Color 3D X-ray

This image (1) shows a wrist with more muscle, less visible bone, almost no fat and a clearly-articulated watch. It's important to note that these aren't "true-color" X-ray scans as most people would commonly understand the term. As the inventors of the sensor that was used to make these images described in a 2015 paper in the journal IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging and on the company's website, the colors in these images are applied based on the computer's detection of different wavelengths of X-rays passing through different substances. There are, however, no "true" red X-rays or "true" white X-rays; the device's programmers assign different colors to different detected body parts. (What human brains interpret as color comes from different wavelengths of light in the visual spectrum bouncing off objects. Visible light is also a form of electromagnetic radiation but is lower-energy than X-ray light.).

A New Zealand company called Mars Bioimaging has developed a new type of medical imaging scanner that works in a similar fashion, but borrows technology developed for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to produce far more detailed results. The Medipix3 chip works similar to the sensor in your digital camera, but it detects and counts the particles hitting each pixel when a shutter opens.

When used in the new scanner developed by father and son scientists Phil and Anthony Butler from the Universities of Canterbury and Otago in New Zealand, the Medipix3 chip, enhanced with custom data-processing algorithms, can detect the change in wavelengths as x-rays pass through different materials in the body. This allows the scanner to differentiate bone, muscle, fat, liquids, and all the other material in the human body, while additional software uses that data to produce stunning full-color images that allow a three-dimensional view of the inside of the body.

So while a doctor is examining images of your arm, looking for signs of a break or fracture after a nasty fall, he or she could also look for other potentially dangerous medical conditions that might not be apparent in typical x-ray results. In fact, smaller test versions of this scanner are already being used to study cancer, as well as bone and joint health in patients—but the technology will be useful in countless other medical fields as well, from dentistry to brain surgery.

taken from external source....