The next tech toy: X-ray cameras

canaday.com ^ | Sunday, February 16, 2003 | Sarah Staples

[avg_freeper]

I'm sure that our public servants will only use this device for constitutionally allowable purposes.

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Porterville]

I think I'll become a cop, or a pervert, no a cop, no a pervert, damn the line is too blurry these days.

[tallhappy]

I think the blurriness is in your own thinking.

[occam's chainsaw]

This is old technology. Sony had to add a filter to their nightvision video cameras in 1998 because using the cameras during the day allowed users to see through clothes.

Click here for story

[Fester Chugabrew]

Who is that guy with the big teats? I just gotta know.

[Lijahsbubbe]

I think he needs a 'bro'.

[ConservativeMan55]

I think thats Paula Zahn!!!

[avg_freeper]

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.

[The Electrician]

Similar result but different part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

[occam's chainsaw]

You could also see the flash from remote control LEDs in it

You can see remotes flash with nearly any video camera. I have used this method to test remote controls for years.

[occam's chainsaw]

I think he needs a 'bro'.

...or perhaps a 'mansierre'?

[dware]

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.

[occam's chainsaw]

True, I suppose I should have read the article before posting 8^)

[aruanan]

This is old technology. Sony had to add a filter to their nightvision video cameras in 1998 because using the cameras during the day allowed users to see through clothes.

Sony used infrared. Similar appearing outcomes; two different technologies.

[KC_for_Freedom]

Sony used infrared. Similar appearing outcomes; two different technologies.

In 1988 we were testing an IR camera and took a photo of a good looking secretary with it. When she saw the photo she was quite surprised to see the effect. The body gives off different amounts of heat from different parts, she looked undressed.

She was a good sport about it, (and somewhat of an exhibitionist too). In today's environment, she could sue and win.

[edwin hubble]

See where terahertz radiation fits into the continuum of the electromagetic spectrum:

The electromagnetic spectrum in order (short to longer wavelength): gamma ray, x-ray, Ultra-violet, visible, infra-red, terahertz, microwave, radio.

The terahertz region has been (for 100 years) a kind of no-man's-land, lying between the infra-red light and the microwave radio.

Terahertz radiation:
* interacts with (and is partially absorbed by) some matter,
* is largely absorbed by some matter,
* passes through some matter without being altered, and
* reflects from other matter.

So it can tell a Lot about the type of matter it is striking.

It is much shorter in wavelength (higher resolution) than microwave.

We have only begun to study this last area of the spectrum.

[edwin hubble]

But..

Terahertz technology is not conventional infra-red.
It doesn't function with the same optical devices.

[stainlessbanner]

It's Pat!