The next tech toy: X-ray cameras

The 'terahertz' camera at work: This man is fully clothed.

Voyeurs take note: a portable, cheap camera that can see through objects and clothing may be available for sale to common folk in as little as five years, say British-based space researchers.

The camera, built by a European Space Agency-funded team working at a lab in central England, could one day be used to find skin cancer or hidden weapons, reveal wounds beneath animal fur or bandages, spot forged works of art, even pierce through fog.

The technology was unveiled last fall, but it was just this week that the scientists announced the release of photos demonstrating just how well it works.

One of the grainy "photographs" shows a hand snapped through a 15-millimetre stack of paper.

Another shows a man's torso photographed through his clothing.

The shots were taken using the world's first "terahertz camera" -- a device that captures and focuses electromagnetic waves from a portion of the spectrum somewhere between infrared and microwaves.

People, rocks, water, trees and stars all emit terahertz rays, which the "camera" focuses into images by contrasting terahertz transmission and reflection properties. The millimetre-long waves are directed along miniature circuits etched onto sliver-thin silica wafers.

The device doesn't emit harmful radiation. But like radiation -- and unlike heat or light -- the waves pass easily through certain solid materials like walls and clothes. By analysing the frequencies of emissions, the "photographer" can also figure out the chemical and physical makeup of certain objects.

The camera is a scaled-down version of hefty equipment developed elsewhere to screen for hidden explosives or biological weapons in parcels and luggage.

Shaped like an end table, and with prototypes the size of picnic basket now at the design stage, it will be compact and portable enough to park in a doctor's office, and can be adapted to a range of non-medical applications.

"The type of thing used now is huge," said Michael Sandford, who supervised the team at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, in Chilton, Oxfordshire, that designed the camera.

"Although we're still a long way off to building something the size of a camera, the technology has been demonstrated in this smaller form. It's only a matter of engineering it for a particular product."

Experts from across Europe came to Rutherford to build the camera under a four-month, $650,000 European Space Agency technology grant that ended recently, and the laboratory is carrying on their work.

Lead researchers Peter de Maagt and Chris Mann are testing the camera's ability to see through various types of materials. They expect to be ready to move into production for medical purposes within a couple of years, Mr. Sandford said.

Meantime, patents have been filed on the device, and Mr. de Maagt and Mr. Mann are courting entrepreneurs who would bring it to market.

The materials used to make the camera are cheap enough to make the device accessible to the average consumer.

So although it is being developed to save lives and detect bombs, the spokesman acknowledged that it may be put to less-useful ends.

"In principle it could see through clothes, and (in) pictures published at lower frequencies you can see the outline of the body. We haven't even tried that," he said. "Though I'm sure there will be people who will want to."

A lab that I worked at had a closed circuit camera that would do that. You could also see the flash from remote control LEDs in it to. Wasn't a real need to try see under the clothing of pasty white engineer types like me though.

On a side note, I knew a guy that worked for KODAK in the special camera development dept. He was in town showing us how to use a high speed camera our lab had just bought. Well he started to tell us about how the Dallas Cowboys use it to film their guys occasionally. How they leave the line, impact during tackle, kick, things like that.

Well anyway like any guy might of done, he happened to train the camera on the cheerleaders and record them while they were out. So for any dynamicists out there that might have wondered; Yes indeed they have symmetric and anti-symmetric modes. Although you might still want to verify this in the field.

Having worked in Casino Surveillance for over 7 years, I had the opportunity to see some pretty wild technology as cameras are concerned. Even the lower end B&W stuff that we used at my last job had some interesting capabilities.

For the most part, the cameras were extremely low lux, so that they would work in the often low light conditions in some portions of the casino. Now, there were several cameras mounted in such an area that was dark, but had recessed lighting that beamed light into concentrated areas (walkways, etc.)

When someone wearing clothing that wasn't knit real close walked by, the light would be allowed through their clothing and reflect off their skin, causing an 'x-ray' effect in almost every case.

Crazy stuff, I'll tell you - and those were not even nightvision cameras.

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