Researchers created a device that can detect "hidden surveillance equipment and explosives," and the idea was inspired by dolphins' hunting techniques.
Dolphins often hunt using bubble nets, they blow bubbles around schools of fish which forces them to move into one fishy clump perfect for a dolphin dinner. The team looked at how the animals used their sonar to pinpoint targets in the bubbly water without getting confused, a University of Southampton news release reported.
The new technology "is based on a unique sonar concept called twin inverted pulse sonar (TWIPS)." The system uses (as the name suggests) two sonar pulses one right after the other. Both pulses are identical except on one the phase is inverted.
TWIPS proved to be able to distinguish its targets from scattered bubbles. The team said the technique could be applied to electromagnetic waves and radar.
The team used TWIPR radar pulses to pick out a target ("a dipole antenna with a diode across its feedpoint - typical of circuitry in devices associated with covert communications, espionage or explosives") and distinguish it from a bench clamp and an aluminum plate.
In the test, the target was displayed as 100,000 times stronger than the "clutter."
"As with TWIPS, the TWIPR method distinguishes linear scatterers from nonlinear ones. However, in scenarios for which TWIPS was designed, the clutter scatters nonlinearly and the target linearly - while in situations using TWIPR, these properties are reversed," Professor Tim Leighton of the University's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, said.
"For instance, certain electronic components can scatter radar signals nonlinearly if driven by a sufficiently strong radar signal, in contrast to naturally occurring objects which tend to scatter linearly," he said.
The diode is only six centimeter long and is extremely light and inexpensive, making it a great device to attach to animals for tracking purposes. It could even be attached to humans entering a dangerous area or building that is in danger of collapsing.
"Such technology could be extended to other radiations, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and light detection and ranging (LIDAR), which, for example, scatters nonlinearly from combustion products, offering the possibility of early fire detection systems," Leighton said.
