Forensics

Identifying Masked Individuals From a Distance

The United States military will soon be able to remotely identify individuals in a crowd. The Pentagon has recently developed a laser capable of identifying individuals by their unique heartbeat signature, the system is capable of distinguishing heart signatures from 200 meters away.

Named after the futuristic cartoon family, the Jetson will be used for combatting terrorism. The Pentagon decided on developing and testing the device at the request of the United States Special Forces.

Unlike many types of identification technologies, the Jetson does not rely on biometrics or gait. The heartbeat detecting infrared laser can detect individual heartbeats at a distance from the device and through clothes.

In the past, fingerprints and retina shapes have been used to recognize and identify individuals. Over the past few years, identification technologies have developed to make it possible to utilize additional factors for identifying. Among eye and finger scanners, it is possible to identify people using their heartbeat, vein pattern, and even body odor.

Foxnews.com reports that Jetson reads heart signatures from a distance using vibrometry. Vibrometry is a technique that measures the vibrations of a surface. Algorithms are then used to translate the vibration’s patterns to resemble a unique cardiac signature.