Posted on 03/09/2008 9:01:17 AM PDT by LibWhacker
LONDON (Reuters) - A British company has developed a camera that can detect weapons, drugs or explosives hidden under people's clothes from up to 25 meters away in what could be a breakthrough for the security industry.
The T5000 camera, created by a company called ThruVision, uses what it calls "passive imaging technology" to identify objects by the natural electromagnetic rays -- known as Terahertz or T-rays -- that they emit.
The high-powered camera can detect hidden objects from up to 80 feet away and is effective even when people are moving. It does not reveal physical body details and the screening is harmless, the company says.
The technology, which has military and civilian applications and could be used in crowded airports, shopping malls or sporting events, will be unveiled at a scientific development exhibition sponsored by Britain's Home Office on March 12-13.
"Acts of terrorism have shaken the world in recent years and security precautions have been tightened globally," said Clive Beattie, the chief executive of ThruVision.
"The ability to see both metallic and non-metallic items on people out to 25 meters is certainly a key capability that will enhance any comprehensive security system."
While the technology may enhance detection, it may also increase concerns that Britain is becoming a surveillance society, with hundreds of thousands of closed-circuit television cameras already monitoring people countrywide every day.
ThruVision came up with the technology for the T5000 in collaboration with the European Space Agency and from studying research by astronomers into dying stars.
The technology works on the basis that all people and objects emit low levels of electromagnetic radiation. Terahertz rays lie somewhere between infrared and microwaves on the electromagnetic spectrum and travel through clouds and walls.
Depending on the material, the signature of the wave is different, so that explosives can be distinguished from a block of clay and cocaine is different from a bag of flour.
More like a breakthrough for Big Brother.
They been selling them things on the back of comic books for decades.
I'd buy that for shilling.
Get me one of those.
Isn’t technology wonderful?
Let me get this straight, it can see under clothing yet it does not reveal physical body details?
Certainly has potential.
“Let me get this straight, it can see under clothing yet it does not reveal physical body details?”
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If the technology works on radio waves, that makes sense.
I guess.
It detects metal not scales.
Thanks for my new wallpaper de jour. :)
(replacing a snowstorm pic)
Is that a Tuna boat in her crotch?
(For you folks in Rio Linda /s)
Some things should just be covered.
"which way to Air Port Security?"
Not even that. It's just the typical breathless reporting of "Advances" from the UK, usually Medical, that either have been around for years, or will never be heard of again. It makes them feel better, in between Yank Bashing, which accomplishes the same thing.
Read the Daily Mail online for a few weeks, and see what I mean.
A quick search on terahertz imaging shows the extent of the "Old News" nature of this silly report.
Yep, that’s my understanding. It’s tuned to terahertz radiation. Our bodies are more into infrared.
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