Project duration: December 2025 – March 2026
The CCRD (Cosmic Camera Ray Detector) following its initial announcement at the IEEE NPSS* conference in Japan, the finalized project and its results were officially presented at the Muographers 2026 conference in Budapest, by Kate Katrankova, Head of Customer Experience at Muotech..
We have demonstrated that everyday laptops can contribute directly to frontier particle physics.
This achievement was made in collaboration with the University of Tokyo, Muographix, the c (VMI), the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center in Warsaw (CAMK), and the CREDO Science network of Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences.
* IEEE NPSS (Nuclear & Plasma Sciences Society) is a prestigious technical society within the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers focusing on radiation instrumentation and accelerators.
Invisible particles from space constantly pass through the world around us. Until now, detecting them required specialized laboratory equipment. Muotech’s technology brings particle detection beyond the lab, making it accessible to everyone.
Most modern computers already include a webcam. muoCAM transforms that everyday camera into a particle detector by distinguishing rare cosmic particle interactions from the camera’s normal electronic noise. Since most built-in webcams utilize a CMOS sensor, muoCAM takes advantage of this standard hardware to detect high-energy particles as they pass through the camera.
To achieve this, Muotech developed muoCAM – a lightweight, cross-platform desktop application built with PyQt6 and OpenCV. The software continuously analyzes images from the webcam using a two-step processing approach:
Noise calibration: Upon launching, the software captures 50 dark frames to generate a live median noise map. Every subsequent frame is automatically differenced against this baseline to eliminate static noise.
Track classification: When a cosmic muon passes through the webcam’s CMOS sensor, it leaves behind a distinctive trail of bright pixels – even with the lens completely covered! muoCAM analyzes the shape of these signals using a robust, linearity-based scoring method.
The algorithm was extensively validated using synthetic datasets representing a wide range of scenarios. It reliably identifies the long, straight tracks characteristic of cosmic muons while rejecting artifacts such as hot pixels, electronic noise, and diffuse radioactive events.
The interface features
Simple setup: Data collection starts in just two steps: calibrate the camera and begin recording. Connected webcams can be selected directly from the device menu.
Real-time monitoring: Live session statistics display the number of detected events, confirmed muons, and the duration of the current measurement.
Recent detections: A live gallery shows the latest particle events captured by the webcam, each accompanied by a timestamp.
Advanced controls: Experienced users can fine-tune acquisition parameters such as frame rate, exposure, gain, and detection threshold in real time.
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What happens when you actually run muoCAM on a normal laptop? Under optimized settings (with your webcam lens completely covered to block out room light), the system successfully detects atmospheric muons at an average rate of ~7 events per hour.
That means that every hour, about 7 invisible particles from space pass through an ordinary laptop camera and are captured live on the screen.
Why do muon detectors in laptops matter? This project goes far beyond demonstrating that everyday devices can detect cosmic particles. While Muotech’s primary focus remains muon imaging, the technologies developed through muoCAM may also enable future applications in muon-based positioning and navigation.
As part of this vision, Muotech is collaborating with Prof. Hiroyuki K. M. Tanaka and his team at the University of Tokyo. Prof. Tanaka, a pioneer in muography, invented the Muon Positioning System (muPS) and its wireless successor, MuWNS – an innovation recognized by TIME magazine as one of the Best Inventions of 2023.
Using specialized scintillation detectors, Prof. Tanaka and his colleagues demonstrated underground positioning by synchronizing muon detections with GNSS, achieving timing accuracy within a few hundred nanoseconds of UTC. Muotech is now exploring how the same fundamental concepts could one day be extended beyond dedicated scientific detectors.
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Muon-based positioning relies on comparing the arrival times of the same cosmic muons at multiple detectors. By precisely measuring these time differences, it is possible to estimate distances and determine the position of a receiver- even in environments where GPS cannot operate.
Today, these systems rely on specialized scientific hardware. While Muotech’s primary focus remains muon imaging and scanning, the same technological foundations may enable future advances in GPS-independent positioning.
