A New X-ray Technique for Detecting Explosives Could Also Identify Tumors

upstart writes:

The method, which works in conjunction with a deep-learning AI, identifies materials by their texture:

A new x-ray technique that works alongside a deep-learning algorithm to detect explosives in luggage could eventually catch potentially deadly tumors in humans.

[...] While standard x-ray machines hit objects with a uniform field of x-rays, the team scanned the bags using a custom-built machine containing masks-sheets of metal with holes punched into them, which separate the beams into an array of smaller beamlets.

As the beamlets passed through the bag and its contents, they were scattered at angles as small as a microradian (around one 20,000th as big as a degree).The scattering was analyzed by AI trained to recognize the texture of specific materials from a particular pattern of angle changes.

The AI is exceptionally good at picking up these materials even when they're hidden inside other objects, says lead author Sandro Olivo, from the UCL Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering. "Even if we hide a small quantity of explosive somewhere, because there will be a little bit of texture in the middle of many other things, the algorithm will find it."

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.