~Nodes
A radiation sensor inside a cell phone was used with a network of tiny computers spread out around Vanderbilt Stadium... to detect a fake radioactive "dirty bomb."
...they set their equipment up in the stadium press box and watched as a red dot moved across their computer screens.
The dot represented the real-time movements of researcher Janos Sallai as he walked up and down the stadium seats and around the playing field while watching the radiation sensor inside his cell phone.
Tiny radio-transmitting computers spaced around an area, like Vanderbilt Stadium, can be used to help security workers find potential threats, such as the fake radioactive bomb...
The computers, called nodes, are square white boxes with a short antenna protruding from the top. The current device is no bigger than a coffee cup, but future versions may be the size of buttons on an overcoat.
"It will be miniaturized as the technology matures," Ledeczi said.
The nodes feed information from sensors like the one in the researcher's cell phone back to computers being monitored by the researchers. In a real-world application, the information would be sent to computers used by security personnel.
The nodes can also be used to instantly train security cameras with almost pinpoint accuracy to the site of trouble, Ledeczi said. That ability has already drawn the interest of the Pentagon for its ability to detect snipers.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientist Frank DeNap said the technology the team is developing will be versatile enough to detect more than just radioactive threats.
"It will work with any type of sensor," he said. "If the threat is chemical, you can use a chemical sensor. Or, if you think the threat is explosives, you can use an explosives sensor."
Ledeczi said practical use of such a threat detection system could be about a year away.
press release | Houston Chronicle
~One day they'll be able to put tiny sensors on people before they enter a targeted/suspect area without the people knowing. (Not eco-tourism...terror-tourism.) Also sensors on animals: birds, mice, dogs, cats, polar bears, whales?
Anything that uses a cell phone is accessable anywhere in the world? They're hoping to use satellites to track sensored-up (sic) animals and cooperative or even unsuspecting individuals and the radiation, explosives, poisons and diseases they might encounter on their travels.
How far along are bio-sensors for specific airborne diseases? Science fiction?
(I wonder if corporations are developing contingency plans? When pollution sensors are cheap enough for every town to purchase, polluting businesses will be facing a shit-storm of new VERY LOCAL environmental regulations. Towns and neighborhoods won't need to wait for their state or federal environmental experts to tell them how much they're water, air or soil might be poisoned.)
Posted by Stubbornson at April 26, 2006 03:40 AM