Samsung is planning to launch an X-ray machine with 3D time of flight (ToF) image sensor technology next year, TheElec has learned.
The image sensor, the core of the ToF module, will be manufactured by Sony.
The machine will launch sometime during the first half of next year and Samsung is expected to manufacture thousands of units.
ToF technology, which is used on cameras on smartphones, shoots a light to the subject and measures the distance by analyzing the time it takes for the light to bounce back.
Samsung itself had used ToF modules on its smartphones in the past but no longer does so as it believes it isn’t used much.
The X-ray machine is being launched by Samsung’s medical device business.
Applying ToF to the machine is expected to increase the accuracy of the images taken as it will gather 3D information on bones, tendons, and veins as well as their shape, volume, and density.
More information means the X-ray can take fewer images to gather the information it needs, thereby reducing the number of times the patient is exposed to radioactive beams.
Samsung has chosen medical devices as its future growth engine among five product categories back in 2010. The other four were pharmaceuticals, solar, car batteries, and LED.
But the team continues to be downsized __ up to 2019 it was led by a president but now the top executive is an executive vice president.
Throughout the 2010s, Samsung acquired multiple medical device-related companies, only to sell them later.
It kept NeuroLogica which makes computed tomography machines it acquired in 2013 however.
Samsung’s medical device business manufactures various imaging machines from magnetic resonance imagining ones to X-ray.
Samsung also has a separate subsidiary called Samsung Medison, which makes diagnostic ultrasound systems.
