Eventually small snake cameras will be cheap enough though. A quick google search showed a few around $250 and 5.5mm was the smallest head I saw. They'll certainly get smaller over the years. Of course even if we can get a camera in the cart, it doesn't mean jack shit if we can't see good detail and know what to look for. I could slide one up my ass and do my own colonoscopy, but it wouldn't do much good without a doctor's knowledge of wtf I'm seeing. It would give the camera some added flavor though and certainly up its resale value.
X-ray'ing AES carts is an interesting idea, but unless you mean "x-ray" in the general sense of looking inside (ie, ultrasound), there would be no way afaik to make out anything meaningful. Plus with 2 boards in the cart they would be on top of each other in the picture. I would think actual x-rays would damage or probably damage something anyways. So yea, provenance is still best for now.
