• Robots designed to search disaster areas for survivors

    Researchers to build robot that uses vision and tactile sensors to navigate homes, buildings, and the outdoors; robot will be equipped with a small camera and a vision algorithm that will allow it to see, recognize and avoid running into objects; goal is to send swarms of these robots to crawl over the rubble of disaster areas in search of survivors

  • MPRI to help CDC prepare for disasters

    Simulation and virtualization are becoming more popular as tools for preparedness; MPRI, a subsidiary of L-3 company, will use its simulation and training expertise to help CDC prepare for all-hazard disasters, including bioterrorism and pandemic outbreaks

  • Blinding flashlight developed as new law enforcement tool

    California company, working with DHS funds, develops a blinding flash light which may well replace taser guns, pepper spray, and rubber bullets as law enforcement’s non-lethal weapon of choice

  • Cooper Notification conducts Mass Notification tour at U.S. campuses

    The latest case of a student shooting fellow students — this time at Northern Illinois University — has only increased interest on campuses across the U.S. in emergency notification systems; on 7 February Congress passed a bill requiring the installation of warning systems on campuses; Florida company conducts campus tour to show its wares

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  • LAPD buys forensic 3D laser scanners

    Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department adds 3D laser scanning technology from Leica Geosystems to support forensic and investigative activities — but also to help prosecution in impressing juries: “Due to the all of the CSI-type programming on television, jurors these days have much higher expectations about the quality and clarity of information that prosecutors present to them,” says Leica’s Tony Grissim

  • Wireless CCTV shows body-worn surveillance service

    U.K. company launches body-worn CCTV aiming to help security agents in the field; the equipment comes in both overt and covert configurations; devices help field agents gather information and evidence — and it also helps supervisors at HQ to monitor the situation in the field

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  • Chinese hackers target government

    The Chinese government has embarked on a massive industrial espionage campaign aimed to hasten China’s rise to global technological and economic dominance while at the same time weakening Western companies; Aussie intelligence says Australia is now also a target of that campaign

  • Hazard protective suits made of new, "breathing" material

    Chemical protection suits can make the wearer hot, sweaty, and extremely uncomfortable, thus limiting the time such suits can be worn; Drexel University researcher develops better material for protective suits: The new material is a new class of polymer membrane incorporating nanopores filled with an ionic polymer that allows water vapor to pass through

  • One way to fight criminals, terrorists: Register pre-paid cell phones

    Texas state senator offers legislation, with the support of state police chiefs, which would help in fighting crimes — and terrorism: Legislation would require prepaid cellphone customers to present ID and limit purchases to three phones at a time; it also would require prepaid cellphone service providers to make phone records accessible to police

  • FBI takes biometrics database proposal to U.K.

    FBI, U.K. National Policing Improvement Agency in talks over the U.K. joining the FBI’s ambitious Server in the Sky database project; new database, in which the FBI plans to invest some $1 billion, will track down the world’s most wanted criminals and terrorists

  • FBI in a $1 billion effort to build world's largest biometric database

    FBI servers occupy an underground facility the size of two football fields; the organization’s database now contains 55 million digital prints; the plan is not only to increase this number, but also add palm patterns, iris patterns, face shapes, scars, and data on people’s voices and walking patterns

  • Helmet sensors measure munition impact

    Worried about ever-more-powerful IEDs, the Army is providing soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division with helmets equipped with sensors which measure the energy wave generated by an “event” and the acceleration or jolt that follows

  • Accreditation program for labs which test body armor

    In the last three decades, the lives of more than 3,000 officers were saved by body armor; many, though, lost their lives or were injured when they were wearing ineffective body armor; NIST, Justice create program for accrediting labs which test and certify body armor

  • New siren for emergency vehicles shakes the ground

    If the flashing blue lights, ear-piercing sirens, and blazing headlamps of a police car or an ambulance do not manage to attract your attention, then shaking the earth under your feet surely will

  • Canberra cancelled robot IED detection system in 2004

    Aussie soldiers in Afghanistan are just as exposed to IEDs as U.S. soldiers; in 2004 the Australian government canceled a project aimed to detect IEDs, and Australians want to know why