The Original X-ray Spex - Amazing X-ray Vision! [Toy]

Kind of bummed they were cardboard but still kind of cool.

Gifted and they loved it.

Made of paper. Even for a novelty, it’s garbage.

I used this with my four year class. They loved looking at the light and looking at their distorted hands which looked like bones. I had these glasses when I was a kid in the 70’s. Please note it’s made out of cardboard and will not stand up over time or if it gets wet.

We had been using a Nikon XT V 160 with 160 kV source to inspect BGA ball pad joins in our PCB fabrication line, but the costs were high and it was difficult to use. When it was time to renew with the vendor, we decided evaluate to these X-RAY SPEX as a possible alternative.PROS:1) Low (no?) energy beam. These SPEX do not appear to impart any energy or charge to the sample under view. This allows longer dwell time without worrying about ionization or lattice dislocations.2) Size. When folded, these literally can fit in a lab coat pocket or desk drawer. The machine we replaced was the size of a small car.2) Intuitive use. There is no user interface to learn, just put them on and look at the sample.3) Low (no?) power. These appear to be self powered - there is no need for a dedicated high amperage circuit.4) Low (no?) dosing or exposure limits. We have not had a single dosimeter alert with this device, even at 1 millrem threshold. These are designed for looking at living tissue (hands and full body scans) and so must use some other method of action that limits biological interaction.4) Low cost. These cost about $10 per unit as a one -time purchase. The machine we replaced was running more than $2.5 million annually between the lease, maintenance, licencing fees, and operator training costs.CONS:1) Non-concentric imaging. Since you wear these SPEX on your head like you would with glasses, it is not possible to rotate the field of view without also impacting the position of the center-point.2) Fiber and particle release. These are made from standard non-bonded cellulose cardboard and so release airborne particles during normal use. This really precludes their use in class ISO 3 or better clean rooms.3) Large spot size. There is effectively no magnification. The smallest feature you can resolve is basically the smallest thing you can see with your eyes.4) No tomography. You can move your head around to see different angles, but there is no point cloud or way to reconstruct tomographic data. What you see is literally what you get.5) Low manufacturing quality. These are basically just a piece of cardboard with a striated filter at about 633nm (looks like a dyed feather).6) No support. We reached out the vendor for guidance in dealing with some back-scatter issues and got no response (we eventually figured out that must wear these SPEX on the *outside* of your safety goggles).All said, these SPEX have been a valuable and effective addition to our line. As long as you can live with their limitations, I would recommend them for people looking for an alternative to high cost, high power, hard to use, and dangerous tube and cyclotron based x-ray inspection systems.

Ever since I was a kid I always wanted to know what the trick was with these things but could never get my hands on a pair. Now that i know the trick, I am not disappointed. Very entertaining day or night. Glad I went 28 years without having the trick spoiled for me!

Made out of a cardboard, not the plastic ones like we grew up with

This week I really like this book size, it’s type size, and it’s coverage of the iPhone 15. Gives a lot of attention to video recording and photography.