RADAR flashlight sees thru doors/walls

http://www.gtri.gatech.edu/seal/radar/proj_flashlight.html

"Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) researchers have developed a prototype RADAR flashlight that allows the user to detect a stationary individual located behind a solid wooden door, or standing four feet behind an eight-inch block wall."

i read the article, how is it a flashlight? 3m isn't that much.

I made a Poor Mans radar detector out of Popular Electronics back a few years ago it could detect movement behind walls I think this works the same way a radar detector works when somebody moves or breaths it makes a doppler shift detected by the radar unit unless your wearing radar absorbing clothing.

Sometimes I worry about all the GHz frequency RF splashing around.

It's getting more common all the time with WiFi, wireless networks, RADAR, cell phones, cell phone transmitter stations, portable wireless phones, microwave towers, satellite transmitters, garage door openers, automatic door openers, etc., etc., etc. There's no way to tell if someone is 'illuminating' you with excessively high levels of RF energy.

Humans are acutely aware of noise pollution, but totally 'blind' to RF noise.

The situation will become more acute as wireless technology becomes ubiquitous.

Did you ever walk around with a rf signal strength meter? Your constantly being bombarded by all kinds of man made elecromagnetic radiation of different frequencies.

This sounds very similar and possibly more advanced to what Tom Clancy described in his Rainbow Six books.
Cool.

bigtango
neophyte: Z3

Was the device described in the book one of these?

the Quadro Tracker
or
DKL Lifeguard

Both are "real" products that are as effective as a dowsing rod. That is to say, non-functional items based on pseudo-science and superstition.

The press release indicating a patent application, and then claiming it was developed through funding from the federal government could be a trigger for your skeptisense. The last I knew, you couldn't patent a product or development resulting from federally funded research.

http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/RADARFLASH.html

Oh, no aspersions on the radar device. It is being developed by a reputable tech school, and I'm sure it is based on science.

The two aforementioned devices are my only references to pseudo-science.

Big Brother just added another item to his Christmas wish list.

Raven

There's no reason why the concept shouldn't work - actually it already does in other equipment (ie - standard motion detectors). The same type of signal processing used on the ultra-sonic motion detectors and the same type used on the microwave motion detectors (remember how they always set off those cheap radar detectors whenever you would pass by a 7-11 ?) to detect changes in the reflected signal scatter pattern could just be applied to a different wavelength emission. Applying this to a beam that penetrates a wall wouldn't be much of a stretch and a very interesting concept at that.

However, a lot of the products discussed in the links above do sound like bunk rather than good science. The concept is quite proven and isn't anything beyond plausibility - I just don't know what em frequency would best penetrate walls while still generating a feedback from a person.

Popular Electronics June 1995 "Build a Radar Speed Gun, It works just like the ones used by police".



It works on 2.6 Gigahertz and uses a coffee can as the wave guide Ham Radio books will explain pricipals of electromagnetic radiation in that particular region. Utillizes Microstrip circuit board elements. I built one back in '95 to measure bike speed never completly finished it, I just hooked up a cheep R-S audio amp and you could hear the doppler shift easily. Ended up giving it to a guy I worked with at the time, he really liked it.