5 ms·

Backpack X-Ray Machine (2016)

48 points by aphrax 7y ago

lukelandlord 7y ago
Okay
celticninja 7y ago
Is it an actual x-ray? Do we want people to be firing these off in public?
- vardump 7y ago
  Yeah, at least his previous x-ray source looks like it could very well be real. Roughly matches designs of real machines I'm vaguely familiar with. I do wonder how they cool the tube head. If they don't do it at all, I don't think device lifetime will be that long. Luckily x-rays have pretty limited range. I think 5m/yd should be minimal safe distance. The further the better, of course.
  - adammunich 7y ago
    Operation is actually rate limited by the anode's ability to store heat, not dissipate it. The electron beam heats up the anode far too fast to reasonably dissipate the energy continuously.
    - vardump 7y ago
      Ok, my knowledge about tube heads is rather superficial. I do know the devices I'm familiar with eventually require increasingly long cooldown periods.
      - adammunich 7y ago
        Yes, and in the US, interestingly enough those cool-down charts are actually required to be posted visibly on the machine by law.
      - AstralStorm 7y ago
        Which is why big medical x-ray machines have active liquid nitrogen cooling or solid co2, and also huge heatsinks.
- grocid 7y ago
  Judging for v1 [1] -- yes it is. And no we don't. That would be double-plus ungood. [1] https://adammunich.com/x-ray-machine/ https://adammunich.com/x-ray-machine/
- aaron695 7y ago
  > Do we want people to be firing these off in public? Once all 7 billion people have access to professionals then maybe we can ask this question? X-Rays were used for years to find peoples shoes size at shoes stores and no one was harmed. We have a lot more info on correct use now, so don't see the problem.... Other than amateurs need to do professionals job in this current world and the professional are commonly fighting back to stop the greater good to keep their wages high.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - JetSpiegel 7y ago
    > no one was harmed Citation needed.
    - aeternum 7y ago
      It very likely did cause harm: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1963031/pdf/brmedj03132-0034.pdf https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1963031/pdf/brm... https://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/_WMS/publications/wmj/pdf/106/5/275.pdf https://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/_WMS/publications/wm...
atlasunshrugged 7y ago
As someone totally unfamiliar with the space but interested in procuring a very cheap X-Ray or similar product to help identify illicit products at borders such as smuggled cigarettes, does anyone have recommendations on where to look? Needs to be cheap, portable, and ideally with a long battery life as power outages can be frequent
- adammunich 7y ago
  I built this device, and can answer any questions you might have about radio-imaging.
  - atlasunshrugged 7y ago
    I'm afraid I'm totally new to this and don't even know what I don't know yet, I'm coming into this from the taxation angle and illicit trade is a major concern across Africa but also very hard to identify given some of the issues I mentioned above (plus porous borders, corruption, etc.). I guess my general question is how much does one of these cost to build and maintain? If you could point me to any reading for a total beginner to get up to speed on the capabilities of the technology I'd really appreciate that too.
    - adammunich 7y ago
      So it really depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for say, stowaways in a truck, backscatter x-ray is sufficient to help you find them. But if you are looking for smuggled goods you might need some sort of tranmissive x-ray system the truck passes through like a flatbed scanner of sorts.
- oh_sigh 7y ago
  What is your situation that you want to identify smugglers but aren't part of a government organization that can already source xray machines? While this might be the most powerful handheld one(don't know, didn't verify the authors claims), there certainly are already portable commercial scanners available. And one final thought - anywhere that has 1) smuggling problems, and 2) very intermittent power will also almost certainly have high levels of corruption. Getting scanners into the hands of backwater security personnel means nothing if they only need a few packs of the smuggled cigarettes to not even turn them on.
thesaint 7y ago
Most powerful? - see http://www.goldenengineering.com/ http://www.goldenengineering.com/ Portable x-ray applications often use a caesium chloride source, more practical, not so safe. Nice project. I bought a used dental x-ray head from ebay. It produced from memory around 90kV for about 40 seconds before I needed to turn it off (heat dissipation). Interesting for thicker pieces of steel is around 350kV...
argo_ 7y ago
What's the chance of having a cancer after using it? Very interesting invention though.
- dmitrygr 7y ago
  100%. Even if you do not use it. You chance of getting cancer is 100%, if you live long enough. It is the "default:" case in the "switch()" statement on "what kills you".
spyder 7y ago
They are commercial handheld x-rays, probably a lot weaker than this but still useful: Handheld backscatter x-ray scanner HBI-120: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29kTvJKMtao https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29kTvJKMtao https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovqJpcaWD7o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovqJpcaWD7o
- probabils 7y ago
  How can it get an image without a detector or something on the other side of the object? Is it just capturing reflected back x-rays?
  - AstralStorm 7y ago
    Yes, that's what backscatter means. (Incl. Reemitted) Usually this is more accurate but requires higher doses (not necessarily received) for good quality images, advanced processing and sensors. Used sometimes as backscatter CT or in scintigraphy (looking at people who have been given radioactive contrast).
eukaryote31 7y ago
The Aperture logo is a nice touch

