Subject: [NEXTEL-1] UWB Spies Public Security Opportunities

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 19:17:59 -0500

UWB Spies Public Security Opportunities

Whether blasting through walls or objects, ultrawideband offers a host
of applications but also raises privacy concerns.

BY KAREN BROWN
FEBRUARY 15, 2004

While most of the wireless industry is homing in on ultrawideband's
communications applications, a small group of companies is busy
developing products with a different vision, literally.

Using the technology's ability to fire low-power, wide-signal blasts
through walls and objects, these companies are working on systems that
could detect earthquake victims buried in rubble or pinpoint intruders
crossing a security perimeter. Much like the technology, these companies
see opportunity on the other side. They also face their own share of
barriers–including concerns about privacy.

One company actively delving into these applications is Time Domain
Corp., a Huntsville, Ala., company founded by ultrawideband pioneer
Larry Fullerton. The company already has hit the market with Radar
Vision, a 9-pound portable surveillance device that sends out millions
of pulses and can measure an object's reflection through a wall.
A Virginia police department recently used Radar Vision to find a
suspect in an assault case. Using Radar Vision, an officer was able to
direct fellow officers to a particular corner of a room in a trailer
home. They found the suspect hiding in a small water heater cabinet,
says CEO and President Ralph Petroff.

So far the company has shipped 20 to 25 Radar Vision units to various
law enforcement agencies. In the fourth quarter, shipments were valued
at $500,000.

Radar Vision's success has led to a spinoff called Rubble Vision,
designed to detect people buried under rubble. Time Domain won a $3
million development contract from the U.S. Air Force to develop the
product, which uses more finely tuned sensors to pick up movements as
slight as the rise and fall of a person's rib cage while breathing.

Also in the works is Warfighter/Firefighter, a dual tracking and voice
communications system that will allow field commanders to pinpoint and
talk with personnel inside a building.

Although such applications could lead to valuable life-saving tools,
they also have raised fears of misuse. While the FCC has limited these
applications to police, fire, military, science and construction
industries, some worry that UWB could become the next peeping-tom
technology.

Petroff counters that under FCC order and his company's own policy,
Radar Vision can be sold only to licensed public safety agencies. Plus,
the image the system produces isn't that detailed.

"Even if the National Enquirer were to get its hands on these things,
what appears on the other side is not a super-sharp image. I mean, you
wouldn't be able to tell Tom Cruise from Penelope Cruz," Petroff says.
"It would just appear as a blob with some movement."

Another UWB use gaining favor is in security field systems, such as the
one developed by Vista Controls. Its Quick-reaction Perimeter Intrusion
Detection system (QUPID) sets up a field in front of a property line,
sensing any movement toward the property. It can discern stray objects
from intentional intruders by their size and direction of movement.
Vista Controls has sold 255 such units to the U.S. Air Force, which is
installing them at 14 bases in the United States. Other prospective
customers are other government agencies, prisons and energy facilities
such as nuclear power plants and dams, says Gerald L. Byrnes, Vista
Control's senior manager of product marketing.

"We're finding a great deal of interest there," Byrnes says. "I also
think the marketplace is sitting back and saying 'OK, the Air Force
bought a bunch of these–let's see how they work.'"

UWB vendors also are taking a cautious approach regarding these
applications, and that is because of the relative market potential,
according to Alan Varghese, ABI Research's senior director of wireless.
"The problem is on the one hand we have all of these kinds of
applications. On the other hand, you have the capability to put an
ultrawideband chip into every desktop computer, DVD player, TV,
camcorder, every flat-panel display," he says. "So you can see how when
a company looks at this space, how they will tend to veer."

But while the market is small now, Petroff likens it to that of the
laser, which began as a military development project and now is used for
everything from cosmetic surgery to DVD players.

"The only question with this kind of stuff is what is the time scale?"
queries Petroff. "Is it something that becomes very commonplace in five
years, or will it be 10 years or will it be 15 years? But the inherent
capabilities of the technology and the enabling capabilities of the
technology are such that it is going to be widely used."

http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA381642?spacedesc=Departments&stt=000

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