The next mobile phone you buy could also become your very own radar security
device. A new pulse radio chip designed to allow mobiles to communicate with
each other over short distances can also act like a personalised radar. Unveiled
in Las Vegas last week at the Comdex computer convention, Time Domain’s PulsON
chip uses ultra-wide-band (UWB) technology transmitting low-powered short-wave
radio pulses that can “see” through walls at data rates of 10 megabits per
second. By adding an extra antenna, the company, based in Huntsville, Alabama,
showed it is possible to use these pulses to detect objects and people moving
behind a wall, and so monitor the bubble of space around you.
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