 |
LifeReader Senses The Enemy Through Walls
LifeReader, a wireless, heart-sensing radar technology developed by Kai Sensor, has been given a first phase contract worth $850,000 by the U.S. Army. The intent is to develop military applications for the device, which can effectively see through walls to find people inside.
(LifeReader by Kai Sensors)
LifeReader is able to accurately detect and monitor heart and respiration activity of multiple subjects wirelessly, with no contact to the subjects. It uses MIMO Doppler radar technology in combination with computer analysis.
This device should be more accurate, and more specific, than the Radar Scope created by DARPA for troops in Iraq. The Radar Scope can also sense respiration, but cannot count heart rhythms or distinguish individuals.
LifeReader was developed at the University of Hawaii's electrical engineering department.
Science fiction readers are long familiar with the idea, if not the particular technology used to implement it. In his 1958 story Cease Fire, Frank Herbert introduced the idea of a "life detector:"
The antennae of the Life Detector atop the OP swept back and forth in a rhythmic halfcircle like so many frozen sticks brittle with rime ice...One operator - drugged to shivering wakefulness - stood watch in the OP. The space around him was barely six feet in diameter, crammed with equipment, gridded screens glowing a pale green with spots that indicated living flesh: a covey of ptermigan, a possible Artic fox...
(Read more about Frank Herbert's life detector)
Army strategists should take note: Herbert also imagined that, if there was a life detector, there might also be a life detector shield.
Planetary science engineers have also been busy in this area (perhaps mindful of the utility of having a sensor capable of detecting "life readings," ala classic 1960's Star Trek.)
- Life Detector Robot To Find Life On Distant Worlds
A robotic rover called Zoe is the first robot to remotely detect the presence of life. - Urey Life Detector
The Urey: Mars Organic Oxidant Detector has been designed by NASA-funded researchers to look for life on Mars.
Via Star Bulletin; thanks to Mark Thompson for writing in with the story tip.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 10/17/2007)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 4 )
Related News Stories - (" Medical ")
TytoCare Offers Futuristic Home Care
'Immediately an enormous apparatus fell on to her out of the ceiling...' - EM Forster, 1909.
Would You Swallow An Origami Robot?
'Swallow it in an emergency--it goes down easily and works just as well inside as outside.' - Doc Smith, 1934.
Biotech Firms Raised $Millions For Anti-Agathics (Longevity Drugs)
'Against Death doth no simple grow.' - James Blish, 1957.
Medical Tattoos Are STILL Being Researched
'Following the current craze, she has had a subdermal pattern of micro-channels implanted.'
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Current News
TytoCare Offers Futuristic Home Care
'Immediately an enormous apparatus fell on to her out of the ceiling...'
Powdered Regolith Propulsion
'... filling their great tanks with the finely divided dust which the ionic rockets would spit out in electrified jets.'
Ford's SafeCap, Opposite Of Niven and Barnes' Napcap
'In the napcap a client became an instant yoga master...'
Would You Get 'Chipped'? Michigan May Ban Employers
'Employees above a certain level were implanted with advanced microprocessors...'
Tesla Autopilot: What Does An Autonomous Car See When It Looks At The Road?
'Jeremiah is a sports-model to begin with and that kind is awfully hot-tempered.'
DNA Controls Swarms Of Molecular Robots
'They exist in loose swarms...'
Tether Asteroids To Save Us All
'If anything can glue the asteroids back into the planet they once were, magnology will do it.'
Blaux Your Personal Commuter Cooling Unit
A cooling unit had to be strapped to every commuter's back, by law.
3D Printed Damascus Steel Now Possible
'...lined with durite, that strange close-packed laboratory product.'
R9X Hellfire Missile With Long Blades Kills Queda Leader
'He was still roaring when the knife missile flicked past him...'
Would You Swallow An Origami Robot?
'Swallow it in an emergency--it goes down easily and works just as well inside as outside.'
Perhaps You Might Be Interested In Habitable Exoplanet Moon Real Estate
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
Blurry Face Photos Made 60 Times Sharper
Perfect tool for blade runners.
SpaceX Will Build Floating Spaceports!
'...a single perfectly level platform, which rose so high above the water that it was not splashed by the waves.'
Fast Radio Bursts And Space Beacons For Interstellar Navigation
'Every beacon has a code signal as part of its radiation...'
Robot Garbage Trucks Visualized
'It was a bulky, shining cylinder over twenty metres long.'
