No Place To Hide
Lightweight, portable radar systems are now available that help police “see” through walls and focus on objects 20 meters to 30 meters ahead. Time Domain Corp.’s RadarVision and Cambridge Consultants’ Prism 100 both use a technology called ultrawideband, a radio communication transmission method.
Software can be modified to convert ultrawideband radio into an ultrawideband radar. Both firms’ devices pinpoint moving objects by measuring the time it takes for millions of short pulses to return to sets of antennas. Both devices also operate for about two hours on a single battery charge.
Users can view objects on screens from two perspectives — from above or from the side; the latter view allows operators to detect differences in height.
A model similar to RadarVision called Soldier Vision is used by the military on the field and features a boost mode that amplifies pulses. A comparable device called Prism 200 is slated for distribution in early 2006.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the IEEE Spectrum (11/05); Jones, Willie D.
