3D Scanner using static electric fields

[taylaron]

Greetings PFers,
Can someone help explain to me the difficulties of designing a device which utilizes static electric fields to map an objects’ internals and externals?

My understanding is that as a electric field propagates through matter, it encounters absorption.
I envision a device which utilizes a RF emitter and a sensor 180 degrees opposite the object being scanned. Wouldn't this scanner function much like a CT scanner? As the field penetrates more matter, its field strength decreases a measurable amount.

Conductive objects would make scanning difficult because they would conduct the electric field, instead of impeding it.

-Tay

 

[mfb]

All objects are conducting, there are no perfect insulators.
I'm not sure how the object reconstruction would look like, and you will certainly need a lot of data points and sender/receiver combinations, together with a very good timing resolution (<< nanosecond) to detect the RF phase. And it fails if too much metal is in the object, of course.

RF fields are not static, by the way.

 

[taylaron]

​

All objects are conducting, there are no perfect insulators.
I'm not sure how the object reconstruction would look like, and you will certainly need a lot of data points and sender/receiver combinations, together with a very good timing resolution (<< nanosecond) to detect the RF phase. And it fails if too much metal is in the object, of course.

RF fields are not static, by the way.

Sorry, I thought I removed all references to RF fields. I changed my position to static electric fields instead.

Without having to worry about sub nanosecond accuracy with static fields, I still see conductive objects as being an obstacle, but surely an algorithm can be used to solve most of that problem. Any other thoughts?

-Tay

 

[mfb]

I still don't see how you want to do a proper 3D reconstruction. It will be highly non-trivial to distinguish parts of the 3D object with static fields.