AI company Midjourney reveals full-body scanner, says MRI is complicated and old
Midjourney, known for AI image generation, is now building hardware with the launch of Midjourney Medical. The company has revealed an ultrasonic scanner that it claims can give you a detailed body scan in 60 seconds, far quicker than an MRI scan, and that too without any radiation.
There has been a lot of chatter around AI hardware devices lately. OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, almost everyone wants to make AI hardware. But Midjourney, a company known for its AI image generation models, is taking things up a notch. Instead of a hardware device that is focused on running an AI assistant, it has revealed the Midjourney Scanner, a medical device that it claims gives comparable results to MRI but much faster, and without any radiation.
The scanner is part of Midjourney Medical, the company’s new division aimed at medical devices. In the announcement, Midjourney CEO David Holz called the project "a little weird and a little crazy, but also spectacular and filled with hope.”
Before we begin, keep in mind that the Midjourney Scanner is yet to be validated clinically, and all the claims made have not been proven independently.
60 seconds and you are done, says Midjourney CEO
The Midjourney Scanner is an ultrasonic device that can scan your entire body by using a ring of sensors that can capture the inside of your body.
To do a scan, all you need to do, as per David Holz is go into the water for 60 seconds. He wrote, “You go into the water, you come out of the water, and you're done.”
A video shared by Midjourney on its official website shows a woman standing on a platform that descends into water. The platform is illuminated by a “shallow pool of golden light.” As the platform lowers, it goes through a ring that contains half a million underwater sensors, each acting as both speaker and microphone, generating terabytes of data a second.
Midjourney says that the sensors act “like a dolphin, using its echolocation.” sending ultrasonic waves through the body from multiple angles. These sensors then capture vertical slices from inside the body and create a detailed 3D map for your muscles, fat, bones, and organs.
The scanner was developed in partnership with ultrasound technology company Butterfly Network, which said each system uses 40 Butterfly Ultrasound-on-Chip imaging modules. Midjourney states that the scanner combines the sensors with two petaflops of processing power.
Midjourney claims that one second of scan data would equal about 500 hours of HD internet video, and that the images can continuously crossfade between raw reconstruction and AI segmentation overlays that identify structures inside the body.
Holz claimed that the scanner aims to deliver “image quality comparable to MRI in many ways.”
No radiation or magnetic fields, Midjourney claims
Midjourney says that since the scanner uses sound waves and water, it does not emit any radiation or have any powerful magnetic fields, something that MRI scans do. This, in theory, would make the Midjourney scanner safer.
David Holz added that the Midjourney Scanner is “in many ways superior to even MRI machines.” Another thing to note is that an MRI scan can usually take somewhere between 30 and 90 minutes, far longer than the 60-second timeframe Midjourney is claiming with its scanner.
Holz says that the company wants to make scanning “as casual as a trip to the spa” in the future. The Midjourney chief reckoned that people can use it to stay up to date with their body. He said, as quoted by The Verge, “I’m not the most measured man on Earth yet, you know, but maybe I want to have that daily measurable information.”
When will it be available?
Midjourney plans to have the first set of Midjourney Scanners available in the first Midjourney Spa that is planned to open in San Francisco before the end of 2027. The spa is expected to have 10 scanners along with hot tubs, saunas, cold plunges, a gym and scanning rooms equipped with tubs.
The company aims to open more locations in 2028 with a third-generation scanner, with the long-term goal of having 50,000 of these scanners around the world in the next 6 years that can do a billion full-body scans on a monthly basis.
Midjourney says that diagnostic medical uses would require US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearances, but that it is beginning with detailed body composition maps, which it said do not require the same level of clearance.
There has been a lot of chatter around AI hardware devices lately. OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, almost everyone wants to make AI hardware. But Midjourney, a company known for its AI image generation models, is taking things up a notch. Instead of a hardware device that is focused on running an AI assistant, it has revealed the Midjourney Scanner, a medical device that it claims gives comparable results to MRI but much faster, and without any radiation.
The scanner is part of Midjourney Medical, the company’s new division aimed at medical devices. In the announcement, Midjourney CEO David Holz called the project "a little weird and a little crazy, but also spectacular and filled with hope.”
Before we begin, keep in mind that the Midjourney Scanner is yet to be validated clinically, and all the claims made have not been proven independently.
60 seconds and you are done, says Midjourney CEO
The Midjourney Scanner is an ultrasonic device that can scan your entire body by using a ring of sensors that can capture the inside of your body.
To do a scan, all you need to do, as per David Holz is go into the water for 60 seconds. He wrote, “You go into the water, you come out of the water, and you're done.”
A video shared by Midjourney on its official website shows a woman standing on a platform that descends into water. The platform is illuminated by a “shallow pool of golden light.” As the platform lowers, it goes through a ring that contains half a million underwater sensors, each acting as both speaker and microphone, generating terabytes of data a second.
Midjourney says that the sensors act “like a dolphin, using its echolocation.” sending ultrasonic waves through the body from multiple angles. These sensors then capture vertical slices from inside the body and create a detailed 3D map for your muscles, fat, bones, and organs.
The scanner was developed in partnership with ultrasound technology company Butterfly Network, which said each system uses 40 Butterfly Ultrasound-on-Chip imaging modules. Midjourney states that the scanner combines the sensors with two petaflops of processing power.
Midjourney claims that one second of scan data would equal about 500 hours of HD internet video, and that the images can continuously crossfade between raw reconstruction and AI segmentation overlays that identify structures inside the body.
Holz claimed that the scanner aims to deliver “image quality comparable to MRI in many ways.”
No radiation or magnetic fields, Midjourney claims
Midjourney says that since the scanner uses sound waves and water, it does not emit any radiation or have any powerful magnetic fields, something that MRI scans do. This, in theory, would make the Midjourney scanner safer.
David Holz added that the Midjourney Scanner is “in many ways superior to even MRI machines.” Another thing to note is that an MRI scan can usually take somewhere between 30 and 90 minutes, far longer than the 60-second timeframe Midjourney is claiming with its scanner.
Holz says that the company wants to make scanning “as casual as a trip to the spa” in the future. The Midjourney chief reckoned that people can use it to stay up to date with their body. He said, as quoted by The Verge, “I’m not the most measured man on Earth yet, you know, but maybe I want to have that daily measurable information.”
When will it be available?
Midjourney plans to have the first set of Midjourney Scanners available in the first Midjourney Spa that is planned to open in San Francisco before the end of 2027. The spa is expected to have 10 scanners along with hot tubs, saunas, cold plunges, a gym and scanning rooms equipped with tubs.
The company aims to open more locations in 2028 with a third-generation scanner, with the long-term goal of having 50,000 of these scanners around the world in the next 6 years that can do a billion full-body scans on a monthly basis.
Midjourney says that diagnostic medical uses would require US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearances, but that it is beginning with detailed body composition maps, which it said do not require the same level of clearance.
