High-Throughput 3-D Millimeter-Wave Imaging of Packaged Goods : (Invited Paper)

This work presents a first of its kind high-throughput 3-D millimeter-wave imaging system for packaged goods in commerce. We use millimeter waves to image through non-metallic packaging to see the items inside, and permit automated analysis of crucial business and process metrics such as object count, anomaly detection, or estimation of void space inside packages. The presented system achieves system resolutions of δ_X= 20.4 mm, δy = 4.3 mm, and δ_Z= 8.4 mm, with accuracy of 1 mm in the y direction and 2.5 mm in the z direction. It is shown that the system is not only capable of producing 3-D images of the products inside an optically-opaque corrugated cardboard shipping box, but is also sensitive enough to produce an image of the cardboard itself.