Backscatter X-ray - Technology

Technology

Backscatter technology is based on the X-ray compton scattering effect of X-rays, a form of ionizing radiation. Unlike a traditional X-ray machine which relies on the transmission of X-rays through the object, backscatter X-ray detects the radiation that reflects from the object and forms an image. The backscatter pattern is dependent on the material property, and is good for imaging organic material.

In contrast to millimeter wave scanners which create a 3D image, backscatter X-ray scanners will typically only create a 2D image. For airport screening, images are taken from both sides of the human body.

Backscatter X-ray was first applied in a commercial low dose personnel scanning system by Dr. Steven W. Smith. Dr. Smith developed the Secure 1000 whole body scanner in 1992 and then sold the device and associated patents to Rapiscan Systems who now manufactures and distributes the device.

The following companies manufacture commercial backscatter X-ray devices that are used in security scanning applications with price ranging from $250,000 to $2,000,000:

  1. American Science and Engineering (device name: Smartcheck)
  2. Rapiscan Systems (a subsidiary of OSI Systems Inc.) (device name: Secure 1000)
  3. Tek84 (formerly Spectrum San Diego Inc.) (device name: AIT84 Body Scanner & Castscope)
  4. Nucsafe, Inc.

Read more about this topic:  Backscatter X-ray

Famous quotes containing the word technology:

    “Radio put technology into storytelling and made it sick. TV killed it. Then you were locked into somebody else’s sighting of that story. You no longer had the benefit of making that picture for yourself, using your imagination. Storytelling brings back that humanness that we have lost with TV. You talk to children and they don’t hear you. They are television addicts. Mamas bring them home from the hospital and drag them up in front of the set and the great stare-out begins.”
    —Jackie Torrence (b. 1944)

    “Our technology forces us to live mythically, but we continue to think fragmentarily, and on single, separate planes.”
    —Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)