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Researchers have created a tiny chip that can take images of objects through cardboard | The technology, designed to fit inside a smartphone, brings us a step closer to wielding Superman’s X-ray vision abilities (without the X-rays).

Researchers have created a tiny chip that can take images of objects through cardboard. The technology, designed to fit inside a smartphone, brings us a step closer to wielding Superman’s X-ray vision abilities (without the X-rays).

“This technology is like Superman’s X-ray vision,” said Kenneth O, professor of electrical engineering at UTD, director of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence (TxACE) and one of the study’s co-authors. “We designed the chip without lenses or optics so that it could fit into a mobile device,” said Wooyeol Choi, assistant professor at SNU’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the paper’s corresponding author. The researchers envision their smartphone-housed microchip imager being used for everything from finding studs and wooden beams behind walls to identifying cracks in pipes and the contents of envelopes and packages.

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