Police radar guns could help identify suicide bombers

[whydowelove]

Police radar guns could help identify suicide bombers​

The radar guns police use to spot speeding motorists have inspired a version that aims to identify a would-be suicide bomber in a crowd.

A radar gun fires microwave pulses at a car and measures the Doppler shift of the reflected signal to calculate its velocity. However, the strength and polarisation of the reflected signal – the "radar cross section" – can provide additional information about the size and shape of the reflecting object and the material it is made from.

William Fox of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and John Vesecky of the University of California, Santa Cruz, wondered whether the wiring in a suicide vest would alter the radar cross section of a bomber enough to allow a radar gun to pick him or her out in a crowd.

To find out, the pair used software to simulate how radar signals at 1 gigahertz and 10 gigahertz would be reflected by the most common arrangements of looped wiring typically used by suicide bombers. They found that the clearest reflected signals were in the 10 gigahertz range.

Together with colleague Kenneth Laws, they then fired low-power 10 gigahertz radar pulses at groups of volunteers, some wearing vests wired up like suicide vests. About 85 per cent of the time, telltale factors in the polarisation of the reflected signals allowed them to correctly identify a "bomber" up to 10 metres away.

The team hopes the US army will fund further development of the system, allowing them to boost the detection rate and include refinements to avoid false alarms being triggered by metal in underwired bras, jewellery and earphone leads.

The inventors suggest military checkpoints would be major users of such a system – but it could also be installed alongside CCTV cameras in shopping malls, railway stations, airports and high streets.

Overcoming false alarms will be a major challenge, says radar engineer Sam Pumphrey of the UK-based research and development company Cambridge Consultants, which is developing a radar system to detect explosives that may have been concealed within the walls of buildings as they were constructed. He thinks a bomb detection system that relies on radar guns alone might well be prone to false positives.

Fox agrees. He says that radar can be used in combination with other technologies, including smart surveillance cameras that can identify suspicious behaviourMovie Camera, and infrared imaging, which exploits the fact that explosives belts are often cooler than the body. Such a system could help security staff spot bombers from afar and discreetly begin an evacuation.



Police radar guns could help identify suicide bombers - tech - 26 November 2010 - New Scientist

 

[khurasaan1]

okay looks interesting..hmmmm

 

[mwaqas93]

Nice... I like - I like...

 

[Safriz]

Identifying a bomber just 10 meters away wont help.

 

[gambit]

Identifying a bomber just 10 meters away wont help.

Yes it would...A suicide bomber must make his way towards a specific target. He just need to be detected before reaching his target. The detectors could be visible as a deterrent, forcing him to take alternate routes, or they could be hidden to allow the defenders to take other measures.

 

[cybertron]

since its range is so low it most probably has to be used in stationary highly proteced areas.
well they r talking abt using it in shoping malls : Is it so cheap??

 

[gambit]

since its range is so low it most probably has to be used in stationary highly proteced areas.
well they r talking abt using it in shoping malls : Is it so cheap??

Nope...This is just a modified police speed radar and police uses theirs while stationary and in their moving vehicles. Its low range was because of a combination of modified waveform and power output to create EM emissions that assorted electronics, wires, and structures would reflect when they are bombarded with those EM emissions. In effect, instead of measuring the body's speed in relation to time, we are measuring how this body is outstanding in EM emanations regardless of other factors compared to 'normal' surrounding humans. Is it inexpensive? Sounds like it when all that is required is a firmware modification and update.

 

[mwaqas93]

It can be a huge prob if it the suicide bomber is in a van or a bus.... This can be a hard thing to identify....

 

[dizyn]

Agree, it's not easy to identify a bomber in a van.

It can be a huge prob if it the suicide bomber is in a van or a bus.... This can be a hard thing to identify....

 

[sergente rehan]

I don't know much about the argument but don't you think it's more effective to have explosive detectors instead of the one mentioned? Like in the case of veichles with explosives you can put these detectors at a safe distance from the check post so you will be warned if a suicide veichle is coming and take the counter measures in mean time.

 

[SQ8]

A simple thing to make the whole system useless..
Straight wires??
Fibre?
Wont figure that out..

What about a wired phone headseat..would that not trigger it?
It would need a lot of algo's to accurately tell whats a looped wire to a C4 pack..or a looped wire from a pacemaker inside.

 

[Safriz]

^^
Pakistan needs a central processing unit for counter terrorism..A super computer with purpose built software which is fed with whatever inteligence can be obtained Via Police and security services,and news..The computer does the number crunching and predicts the next pattern/area/or possibly the next target of terrorism..They have similar software for predicting stock market and even software for decision making by company executives...Same way a system for prediction of terrorism may be devised....just an idea...

The Radar gun may work if the info it gets is sent o a central processort which has loads of alogarithms and works fast...That way it can differentiate between a false alarm and a real suicide bomber..

Next big thing for Pakistan should be building a super computer.

 

[gambit]

I don't know much about the argument but don't you think it's more effective to have explosive detectors instead of the one mentioned? Like in the case of veichles with explosives you can put these detectors at a safe distance from the check post so you will be warned if a suicide veichle is coming and take the counter measures in mean time.

Look at this from a higher level...Say you are a policeman trying to enforce traffic speed laws. Without a speed radar, you have only two methods:

- Guessing from a stationary position, which is quite problematic in court challenges.

- Matching the target's own speed, which can be problematic since every motorists on the road would know who are you and would not speed, therefore depriving the government of revenue from their transgressions.

Everything has different characteristics and each characteristic is detectable with the appropriate detector. You see a man and you can differentiate from a woman with certain characteristics. A dog can do the same with scents, not only between the man and the woman but also between individuals. Metals are natural electromagnetic (EM) conductors/transmitters. So if a woman wears a lot of jewelry, her EM emission will be higher than a man who wears only a watch, some keys and may be some coins. Both can cover up their metals so VISUALLY speaking, you cannot tell who has more metals on their persons, but this tool can distinguish them from a different spectrum -- electromagnetism. If both are in an automobile, then the car being a much larger metallic contraption will shield them with its own EM characteristics. If either person has some explosives, a trained dog can distinguish who is the carrier via scents, a different spectrum, but would require a closer inspection. Not touching, just closer.

The goal here is to develop the best tool to exploit an object's many characteristics that may have some emissivity, and deploy them wisely. Some situations may render a tool ineffective, some situations may give us exactly what we seek from that same tool. Why does a mechanic have an adjustable crescent wrench alongside a set of fixed wrenches? But we do encourage others not to be so creative and be perpetually pessimistic. Those who are capable of looking at 'The Big Picture' will see that this tool is just an example of how some societies are more technologically dynamic and progressive than others.