Guys, wake up and smell the coffee. This is not mean to replace x-ray but just to replace the x-ray film, just like digital camera replace film camera.

Further more, this is nothing new at all.

PHJ

@AndersonBMX:

Heh heh... I figured you couldn't have been that dense, but I thought I'd go with it. ;)

Speaking of playing with X-ray equipment, you should look up some sites with X-rays of sea shells. They can really be stunning... showing the intricacies of the interior structures overlaid on the more easily identifiable exteriors.

Obee Juan

@Obee Juan:
i know it, no radiation, and i know nobody would put it working... it was just a joke, don't take me seriously.

but don't underestimate the civilian power to do something dangerous with things thrown away in scrapyards ( [gizmodo.com] )
(just joking again)

AndersonBMX

LOL @AndersonBMX:

You don't seem to understand something. X-ray equipment is NOT radioactive. There are no radioactive materials. None. Zero. Nada. To make X-rays, you need the right equipment and a power source, and even then you don't get X-rays unless you complete the circuit by pushing and holding down the exposure button.

Even "if" some dope pulled an x-ray machine from a landfill, he'd likely lack not only the technical knowhow of how to put it back together, but also the electrical source to actually power it. Think of it this way... a typical light bulb runs using 110 volts. X-ray equipment run on upwards of 110 KILOVOLTS! You aren't getting that out of a household connection. Besides, I'm quite certain that they are disassembled thoroughly enough to prevent them from being used again. The x-ray tube in particular, which can run $100,000 or so, likely will have been dissected and completely disabled. Once you've cracked the tube and lose the vacuum, it's useless. It's just like breaking a light bulb. And you can't pick up a new x-ray tube at the corner market.

Obee Juan

@Pope John Peeps II:
lol

@Obee Juan:
but people playing with x-ray machines can be self exposed to a long period and acquire radioactive illness due to this long expose...

better we worry about Pope John Peeps II super powers... or the insects that grow over size and start to overlord a whole horde of killing insects to wipe the human kind off the earth's surface
lol

AndersonBMX

I had X-Rays years ago which I took home on a CD.

Polyphonic

@pepe the king prawn: Actually I underwent a medical check a couple of weeks ago and both radiographies and ultrasound images were burned on a CD for me. Film-free radiography has been around here.

As someone said, the real innovation maybe resolution.

MACPollo

meh, my dentist is already using this technology. i can take my dental records home in .pdf format.

pepe the king prawn

"The X-rays are detected photon by photon"... err.... perhaps someone might explain what kind of photodiode does not "detects" X-rays photon by photon...

The technical background of the article could very well apply to a Canon Digital Camera.

The coolest part of the thing is that *there are* in fact photodiodes capable of X-ray radiation detection.

I could be missing something, though.

MACPollo

Analog X-ray machines are already becoming a thing of the past. Computed Radiography (CR) has been around for a long time now and increasingly more hospitals are converting wholly over to digital formats. About the only revolutionary thing I see about this Samsung system may be the resolution it offers, which will be a big boon for mammography in particular. Although if it really is more sensitive than existing technologies, then that will lead to decreased doses to achieve the same image quality.

Obee Juan

Oops... hit submit a little quickly. Anywho... you make X-rays by firing a stream of high-energy electrons at an anode made of a dense material. Electrons hit the anode, bounce around the atoms and exchange energies with the atoms, and the atoms emit the energy as X-rays and heat. NOTHING is radioactive about this. Cut off the power (or stop pushing the button) and no more X-rays.

FYI.. radioactive materials emit gamma rays and alpha particles, NOT X-rays.

Obee Juan

@AndersonBMX: You don't have to worry though. I'm collecting them all. I'll mount them in my garage and spend my weekends bombarding insects with radiation and letting them bite me. Eventually one of them will give me super powers. Screw you, pedestrian science.

Pope John Peeps II

@AndersonBMX:

LOL! X-Ray machines don't contain anything radioactive! An x-ray tube actually works much the same way as a light bulb does. Same concept actually, just different materials and far more voltage.

Obee Juan

so that means thousands of hundreds old x-ray machines in the scrapyards, just waiting civilians to open it and spread radioactive waste over their familys and friends? [en.wikipedia.org]

AndersonBMX

Right, our three year old Siemens angio lab uses the same technology, and acquires 2K x 2K on a 40 x 30 cm panel at 30 FPS. This appears to be a moderate improvement, but not a brand new technology. The angiography systems are optimized for speed of acquisition, and there are certainly higher resolution film 'replacements' on the market currently. These devices include imaging plates with high energy storing phosphors which are read by lasers after exposure. When the laser hits a phosphor, it flashes with the energy stored from its interaction with the Xray. These panels work in conventional film based radiography equipment, and provide up to 4K x 4K resolution, depending on the size of the cassette.

OO

ooinseattle

@ooinseattle:
I believe (correct me if i'm wrong) the 2K x 2K panel itself was a CCD made by Kodak. I remember reading about it. VERY expensive, around $20K for the CCD panel alone.
Seems this one might be a hell of a lot cheaper. Which could / would accelerate deployment and interest.

The last X-ray I got was with computer radiography. A sensitive plate (about 1/2" thick) that gets x-ray exposed and fed into a scanner which makes the image and wipes the media at the same time. Far faster than film.

One thing that has not been mentioned is that this new devices use FAR LESS x-ray radiation. So you do not need to be exposed to harmfull radiation as much, thus they can take more X-rays more often without too much damage to your DNA and RNA.
Which is always a good thing!.

aec007