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"Science fiction is what scientists would do if they could - if they had enough grant money, enough time, and enough brains to do the wonderful things they would like to do."
- Greg Bear
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| Nanomachine Lidar | ||
| Radar-like system that uses electromagnetic radiation at optical frequencies (visible light) for range-finding and analysis. |
This is a very cool technology, and one which has real potential for use (and miniaturization).
| If you stared carefully into the fog and focused on a point inches in front of your nose, you could see it sparkling, like so many microscopic searchlights, as the immunocules swept space with lidar beams. Lidar was like radar except that it used the smaller wavelengths that happened to be visible to the human eye. |
| From The Diamond Age,
by Neal Stephenson. Published by Bantam Books in 1995 Additional resources -
|
Lidar stands for Light Detection And Ranging; it is a real technology being explored today. The device sends light out toward a target, which interacts with the target and is changed by it. Some of this light is reflected or scattered back to the lidar device, where it is analyzed. The simplest lidars are range finders (determine the distance to the object). DIAL (Differential Absorption Lidar) is used to measure the concentrations of chemical pollutants in the atmosphere. A DIAL uses two selected laser wavelengths; one is absorbed by the target molecules, the other is not. The difference in the return signals can be used to determine the concentration of the selected molecule in the target sample. Other names for lidar are laser radar, optical radar and ladar. Find more information about lidar at the LIDAR Tutorial, courtesy of our friends at NASA.gov.
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Tech news articles related to The Diamond Age
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| The Robotic Shopping Cart Of The Future |
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| Marie Curie's Papers Still Radioactive |
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'The pokkecon rang again. *The coffee’s for him?* Tsuyoshi said.'
The Jetsons imagined so much future.
'Rod placed the brain inside the panel... the horse raised its head, wiggled its ears, blinked twice, gave a tentative whinny.'
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
'Chain of hotels that specialized in non-human service.'
'But then... not every bulldozer operator works on the Moon.'
'Griff found the white and pink map distracting and switched it off using his tongue mouse.'
