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>Future cops may pack a radar gun that peeks through walls to reveal people hiding within.
>In preliminary tests, a version of the ''radar flashlight'' spotted someone breathing 10 feet behind two concrete walls.
>''Pull the trigger and watch the display,'' says designer Gene Greneker of the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta.
>The device uses radio waves reflected off objects to detect motion. SWAT teams may use such devices to locate hostages, or police officers may locate hidden suspects using the flashlight, Greneker says. Tests show the flashlight can detect people through concrete blocks, house siding, wooden doors and drywall.
>Greneker says a police-ready model is at least six months off, awaiting refinement to allow for handling of the device even when it's shaking.
>The long-range arm of the law
>In recent years, the advisory body to the Justice Department's Office of Science and Technology (OS&T) has stressed the development of long-range devices to detect weapons and criminals. Currently, funded projects seek to arm law enforcement personnel with handheld devices that can detect people hidden behind walls and briefcase-size devices designed to locate hostages. Gadgets under evaluation include night-vision goggles used by Texas Rangers, a concealed-weapons detector that uses sound waves, and a magnetic screen to check for handguns at an Idaho courthouse.
>''We want to tell officers who's armed,'' says David Boyd, head of OS&T. ''That's a pretty good indication who the bad guys are.''
>Greneker, now funded by OS&T, originally designed his device for the 1996 Olympics to measure athletes' breathing and heart rate at a distance. He was testing a theory about how target shooters synchronize breathing and heartbeat with the pull of a trigger. The updated version is tuned solely to the frequency of human breathing. Flashlight users don't see an outline of a person. For now, they see a graph jump on a screen when the gadget detects someone. ''We hadn't realized how easily respiration appeared until we took a look at it,'' Greneker says.
>A matter of privacy
>Privacy advocates aren't certain that such detection is a good thing. ''It sounds like yet another invasive investigative technology that raises a lot of privacy issues,'' says David Sobel, general counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C.
>In February, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of an Oregon man, Danny Lee Kyllo, arrested after police used heat-imaging devices to check his house for marijuana grow lights. A decision should guide authorities on how far technology can intrude without a search warrant. ''Our position would be that the impact on privacy should come first,'' Sobel says.
>A similar device, using sound waves instead of radar, is under development for next year by the Jaycor Corp. of San Diego. ''Right now we anticipate a range of 30 feet, that's a big-sized room,'' says physicist Norbert Wild of Jaycor.
>Quelle
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