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Sampling Your Molecular 'Aura'

Posted by timothy on from the my-pheremones-may-overload-the-machine dept.

Logic Bomb writes: "A researcher at Penn State University has found a way to reliably examine your "thermal plume" -- the convection currents created by body heat radiation that carry all sorts of tiny molecules off your body's surface. While this plume certainly can be used to make pretty thermal images, the real use of this technology is through chemical analysis. Little bits of whatever you're wearing, anything you've touched recently, and skin are all present in the air around your body, and all available for analysis. The technology therefore has some pretty wide possibilities, including drug and explosives detection. Even stranger, the creator thinks such devices could be used to check for some kinds of medical conditions. A working version for use in airport terminals to check for explosives is only about a year away. That sounds fine to me, but a medical-screening version of the device hidden in the doorway at my insurance company sounds pretty scary. This is another very useful technology just begging to be abused. An article from the San Francisco Chronicle has more details and a link to the project Web site."

2 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Dog by Nafta · · Score: 5

    There is already a highly sophisticated device that can do this. Not only that, it doesn't take 10 seconds to analyse the air particles. It can do it in a fraction of a second.

    The unit is almost self contained, running on just a few buscuts a day.

  2. Don't be quick to dismiss it by Matt_Bennett · · Score: 5

    This is a powerful technology, while many will be quick to dismiss it, condemn it, and villify it. It is just a tool. It is inherently neutral. The good or bad that will come from it will come from those that use it. The technology is there, once it has been announced, it can't be taken away, so learn it, use it, understand it, just like so many seem to say about the various hacking/cracking tools.

    Too many people are quick to assume that when it is in someone else's hands, they must be evil, but in your hands it would be good. I can see some very powerful uses of this- biometrics for one. How about a home based doctor- maybe you still will need to go to an office, but this machine will tell you which specialty you need to go to- heck maybe an HMO will even support it, since it would mean going directly to the proper doctor, without having to see some sort of gateway practicioner.

    Yes, this technology can be abused, but exploring the uses and abuses of technology is what hacking (in the classic sense) is all about.