X-Ray vision

Is that a gun in your pocket or ... ?
An invention by Canterbury University graduate Dr Tim Drysdale could put an end to such questions.

Drysdale's work into superhuman X-ray vision will be exhibited at Buckingham Palace next month. It involves terahertz waves – a technology that can see through clothes to find weapons and contraband.

The invitation to exhibit to the Queen at a Royal Society exhibition followed a successful showing at the prestigious Royal Society's July event in London. Speaking from Glasgow, Drysdale said the invention had practical applications in security and counter-terrorism as well as the pharmaceutical industry.

"With terahertz imaging it is possible to see the body beneath the clothes, not just the bones that you see with X-rays," he said. "The field as a whole allows you to find out information that has been difficult to find out before. You can find out how big a skin cancer is by looking from the surface," Drysdale said. He described the opportunity to exhibit at Buckingham Palace as a "very rare chance".

"We were very pleasantly surprised when we heard."

With the technology, knives, guns and other weapons can be seen clearly on an imaging system's display screen, while clothing appears invisible. Terahertz waves lie between the highest radio frequencies and the far infrared, representing the last unexplored frontier of the radio and light-wave spectrum.

Drysdale said he began working on this particular project during his PhD, which he completed at Canterbury University in 2003. He had worked closely with imaging companies throughout the process.

Drysdale's team's breakthrough came when it was found that sending ultra-fast pulses of visible light through specially engineered crystals could generate terahertz waves.