It looks like somebody actually coughed up the extra dollar for the De Luxe model X-Ray specs in the back of Mad Magazine, then reverse-engineered ’em in the name of science. That somebody is Richard Averitt, whose team at Boston University has come up with a way to use metamaterials and terahertz transmissions to see through you. We’ve seen metamaterials plenty of times before, typically being used for nefarious deeds on the opposite end of the spectrum: invisibility cloaks. Here they form pixels for a digital imager that can be activated by THz radiation. If you’re not familiar with THz radiation, it’s a (supposedly perfectly safe) form of energy waves that pass through materials — much like X-Rays but without all the nasty DNA-shattering effects on the way through. There’s just one problem: nobody (not even this guy) has made a powerful enough THz emitter just yet, meaning we’re all safely naked under our clothes for at least another few years.
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Terahertz radiation and metamaterials combine to form super X-Ray specs originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 May 2010 15:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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