Chip lets smartphones see through walls, clothes
Source: montrealgazette.com
Researchers at a Texas university have designed a chip that could give smartphones the long-envied ability of comic book her Superman to see through walls, clothes or other objects.A team at University of Texas at Dallas tuned a small, inexpensive microchip to discern a "terahertz" band of the electromagnetic spectrum.
A hi-tech chip allows a phone to ’see through’ walls, wood and plastics - and (although the researchers are coy about this) through fabrics such as clothing. (Source: DailyMail.co.uk)
The design works with chips made using Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor technology behind processors commonly found in personal computers, smartphones, televisions and videogame consoles.
"CMOS is affordable and can be used to make lots of chips," electrical engineering professor Kenneth O said in a statement Friday.
"The combination of CMOS and terahertz means you could put this chip and a transmitter on the back of a cell phone, turning it into a device carried in your pocket that can see through objects."
.X-ray spex? At present, it’s designed to work over a short range - and works with a normal-sized microchip that could fit into phones or other handheld electronics. (Source: DailyMail.co.uk)
To assuage privacy worries, the professor and his team at the Texas Analogue Center of Excellence are limiting their study to what the chips can make visible at distances of four inches (10 centimeters) or less, according to the university.
The terahertz band has wavelengths that fall between microwaves used for mobile phone signals and infrared that is employed for night vision goggles.
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Read the full article at: montrealgazette.com
The REAL X-Ray spex: New ’terahertz’ scanner lets mobile phones see through walls - and through clothes
