Thruvision T-Ray

May 18, 2008

ThruVision T-ray
sees through clothing
After Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered the X-ray in 1895, there was widespread fear that devices using it would see through clothing. There were absurd ads in newspapers to sell X-ray proof clothing so women would not be the victims of peeping toms using X-rays.
If you saw Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie “Total Recall” you may remember the scene where he walks through a detector that, like the fluoroscope they used to show your toes wiggling inside a new pair of shoes, reveals whether he’s carrying a weapon. Those shoe store fluoroscopes are long gone because they leaked dangerous X-rays, but now there’s a gadget that really does see through clothing. The movie gadget is no longer science fiction.
The device is called ThruVision, which is intended for use at airports and other public spaces. It doesn’t use X-rays, but something called T-rays, so-called “tetrahertz” technology. T-rays are used by astronomers to study dying stars. The advantage of detecting T-rays is they pass through distant dust clouds which otherwise obscure objects in space.
It turns out that we and all objects emit this low level radiation which is blocked by water and metal. Instead of sending energy waves through a person, the ThruVision device is a receiver that detects low levels of T-rays. Seen with the ThruVision viewer, you would appear to glow with that energy as it passes through clothing, revealing your silhouette, but not your tattoos, warts, or private parts. It does see through clothing, but does not reveal body detail.
The designers claim the radiation is not harmful. It’s a natural phenomenon only recently understood. The device has already been sold to the Dubai Mercantile Exchange and Canary Wharf in London. It’s just another tool to combat terrorism.
Last time I passed through airport security my suspender clips set off the alarms and I had to be patted down and “wanded.” At least I didn’t have to be strip-searched and have my orifices probed! Maybe with this ThruVision gadget in use we can, like Arnold in the movie, simply walk past it instead of being groped.
Unlike the scene depicted in “Total Recall,” the T5000 camera can be used indoors or outdoors, so it can detect weapons carried by someone in a crowd. It can scan people without forcing them to wait in line.
Talk about loss of privacy. Some locales, like London, England, have literally thousands of surveillance cameras. We’ve seen the use of those recordings in tracing the movements of the subway bombers in London. But though we could see they were carrying backpacks, the tapes didn’t show what was inside them. With the T5000, people on the street could be scanned for hidden weapons without their knowing it.
The technology was originally developed at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in Oxfordshire, England. RAL isn’t the only company that uses T-rays. Another company, TeraView, uses the same principle to study the structure of pharmaceutical compounds.
It’s amazing that technology originally used by astronomers to see through clouds to view distant stars would be applied to our everyday life.
Maybe those New Age folks who claim to be able to read your aura are really reading your T-ray emissions. Now there’s another research path to pursue. Time to apply for another grant!