Slashdot Mirror
FCC Lets Radar Company See Through Walls
DesertNomad writes "Attorney Mitchell Lazarus over at CommLawBlog gives a good overview of a new radar technology and the challenges of getting regulatory approval, which seemingly can be just as difficult as developing the technology itself."
*knock knock*
"Go 'way, 'batin!"
"Sir, we are well aware of your current status, we can see through your walls. However, that's not why we're here--we would like to discuss the illegal transmitter you are running on your roof right now."
Any guesses that clients of this company include the NSA, FBI....
Here comes my tax dollars, with a new technology to help arrest me.
There are already many civilian radar devices that are used frequently by law enforcement and fire fighters. This is a better version of it, and the article itself is nothing less than enthusiastic about the range of uses for it.
What I see happening more and more is that people are fearing technology because of what "bad people" will do with it instead of embracing new technology and the possibilities it brings.
A technology site filled with Luddites. Irony at its finest.
does this thing use lots of power? is it going to give me cancer or fry me like a chicken pot pie in the microwave?
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
How long before someone markets a radar detector for the home or office?
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
The server manager will upload a new hack that prevents wallhacking. In the mean time, keep voting the cheaters off the CS server.
Oh, wait, this is real life?
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
All that tinfoil for the walls...
What a depressingly stupid machine.
Instead, the L-3 CyTerra device sends pulses on 200 different frequencies, one at a time, ranging in sequence from 3101 to 3499 MHz at 2 MHz intervals.
and
The system is sensitive enough to detect the chest motions of a person who is unconscious but breathing, or the slight swaying of a person trying to stand perfectly still
A picture is worth exactly 1024 words.
Also we could create devices that look for patterns of radiation and emit jamming or stealth or confusing radiation in response to thwart being seen through the walls. Something like the radar detectors. These devices should be legal. And since the idea has been posted publicly, (i.e. here in slashdot by yours truly) any patent to such devices should specific to that device, not a broad based patent like one-click. Unless patent application for such a device has already been filed.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
More like Police State.
Americans will cling firmly to their freedom of speech (or is it freedom to say stupid things?) but will gladly give away their other (more important) freedoms, slowly but surely.
Get a grip, guys.
Does this work entirely on movement? i.e could it detect for example a certain (ahem) plant / herb ? And how thick does the tinfoil need to be to block it ?
... in lead paint.
Order your party supplies now.
TFA mentions that the device sorts the radar returns from moving (even slightly moving) objects and dumps the rest. It's a motion detector. that is all. smoke on, good sir.
I said, "nt".
Hrm, I actually did say <nt/> in the title of the original message, but I used real angle brackets instead of xml encoded ones :-(
This is a 3 GHz or 9 cm radar (3.101 to 3.499 GHz using frequency stepping), and would be very easy to block. It would not, for example, go through most screen doors.
That makes it less of a threat than the 100 GHz radars also used to "see through walls."
When will we be able to get drywall and ceiling tiles with imprinted or embedded dipoles to block this foolishness ?
TFA says "the circuitry combines the echoes at different frequencies", but I suspect "circuitry" is a layman's term and that this is truly done in software. Various DSP chips would be excellent platforms with which to do so. If so, then the starting point is a "RADAR camera", which gets turned into a motion detector through image processing. In which case those plants will be quite visible, along with anything else that has edges. The stolen Van Gogh on the wall, however, will be indistinguishable from Dogs Playing Poker.
I think they need more than a company, they should train and equip a couple of battalions at least. Then send them to Iraq and Afganistan, they shpuld be able to find the Al Quaeda and Taliban terrorists easily.
My walls are between 6 to 8 inches of solid soft wood with no hollows. I live in a log cabin made from balsam. How well does a half foot of solid wood block this tech? The cabin also has small (1' x 3') and few windows because it is cold and dark here.
I also wonder how well my walls would stop an accidental rifle bullet from 100 meters (closer and you can see the house), as I hear hunters in the woods this time of year.
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
If you're a governmental or quasi-governmental entity, and you don't have a warrant to search within the walls of a citizen's house, don't. Any law written to allow this is patently ultra vires and unconstitutional.
However, I'm sure the Federal, State, County, and Municipal governments will be happy to try to create a law that enables the use of this technology and will do so until someone with standing challenges them in court, and begins the long, expensive process to get a judgement that's actually in line with the Constitution. (Seriously, why is this expensive or time consuming? The Constitution is written in very clear, easy to understand language. Why the hell is it so hard to force legislators to read, understand, and follow it?) In the mean time, those wanting to use the technology will justify it under the umbrella of "public safety" or other things that don't change the fact that this simply isn't allowed per the Constitution.