48 points by aphrax 7y ago

lukelandlord 7y ago

Okay

celticninja 7y ago

Is it an actual x-ray? Do we want people to be firing these off in public?

vardump 7y ago
Yeah, at least his previous x-ray source looks like it could very well be real. Roughly matches designs of real machines I'm vaguely familiar with. I do wonder how they cool the tube head. If they don't do it at all, I don't think device lifetime will be that long. Luckily x-rays have pretty limited range. I think 5m/yd should be minimal safe distance. The further the better, of course.
- adammunich 7y ago
  Operation is actually rate limited by the anode's ability to store heat, not dissipate it. The electron beam heats up the anode far too fast to reasonably dissipate the energy continuously.
  - vardump 7y ago
    Ok, my knowledge about tube heads is rather superficial. I do know the devices I'm familiar with eventually require increasingly long cooldown periods.
    - adammunich 7y ago
      Yes, and in the US, interestingly enough those cool-down charts are actually required to be posted visibly on the machine by law.
    - AstralStorm 7y ago
      Which is why big medical x-ray machines have active liquid nitrogen cooling or solid co2, and also huge heatsinks.
grocid 7y ago
Judging for v1 [1] -- yes it is. And no we don't. That would be double-plus ungood. [1] https://adammunich.com/x-ray-machine/ https://adammunich.com/x-ray-machine/
aaron695 7y ago
> Do we want people to be firing these off in public? Once all 7 billion people have access to professionals then maybe we can ask this question? X-Rays were used for years to find peoples shoes size at shoes stores and no one was harmed. We have a lot more info on correct use now, so don't see the problem.... Other than amateurs need to do professionals job in this current world and the professional are commonly fighting back to stop the greater good to keep their wages high.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- JetSpiegel 7y ago
  > no one was harmed Citation needed.
  - aeternum 7y ago
    It very likely did cause harm: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1963031/pdf/brmedj03132-0034.pdf https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1963031/pdf/brm... https://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/_WMS/publications/wmj/pdf/106/5/275.pdf https://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/_WMS/publications/wm...

atlasunshrugged 7y ago

As someone totally unfamiliar with the space but interested in procuring a very cheap X-Ray or similar product to help identify illicit products at borders such as smuggled cigarettes, does anyone have recommendations on where to look? Needs to be cheap, portable, and ideally with a long battery life as power outages can be frequent

adammunich 7y ago
I built this device, and can answer any questions you might have about radio-imaging.
- atlasunshrugged 7y ago
  I'm afraid I'm totally new to this and don't even know what I don't know yet, I'm coming into this from the taxation angle and illicit trade is a major concern across Africa but also very hard to identify given some of the issues I mentioned above (plus porous borders, corruption, etc.). I guess my general question is how much does one of these cost to build and maintain? If you could point me to any reading for a total beginner to get up to speed on the capabilities of the technology I'd really appreciate that too.
  - adammunich 7y ago
    So it really depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for say, stowaways in a truck, backscatter x-ray is sufficient to help you find them. But if you are looking for smuggled goods you might need some sort of tranmissive x-ray system the truck passes through like a flatbed scanner of sorts.
oh_sigh 7y ago
What is your situation that you want to identify smugglers but aren't part of a government organization that can already source xray machines? While this might be the most powerful handheld one(don't know, didn't verify the authors claims), there certainly are already portable commercial scanners available. And one final thought - anywhere that has 1) smuggling problems, and 2) very intermittent power will also almost certainly have high levels of corruption. Getting scanners into the hands of backwater security personnel means nothing if they only need a few packs of the smuggled cigarettes to not even turn them on.

thesaint 7y ago

Most powerful? - see http://www.goldenengineering.com/ http://www.goldenengineering.com/ Portable x-ray applications often use a caesium chloride source, more practical, not so safe. Nice project. I bought a used dental x-ray head from ebay. It produced from memory around 90kV for about 40 seconds before I needed to turn it off (heat dissipation). Interesting for thicker pieces of steel is around 350kV...

argo_ 7y ago

What's the chance of having a cancer after using it? Very interesting invention though.

dmitrygr 7y ago
100%. Even if you do not use it. You chance of getting cancer is 100%, if you live long enough. It is the "default:" case in the "switch()" statement on "what kills you".

spyder 7y ago

They are commercial handheld x-rays, probably a lot weaker than this but still useful: Handheld backscatter x-ray scanner HBI-120: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29kTvJKMtao https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29kTvJKMtao https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovqJpcaWD7o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovqJpcaWD7o

probabils 7y ago
How can it get an image without a detector or something on the other side of the object? Is it just capturing reflected back x-rays?
- AstralStorm 7y ago
  Yes, that's what backscatter means. (Incl. Reemitted) Usually this is more accurate but requires higher doses (not necessarily received) for good quality images, advanced processing and sensors. Used sometimes as backscatter CT or in scintigraphy (looking at people who have been given radioactive contrast).

eukaryote31 7y ago

The Aperture logo is a nice touch