This looks like an ordinary USB-C connector, but when we CT scan it, we find something sinister inside…🧵
Last year we CT scanned a top-of-the-line Thunderbolt 4 connector and were astonished to find a 10-layer PCB with lots of active electronics. A lot of people saw the scan and wondered whether malicious electronics could be hidden in a tiny USB connector.
We just announced a major breakthrough in X-ray CT technology at @lumafield: scans that take hours with conventional CT will now take seconds. Here's why that's important 🧵
A CT scan is the richest possible source of industrial inspection data: it gives you a full 3D model of your part, inside and out, along with relative density information. But it's always been too slow for use in high-volume production environments—until now.
Sep 25 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
Pens are made by the billion, require insane precision, and still work almost every time. We CT scanned a few common pen types to see what’s inside... 🧵
First up: a fountain pen 🖊️ These date back to the 10th century, but practical designs appeared in the 19th century. When the pen is tilted, gravity pulls ink from a cartridge to the nib. Capillary action pulls the ink through a slit in the nib, where it flows onto the page. Here are the 2D X-ray radiographs we captured of a fountain pen; we use software to reconstruct them into a 3D model (next tweet).
Apr 9 • 23 tweets • 10 min read
We CT scanned an Apple Vision Pro! We also scanned two Meta headsets. Here’s what we found inside, and what it says about the two companies’ approach to AR/VR and to hardware development in general. 🧵
Here are our industrial CT scans of the Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 3 headsets. If you want to explore these scans, head to . Now let’s see what we found… lumafield.com/article/apple-…
Mar 28 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
This is an industrial X-ray CT scan of a Luer activated valve—a tiny medical connector that costs just 75 cents but is remarkably complex. Let’s take a look at how it works… 🧵
Luer connectors are used to join medical tubing for fluid delivery—think tubes that hook into IV bags, or needles that fit onto the ends of syringes. Hospitals use thousands every day. They twist together with less than one turn and must be secure and completely leakproof.
Mar 14 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
We CT scanned a Stanley Quencher cup to look for the lead that’s supposedly inside. Here’s what we found, and what it says about how these cups are made… 🧵
These cups have been a viral sensation, increasing Stanley’s revenue 10X since 2019. But late last year, social media influencers discovered lead in the cups. Stanley confirmed the cups contain lead, but says the lead doesn’t contact the cup’s contents. So what’s going on?
Feb 28 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
This is a CT scan of Heinz’s new ketchup cap. It represents a $1.2 million engineering investment over 8 years. Here’s why it’s significant… 🧵
This is the previous Heinz cap design. CT scans like @lumafield’s capture density, shown here on a blue-red spectrum. There are three plastics in this cross-section. The bottle is PET, and the cap is unlabeled but likely polypropylene. Inside the cap is another material.
Jan 18 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Guess that scan! This is an industrial CT scan of an everyday object, shown in cross section. Do you know what it is?
@lumafield No one's guessed it yet! Here's a hint: this is a section along a different plane.
Dec 14, 2023 • 21 tweets • 7 min read
There are billions of Christmas tree lights in the world. We CT scanned a few and found that they’re much more complex and intricate than they seem. Let’s take a look… 💡🧵
This is a standard incandescent bulb from a string of holiday lights. It has a tiny tungsten filament just like a regular old bulb, but there’s something else in this image…
Nov 29, 2023 • 11 tweets • 5 min read
This is a CT scan of a Furby! 😱
We captured it for @bekathwia’s latest teardown video; let’s see what’s inside… 🧵
@bekathwia The Furby reacts to being patted on the head. Indeed, when we look inside it one of the most prominent features is a spring-loaded head-pat sensor.
(CT captures relative material density; we can strip away fur and plastic, isolating denser materials like steel and copper.)
Nov 7, 2023 • 15 tweets • 8 min read
The world is full of counterfeit Apple products. We CT scanned two fake AirPods and compared them to the real thing… 🧵
This is an authentic AirPod Pro (2nd Generation). It’s a marvel of miniaturization. Everything is packed into the curved enclosure efficiently with tightly integrated flexible PCBs.
Oct 31, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Happy Halloween! Here's a CT scan of a pumpkin.
Here's my favorite view, with the denser shell stripped away to show the pulp inside.
Oct 18, 2023 • 26 tweets • 10 min read
What’s inside Apple’s $129 Thunderbolt cable? We CT scanned one to find out, and compared it to some cheaper cables… 🧵
Turns out there’s a lot going on in this Thunderbolt 4 connector. There’s a very complex PCBA that appears to have two inductors. This cable can deliver 100W to the connected device, plus it has to power its own ICs.
Jul 13, 2023 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Perhaps you've wondered what Doritos would look like in a CT scan. We did, so here's a clump of Cool Ranch Doritos, scanned through the bag. But there's more...🧵
We also put Cheetos and Ruffles in our industrial CT scanner, then had some extra fun with the scan data.
Mar 25, 2018 • 19 tweets • 6 min read
Here's a thread: generative artificial intelligence has made breathtaking gains in the last four years. For instance, these are images of imaginary bedrooms and imaginary album covers created by a neural network.
(For more on this, and these examples, see: jebruner.com/2018/03/optimi…)