X-ray Vision? No way!!

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3, 2006 – Troops conducting urban operations soon will have the capabilities of superheroes, being able to sense through 12 inches of concrete to determine if someone is inside a building.

www.defenselink.mil...

This is great!! I guess now all soldiers can be like Superman.

[Edit - read it wrong]


I think Tom Clancy actually mentioned something like this in his book Rainbow Six as a counter terrorist device.

[edit on 7-1-2006 by Silk]

Actually, Clancy's was a heart-beat detector. It was a device that could triangulate some supposed electromagnetic (I believe) field the human heart generated.

you are right - i stand corrected - but i thought it sounded familier

Well, it does serve the same essential purpose.

I read somewhere, though I don't recall where, that the heartbeat detector was an actual device. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Originally posted by agwardlds

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3, 2006 – Troops conducting urban operations soon will have the capabilities of superheroes, being able to sense through 12 inches of concrete to determine if someone is inside a building.

www.defenselink.mil...

This is great!! I guess now all soldiers can be like Superman.

"Great"!? It's not like it's you who's gonna have such impressive ability... it's soldiers. And against who they will use these great superpowers? Against the people... people like you and me.

"Great"!?

It's not like it's you who's gonna have such impressive ability... it's soldiers. And against who they will use these great superpowers? Against the people... people like you and me.

I am obviously not like you. I want the troops in Iraq to have all the tools that are needed to do the job. I want them to stay alive, and get the job done. I even want the cops to have this technology. It would be great to use this to see where the hostages are in reference to the gunman in a building. Why wouldn't you want this technology to help save lives?

This is one of those dilemmas, isn't it? They're fantastic tools when used in good ways - keeping our soldiers alive and helping hostage rescue teams and so on. The problem being that when the government gets to the point of locking up dissidents - which it will eventually, I'm confident - they'll use their handy tools for that too.

[Edit: Made 'soldier' plural.]

[edit on 7-1-2006 by LoganCale]

From that article, I got the impression that this isn't any kind of vision device, but more like a super sensitive listening device.

From the article:

By simply holding the portable, handheld device up to a wall, users will be able to detect movements as small as breathing, he said.