The fake battery-powered Nanox.Arc 1.0 body scanner can withstand a human, according to a photo shown in June 2020 Haaretz article.
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| Nanox CEO and founder Ran Poliakine, January 15, 2020.source: Haaretz/LUZ Corporate Photography |
So, what did the CEO tell the Israeli publication:
"The Nanox.ARC was distantly inspired by the sickbay of the 1960s television series Star Trek, where “Bones” McCoy would swipe a device over a patient to get a complete instant medical picture." OK, so Nanox.Arc is fiction?
"On a practical level, the research and development was born of a failed project at the Japanese company Sony to develop LED screens." Not OK - it was a failed project, but nothing to do with LED (light-emitting diodes)
"compared to just $10,000 and 70 kilos for the Nanox" Not OK. Nanox is now saying tens of thousands of dollars, and weight is no longer discussed.
"The company has applied for permits to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Europe’s CE and Israeli regulators." Really, really not OK!!! There are no such "permits." Nanox is now saying it has not submitted for FDA 510(k) clearance of the magic device, and that it has not submitted for CE Marking, and that means that it cannot register with the Israeli Ministry of Health.
"Nanox is readying to install a device at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center to be used for developing novel early-detection and screening protocols to promote global preventive healthcare practices. Research is scheduled to begin the first quarter of 2021." Not OK. It is not happening.
"A [Sony] team worked on the idea [for a novel LED screen] for seven years at a cost of more than $1 billion. The project never yielded the screen because Sony canned it after Panasonic got to the market with a similar, lower-cost device. But along the way the team designed tiny silicon chips capable of creating consistent and exacting screenshot images, Poliakine said." Not OK at all. The story is quite a bit different, there was no $1 billion, and there are no such chips "creating consistent and exacting screenshot images."
"X-ray technology was developed at the end of the 19th century and to this day uses the same basic technology, based on heating a metal filament to 2000 degrees Centigrade." Not OK. The metal filament thing was invented in 1913 by General Electric (the former employer of Nanox Advisory Board chair). Until then, X-ray technology used Nanox, that is cold-cathode, technology.
"The filament emits electrons that collide with an anode to create x-rays. The process uses a lot of electricity to keep the device cool." Not OK. Nanox process needs just as much electricity to keep the device cool.
"Nanox uses a proprietary silicon chip embedded with 100 million microcones that generate x-rays There are no moving parts, no need for cooling and no need for lots of electric power." Not OK. Nanox proposed tube performs exactly the same and uses the same power as a cheap Chinese tube unsuitable for medical imaging. And, nope, Nanox does not have a novel tube that can be used in a commercial device.
"Nanox ... employs 60 people, 38 in its Israel R&D center ad the rest at production facilities in Japan, the U.S. and South Korea." Not OK. Nanox has no production facilities anywhere.
Update March 25, 2021: The original $1 billion thing seems to come from the June 2019 press release by Nanox predecessor (the current Nanox was incorporated in December 2018 but did not start "operations" until September 2019, per prospectus)
Update September 28, 2021: The April 2020 Hadassah press release says:
Over $1 billion and 15 years of development have been invested in revolutionizing the X-Ray source...
So, 7 years at Sony and 8 years at Nanox and Nanox predecessor? Nope. First, all Sony did was to send 6 "engineers" to the offices of Candescent to "learn" about the tech after it signed an agreement with it in November 1998 - there is no evidence that any independent devlopment. Second, NanoX Imaging (Nanox predecessor) was "a multinational start-up established in 2012," but it was developing x-ray detectors not sources!
