A new imaging technology could change the way airport security searches bags by using 3-D X-rays to identify materials without opening luggage, according to the Daily Mail. Using funnel shaped X-rays, the Halo scanner can scan and identify the material structure of objects in only milliseconds.
Current X-ray tech can only really take images of what lies inside luggage, without the ability to truly discern between a bomb or a non-lethal substances. But the Halo can distinguish between materials, like metal and plastic, or organic material.
It does this by looking at how the material reacts to the machine's X-rays, according to the Engineer. This, in turn, would make it easier for security to determine if a substance was actually a danger or not.
The device was created using technology at the Cranfield Forensic Institute at Cranfield University, according to Phys.
"Our beam intersects the object, and concentrates the signal, so we can place various detectors inside the hollow beam, and see these unique patterns of diffracted radiation," said Paul Evans, chief technology officer for the device.
"Our aim is to ultimately produce a device that will not only produce signals, but also reconstruct three-dimensional images from these signals," Evans said.
