Development of a solid state real-time magnetic field camera (mFIC)

We wish to use resources provided by the FoF scheme to complete the development of a real-time, solid state magnetic field camera (mFIC), which will produce live, streaming video of metal prestressing components embedded within concrete (or any other opaque medium, non conductive medium). It will contain no moving parts and be intrinsically safe to operate. It will comprise the scanner head and a hand-held dedicated control unit running Windows CE Version 6, for system control, signal acquisition, image generation, enhancement and storage. It will NOT include a keyboard, but will allow the user to make choices using a touch screen or soft keys. We will also demonstrate that it can be used in the field on real structures, not just in the laboratory. The system will not only produce accurate image data of the metal or ferrous components, it will also provide quantitative, colour-coded corrosion information.In addition to its obvious application in nondestructive testing, the mFIC will have considerable potential for use in such diverse fields as medicine, security, manufacturing, design of motors and generators, research and teaching. The solid-state array and associated high-speed digital signal processing hardware of the mFIC allows actual magnetic lines of flux to be viewed in real time as images, at a frame rate of between 5 and 10 per second. This is a truly novel instrument and has enormous commercial potential (as evidenced by our letters of support).