Midjourney shows ultrasound scanner as its first hardware product

Midjourney is moving into medical imaging with an ultrasound-based full-body scanner, a shift that takes the AI image company into hardware and health technology. CEO David Holz presented the device, called the Midjourney Scanner, as a system meant to produce detailed internal body images quickly and repeatedly.

Holz described the scanner as Midjourney’s first hardware product and said it is separate from the image-generation work the company is known for. Midjourney says the system is designed to look at the makeup of muscle, fat, bone and organs, at least in its initial form.

How the scanner works

According to Midjourney Medical, the scanner uses ultrasound rather than MRI or X-ray technology. The company says a person steps onto a platform that lowers into water on rails, passing through a ring filled with transducers.

Midjourney Medical says those transducers send ultrasonic waves through the body and record the resulting signals. The company says software then uses that information to build 3D images from vertical slices captured during the scan.

Midjourney says the scan is intended to take about 60 seconds. Holz said the goal is image quality that is comparable to MRI “in many ways,” and the company has also described the project as potentially “in many ways superior to even MRI machines.”

Partnership with Butterfly Network

The scanner was developed with Butterfly Network, an ultrasound technology company. Butterfly Network said the system uses 40 of its Ultrasound-on-Chip imaging modules.

Midjourney Medical has shown ultrasound imagery with AI segmentation overlays, including an abdominal scan with labeled body structures and a scan of an imaging phantom used to test how cleanly structures can be separated under controlled conditions. Midjourney Medical presented those images as examples of how its software can identify and divide structures in ultrasound data.

Holz said one possible use would be tracking how a body changes after adjustments to diet or exercise. He suggested the scanner could be used once a year or as often as daily, depending on what kind of information a person wants to collect.

A spa-like plan for preventive scans

Holz also described plans for a San Francisco spa built around the scanner. Midjourney job listings describe the company’s aim as building and launching what it calls the world’s first full-body ultrasound CT scanner.

Those listings say Midjourney wants to bring “safe, fast, and high fidelity preventative scanning” to large numbers of people through a “magical spa experience.” The company has not provided pricing, availability or regulatory details in the information described.

This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.