And other countries' governments outside the United States are probably lining up to buy this technology. *sighs*
The article is misleading with regard to the primary use of this device. The device was developed for military use in urban combat situations.
EMMDAR: ElectroMagnetic Motion-Detection And Ranging
It was developed because infantry were holding up standard handheld mine detectors (AN/PSS-14) that use ground penetrating radar against walls trying to determine threat levels in neighbouring buildings or rooms. Troops would then interpret the audio tones to determine rooms contents.
This device simply makes that technology smaller and more accessible and includes DSP algorithms to display potential threats (i.e. movement) on a graphical display.
Other common uses for this device is search and rescue, both military and civilian. Of course the FBI and SWAT is going to want this technology. Any time law enforcement is going to assualt a building, this device is going to prove invaluable in saving lives.
Nobody is going to pratically use this device for random checking of homes.
They had access to the demo of the radar that lets people see through walls and use that to see if anyone was posting before them.
That way you're a traitor if you talk against it...
The article says it will filter out unmoving objects in a room ... however the justification for it is "immobile hostages or unconscious fire victims"
Well the first one is by definition "immobile" and the second... unless you are still in the burning , you're not going to be moving much either. Although, how does one unconsciously run around on fire waving their arms everywhere.
I think the tech is cool, but it's going to be misused by law enforcement.
The basic idea of using high frequencies across a wide spectrum as well penetrating radar of a sort has been known for quite awhile, even if the "simple matter of an implementation" may have lagged behind. The FCC was really worried about this becoming possible over approved UWB (Ultra WideBand) frequencies... thus, they put really serious power level limitations on UWB radios approved so far. Not that strictly nefarious use of such technology necessarily follows FCC guidelines anyway. But if nothing else, it's an effective means of ensuring that the "see through your apartment walls" device doesn't show up in SkyMall anytime soon.
-Dave Haynie
This structure complies with part ## of the FCC Rules. Occupancy is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This structure may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this structure must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation. BTW, Popular Science did a review on a new wallpaper that was comprised of Kevlar strands to help withstand explosions and such. They tested a brick wall with this stuff on one side and hit it on the other with a wrecking ball. The wall survived. Now if they can just add copper strands to the weave so that it can be a Faraday cage as well.
... when my wireless network disconnects.
A new category on www.pornhub.com
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
We won't get a flying car, but this may be the next best sci-fi prophecy to come true:
http://plainview.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/xray-specs.jpg
That dude is a dead-ringer for a slashdotter also.
Table-ized A.I.
for the mind reading radar. Then they can really see what I think of them. And I would not have to take off my jacket to type.
Come on geeks... there must be some way of shielding buildings from this device, as well as criminals who are willing to pay top dollar to have that shielding installed! I'm gonna start advertising Faraday cages at all the hydroponic gardening equipment suppliers...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
...When I insisted on lining the walls of my house with grounded copper flashing.
// Wishes I really did have a Tempested home, though.
'Course, I only wanted a basic Faraday cage to block RF snooping, but it will work just fine for this as well.
Who gets the last laugh now, Inspector?
/ Not serious.
Did this news story make anyone else immediately think of the movie Impostor?
I am MuchTall
Oh, so NOW you wanna jump on the tin-foil bandwagon. Well, sorry. I've got news for ya. You're too late. They started making tin-foil so that it actually TRANSMITS the signal now man, and that's all they sell. You can't GET the good old tin-foil anymore, unless you stocked up back when we were telling you to. I ain't sellin' mine.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
Any day now, we'll start to read about all the economic and environmental advantages of monitoring residential wastewater streams. Then the encirclement wil be complete: everything coming into the home, everything occuring in the home, and everything leaving the home will readily be available for analysis, moral judgement, and prosecution.
Wait till they arrest you for Sodomy. Until now there was no way to prove it, now they have you on camera.
The Supreme Court is not going to let this just slide on by. This type of technology has been dealt with. See KYLLO V. UNITED STATES (99-8508) 533 U.S. 27 (2001) . The decision was summarized as:
Where, as here, the Government uses a device that is not in general public use, to explore details of the home that would previously have been unknowable without physical intrusion, the surveillance is a “search” and is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant.
Since we hold the Thermovision imaging to have been an unlawful search, it will remain for the District Court to determine whether, without the evidence it provided, the search warrant issued in this case was supported by probable cause–and if not, whether there is any other basis for supporting admission of the evidence that the search pursuant to the warrant produced.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed; the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
Hey KID! Yeah you, get the fuck off my lawn!
I just put the finishing touches on my tinfoil lined apartment.
zosxavius photography
You made a new hole and used it when you looked through me.
Don't try to legalize Sodomy as anything other than sodomy.
Trying to differentiate between legal and illegal Sodomy is like murder and kill.