Explosives Detection Breakthrough Via Green Laser

retiarius writes "In keeping with celebrating the USA's National Chemistry Week (aside from watching the hitcount for Tom Lehrer's very chemical music video at CD Baby), I'm duly impressed by an amazingly simple new way to detect explosives at a distance -- just use a store-bought presentation green laser pointer and some dimestore infrared night vision glasses! The (alas, patentable) details are in this week's EE Times."

Re:Cool!

[Anonymous Coward]

It is GOOD that the information is public. Who cares about patenting something like this? We are talking about saving lives. Anyone who tries to patent something SO USEFUL to every country in the world is a greedy bastard.

Re:False positives & meat

[CrimsonAvenger]

True enough. A lot of people think of dogs like that as really ill-tempered, aggressive animals, though, and I hate to see the stereotype reinforced.

Far as I can tell, bomb-sniffing dogs are chosen for intelligence and mild disposition. The former so they can learn what they need to know, the latter because they do their work around strangers a lot, and it doesn't do to have the dog wig out over the number of strange people in the area while it does what it was trained to do.

Instant Application Around The World

[VernonNemitz]

They've been looking for a good remote land mine sensor. Maybe this is it!

Easy to Fool?

[LightForce3]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the detection scheme described in the article (two infrared sensors, one with a 705-nm filter, and the other without a filter to eliminate false positives) be easy to fool by masking the explosive with another substance that also photoluminesces at 705-nm?

For example, suppose non-explosive substance foo photoluminesces at and around 705-nm, and is normally allowed past the detector because it lacks the special signature. If you were to put a bunch of foo in the same container as your explosive, thereby combining the infrared signatures (if that's actually what would happen), couldn't you fool the detector?

Of course, the article is light on real details, and I'm no chemistry expert, so maybe it's not that easy to fool.

Send green lasers to the troops in Iraq now!

[Dr. Manhattan]

They already have the night-vision goggles. Might only work for detection at night, but that's better than the current status quo...

Doesn't chaff defeat any detection device?

[patniemeyer]

I've always wondered about this... Whether it's dogs sniffing drugs or million dollar machines sniffing for explosives - Why don't the bad guys just contaminate the entire area so that you can't use the detector? I mean, wouldn't somebody walking around spilling some nitrate material all over the airport carpets just ruin that airport permanently?

If it's so sensitive that the bad guys can't cleanse themselves of it, how could one possibly clean an entire airport?

Pat