Posted on 05/30/2005 4:44:37 PM PDT by kingattax
WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- The U.S. military is developing miniature electronic sensors disguised as rocks.
The disguised sensors can be dropped from an aircraft and used to help detect the sound of approaching enemy combatants, the London Financial Times has reported.
The devices, which would be no larger than a golf ball, could be ready for use in about 18 months, the paper said. They use tiny silicon chips and radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology that is so sensitive that it can detect the sound of a human footfall at 20 feet to 30 feet. RFID technology uses radio signals that are sent from a silicon chip to a remote sensing device.
The project is being carried out by scientists at North Dakota State University, which has licensed nano-technology processes from Alien Technology, a California-based commercial manufacturer of RFID tags for supermarkets, the Financial Times said.
The new sensors would be made cheaply enough to be left on the ground without need for retrieval by soldiers
I'd imagine they already have boulder-sized versions in use. They're just making them smaller.
Sensors disguised as gravel.
We dropped thousands in Vietnam, that were the size of a milk carton.
I know in the Vietnam War, we had sensors disguised as dog crap and the like that were used to track the Viet Cong, NVA and so on.
Brilliant Pebbles a la Lowell Wood. Wait until we get the micro and nano sized versions. The jihadis are gonna die in greater numbers.
I thought of something like this when we first went into Afghanistan. This would be a great way to catch Bin Laden.
The rocks have ears!
Maybe river rat would know something about this...or be able to ping the correct people...
Well, that answers my post in number #9...thanks...
Alien Technology Corporation
Observations on EPC Class 1 Generation 2 Status
November, 2003
http://www.alientechnology.com/webresources/library/Class1Gen2Observations.pdf
The earliest organization overseeing this process was the Auto ID Center, a consortium of thought leaders in RFID technology that guided the development of RFID standards based on customer needs. While other classes of RFID emerged over time, Class 1 RFID tags were considered to be the preferred standard, as they provided the flexible, open platform that is the backbone of the electronic product code (EPC) system. Specifically, Class 1 tags are open tags, ready for programming by the customer at the time of deployment. This is opposed to other classes of tags that might be pre-programmed by the vendor during manufacturing, which greatly reduces efficiency and flexibility for the customer.
http://www.alientechnology.com/what/standards.php
http://www.alientechnology.com/products/choosing-rfid/index.php
http://www.alientechnology.com/products/rfid-tags/index.php
http://www.alientechnology.com/products/rfid-readers/index.php
http://www.alientechnology.com/products/rfid-battery/index.php
http://www.alientechnology.com/products/fsa/index.php
http://www.alientechnology.com/products/developer/index.php
Let's never forget- they can and do eventually acquire the same technology that we make. Supposedly stone-age enemy have already been found using night vision.
We can all thank Russia, China, and France for that.
How about using these on our border with Mexico?
I doubt that it's RFID technology. The transmission range is measured in inches.
Relative costs of this project:
Sensor Development - $40M
Sensor Production - $20M/Year
O&M Cost - $10M/Year
Deployment Cost - $2/sensor
An adversary forced to spend all their time turning over rocks to make sure they aren't sensors - Priceless.
I could use a handful of these in my flowerbeds, the ultimate security measure.
I have quite a few friends that work at Alien Technology. Hopefully, they will go public soon.
The Border Patrol uses hidden sensors along the Southern border. What the opposition does sometimes is come along with metal detectors and RF sniffers to locate them. It's a constant battle of adaptation to keep ahead of their countermeasures.
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