's mail, depending on how fast the process is (or can become after improvement) .

Lottery Tickets

[Anonymous Coward]

I would be happy even if only worked on scratch tickets

Our gift to you . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

As our gift to you, we took the liberty of transacribing it last night.

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Delicate archeological texts...

[Anonymous Coward]

They're delicate so instead of trying to read them carefully lets radiate them with waves similar to that of a microwave... what could go wrong? :v

On the bright side

[cellocgw]

Well, I guess now we know how Superman's X-ray vision works. I remember at least a couple occasions where he stops reading a book thru a wall (or some such) because, in his own explanation, continued use of his X-ray power could overheat the book and set it on fire.

Does make you wonder whether Empedocles and Plato were from Krypton.

So Far Nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

Googling the Herculaneum Scrolls, we see that since the initial proof of concept - they could detect metallic ink used in the carbonized (carbonite? :) ) scrolls from the Vesuvius eruption, articles all date from about last March... nothing more has been done. Nobody has mapped layers of ink, nobody has produced a page or a line of text to show they've advanced to actually reading the material.

Heat death of literature?

[CmdrTamale]

This is a new way to cook the books.
--
I believe a man should follow his dreams ... at a safe distance -- Joe Martin

Nobody Mentioned The Real Use

[TechnoJoe]

This is going to be used by intelligence agencies to scan documents without having to look at individual pages.

Not that new

[Anonymous Coward]

The same thing can be accomplished with high resolution MRI or CT, especially MRI. The main difficulty is that the print on page 2x lies right against the print on page 2x+1, so you need some software to tease out the combined letters. If you know the language, not insurmountable. I told Google about this years ago.

Re: Breakthough use of new technology always = por

[interstellarsurfer]

Yes, no more tamperproof letters or packages.

MIT book scanning

[PlaynBass]

Sci-Fi Author, James P. Hogan, used a device of this description in his trilogy, the Minervan Experiment, to view a 100,000 year old document so dessicated from exposure to the Moon's vacuum it could not be opened...

Re: Breakthough use of new technology always = por

[Anonymous Coward]

Then we ll just have to use ink (chemicals) providing its own illumination under the THz radiation. We will see no difference, but the camera will only show a glow, hopefully.