A radar-based concept originally developed to detect suicide bombs abroad could
be used to find people carrying concealed weapons in a crowd here at home, University
of Michigan researcher Kamal Sarabandi says. The Defense Department funded
Sarabandi's research for years, because his technology can detect bombs under
clothes. But now, after the Newtown school shooting, Sarabandi wants to see if
his research could be used to find concealed guns in crowded places, including
malls, airports, stadiums, and schools. Sarabandi's technology is a fresh take
on existing radar technology, such as the radar police use to trap speeders.
Sarabandi's version works by bouncing radar waves off people. Radar signals
bounce differently off of skin and metallic objects, so you can identify a
gun--or something like a gun--by focusing the radar on a person's torso and
comparing the reading to a baseline reflection generated in the lab. A torso
with a large concealed metal object reflects the radar back differently, and
looks slightly off when compared with a regular torso, as illustrated by
the image above. While still not tested on people in crowds, the method was
able to distinguish between a mannequin torso wearing a leather jacket, and a
mannequin torso concealing a dummy bomb under its leather jacket. In the
future, Sarabandi says radar guns based on his method could scan crowds for
people concealing bombs or guns under their clothes, and those people could be
quickly pulled aside and scanned more rigorously. Right now, he is working on
designing a smaller system for an army robot. The most promising peacetime
application? Promising a faster alternative to metal detectors. No idea how
accurate it is, though.