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| T-rays to detect terrorists |
| 2004-12-13 |
| IMAGING technology could be used to detect terrorists as easily as it could find cancer, researchers believe. Devices using TeraHertz, or T-rays, are being developed in laboratories around the world that will like never before see through clothing, packaging and other objects. Safer and clearer than X-rays, T-rays are emissions between infra-red and microwaves. T-rays enable scientists to analyse the composition and density of things the rays contact, and also to image them. "Most molecules vibrate in the TeraHertz frequency, so if you can detect them with T-rays, you can get a very good fingerprint," Professor Derek Abbott, from Adelaide University said. "T-rays pass through things like food packaging, clothing, plastic and cardboard enabling us to analyse what's inside. "This means they can be used to detect and identify weapons of metal or plastic, illicit drugs or biological hazards like anthrax, even if they were hermetically sealed. "You can find out much more about the substance than you would with optical, infra-red or X-ray imaging, and this helps to identify it precisely." Leading scientists from the US, Europe, Asia and Australia will converge on Adelaide from Thursday to discuss the latest advances in T-ray technology. Prof Abbott said scientists had recently discovered that T-ray technology could be used to detect cancer and it could also identify explosive compounds. He said it had the ability to be used in food safety and quality monitoring, disease detection, airport security, postal scans for drugs, explosives or bio-weapons and military threat detection. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #6 This technology has been around for about 10 years. It's another reason why Bell Labs were a national treasure. http://www.lucent.com/press/0595/950525.bla.html The researchers used laser pulses each lasting only 100 femtoseconds (one tenth of a trillionth of a second) to generate, detect, and measure electromagnetic pulses -- T-rays -- each lasting a picosecond (a trillionth of a second). They transmitted the T-rays through various objects, using an imaging system of lenses and mirrors to focus the signals and to analyze changes in the T-rays as they passed through the objects. They characterized the materials by measuring the amounts of distortion -- from absorption, dispersion and reflection -- of the T-rays passing through to a detector. Those going through the lean portions of a slice of bacon, for example, are distorted into a different waveform than are those passing through the fatty portions. A digital signal processing unit processes the data and translates it into images that appear on a computer screen. The image of a slice of bacon shows different levels of T-ray transparency for lean and fatty areas. Since fat absorbs almost no T-rays, it looks white; meat absorbs roughly 25 times as many T-rays, so it looks dark. The digital signal processor was programmed to recognize the characteristic shapes of transmitted waveforms and identify the particular material at the spot illuminated by the T-ray beam. This information was obtained for every point or "pixel" on each object. |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-12-13 9:44:45 PM |
| #5 The frequencies between infrared and microwaves are usually called millimeter waves. In college I worked with a professor who was developing a milimeter wave system to image hidden weapons about 30 years ago. I am not sure how this "terahertz" stuff differs from these millimeter wave systems that have been around for a while. |
| Posted by: HV 2004-12-13 8:53:17 PM |
| #4 BD, you just turn the dial and they are cooked in thirty seconds with the added benefit they glow in the dark. I've heard that Muslims cooked this way, taste just like pork. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-12-13 8:29:38 PM |
| #3 Will they destroy the terrorists upon detection? |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-12-13 8:12:47 PM |
| #2 Terahertz? Heinz-DeathRay™ |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-12-13 8:09:29 PM |
| #1 Isn't this a spin off of the Zionist Death Ray™? Muslims will never allow it then. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-12-13 8:07:40 PM |