Terahertz Camera

Does anyone know anything about a camera, developed by the European Space Agency, which records images in the terahertz part of the EM spetrum? (between visible light and radiowaves) It sounds interesting

terahertz are like....above gamma rays! Not anything like visible and radio!

Have never heard of that, although there IS something similar in use by the USAF/USN called Project Brighteye.

Project Brighteye was originally a communications program for satelite communication through a blue-green laser with submerged nuclear submarines. With a bit of fine tuning, it was converted to a variable wavelength active laser imaging system that is capable of taking very high resolution photos of a ground target through virtually any weather condition, clouds, fog, rain, ect. It is also supposedly capable of seeing almost to the bottom of the ocean for purposes of detecting and identifying enemy submarines.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

TMWTP> My fault, you're right:
"The terahertz (1 THz = 1012 Hz) region of the electromagnetic spectrum covers the frequency range from roughly 0.1 to 50 THz. In terms of more familiar regions, the THz regime lies between the microwave and infrared regimes."

www.eecs.umich.edu..." target="_blank" class="postlink">www.eecs.umich.edu...:// www.eecs.umich.edu/USL/UFS/TerahertzWaves.html

DR> Interesting thread there, your friend must know some pretty juicy stuff!

StarTiger is an ESA project : Link1 Link2

With such a camera, you can see anything under the ground. No more any hidden bunker !

1 Terahertz = 1000 GHZ

wow.......

sounds like some hetic #....

can anybody get any photographs?

Ultra_Phoenix, great links, tried searching esa�s site earlier in vain?
I guess since it�s a nascent technology, not to many pictures has come out yet... A few here though

www.startiger.org...

The possibilities seems endless, huh? Just think about the advances in areas like digital photography, I mean smaller, better sensors and such...

Appearently this company QinetiQ has made a camera on similar principles dubbed the mm (millimeter) wave camera, looks interesting too!
www.qinetiq.com...

These " endless possibilities " are a little bit scary, isn't it ?

Oh please,

Terahertz is terrible, it diverges like hell. Wonder why the images look so much like crap, that's diffraction peeps, and its worse for long wavelengths, like terahertz.

DA: I never said that the images were comparable to ones taken with a Hasselblad?

It's just a fascinating concept, especially the way it was developed, throwing a group of brainiacs into a lab, with limitless funding, with the purpose of developing a working prototype of this camera, which appearantly, hadn't been done before, in part due to difficulties, including those you described.

Telegraph.co.uk


Instant imaging device gives GPs safe new window into the body
By Robert Matthews
(Filed: 06/10/2002)


A camera that can see through clothes, skin and even walls without X-rays has been developed in what is being called one of the first great technological breakthroughs of the 21st century.



The "terahertz" camera, still in prototype form, is under rapid development by scientists in Oxfordshire. It is likely to have many applications, ranging from medical scanning to identifying concealed weapons on airline passengers.

Unlike X-rays, it does not expose patients to potentially harmful radiation. Instead, it detects a form of ultra-high-frequency, or terahertz, energy waves naturally emitted by all objects.

Nor does it require people to walk through a special scanner: anything that comes within range of the terahertz camera is exposed to its penetrating gaze.

Dr Chris Mann, one of the project leaders at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Didcot, said: "These [terahertz] waves are just below infrared energy and are given off by virtually everything around us. They are also able to pass through windows, paper, clothing and, in certain instances, walls."

While the existence of terahertz waves has long been recognised, the technology needed to capture them by camera has so far been prohibitively expensive and complex.

Earlier this year, however, the European Space Agency decided to try to build the world's first terahertz camera to allow satellites to monitor the Earth through thick cloud.

The �400,000 project, codenamed StarTiger, has brought together leading scientists from across the continent. The team succeeded in building a prototype in less than three months. Dr Peter de Maagt, of the space agency, said: "We wanted to show what could be achieved in such short timescales, and we have done it."

They managed to crack the key problem of capturing the terahertz waves emitted by objects. Using micro-machining techniques, they created a set of tiny "wave guides", the thickness of a human hair, which act like the lens of a conventional camera. The energy of the incoming waves is then turned into signals to produce the final image.

The first historic image taken by the device revealed the outline of a hand, clearly visible despite being hidden under a thick book.

Dr Mann said the success was greeted by a huge shout by the team. "We were ecstatic," he said. "We'd put together the basic components and the image of the hand appeared. It's a whole new era in imaging."

The team is now working on bringing image quality to commercial standards. Dr Mann said: "If it were mass-produced, there is no reason why it could not be available for a cost similar to that of a digital camera."

The prospect of low-cost and completely safe medical imaging could provide the opportunity for every GP's surgery to have such a device. Professor Laurie Hall, an authority on medical imaging at Cambridge University, said: "It's a completely new window into the human body."

Terahertz imaging, he said, opened the way to rapid and safe screening for signs of disease or tissue damage. "It could be very useful with suspected joint damage, which often isn't detected until it is too late for effective drug treatment. It's the lack of invasiveness that makes it so exciting. It's got great potential."

Another application is likely to be in airport security. Unlike X-ray machines, there is no need for passengers to pass through a scanner: the camera can simply be pointed at passengers to show hidden items.

Dr Mann admitted that the ability of the camera to see body shape beneath clothing could prove controversial. The Telegraph recently reported on the outrage of passengers scanned by an X-ray system with similar abilities at an airport in the United States.

The makers of that machine insisted that the videotapes of passengers were continually erased. Even so, civil-liberties groups have called for it to be abandoned.

The demand for security is likely to override such qualms, however. Government transport officials are already considering terahertz technology for the surveillance of passengers. A spokesman said: "We are keeping an eye on progress with this technology."

Other potential applications range from checking mail for bombs or anthrax to the surveillance of criminals through walls.

Dr Mann said: "As long as the wall is made of dry material, terahertz waves can pass through. Only metal and materials with a high water content block them."
Related reports

connected.telegraph


External links

News and events - Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

European Space Agency

Terahertz imaging comes into view [Apr '00] - Physics Web

Medical terahertz imaging - Centre of Medical Imaging Research

Great finds, russian.
Couldn't see the image you linked to though? Maybe it's because of the server being moved...

The same thing is used in the medical field.

Try this site to learn more about how it is used in Hospitals.

[Edited on 7-10-2003 by ADVISOR]

Advisor, I thought MRI (Magnetic Resonance Inferometer?) actually utilized rather powerful magnetism? Whereas the idea behind the terahertzwave camera is that it is based on passive detection, not emmiting anything...

a reply to: operatoreleven

Yes, I at least was interested terahertz spectrum cameras as they could have amazing applications in civil sector also. Terahertz waves are between infrared and microwave spectrum so they can penetrate many materials such as walls, clothes, plastics, wood and so on, but blocked by metal and water. FLIR technology seems to most similar. Too bad that this technology is not yet widely available to civilians but military is probably already using it. T-ray cameras could be cheaply manufactured using CMOS sensor technology and it could be useful in so many ways.
As terahertz rays are blocked by water it they could not be used to see through thick clouds.