The days of standing still, arms raised, in an airport security scanner may soon be a thing of the past. A new microwave imaging system offers a fast, inexpensive way to see through clothing and other objects that gathers data without involving complicated moving parts.
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The new system, reported in the Jan. 18 Science, employs a thin copper strip as an aperture that collects a range of microwave-frequency light. Elegant math then converts those data into an image in less than a second.
âThis definitely represents a less expensive and potentially faster alternative to current imaging methods,â says technologist Kevin Kelly of Rice University in Houston, who was not involved in the research. âYou can imagine an MRI or PET scanner where instead of sitting in a machine for 50 minutes you sit in it for five minutes.â