Does anyone remember the movie, “Eraser,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vanessa Williams? It came out in 1996, and you can all look it up on the internet movie database website. In that movie, Arnold fends off an attack from bad guys who use, among other things, thermal imaging cameras, that can see through the walls of a wood frame house, but not through a refrigerator. The imaging system could see the dishes in a dishwasher.
So, my question is, 14 years or so after the movie, is there any imaging system that comes remotely close to what was depicted in that movie?
there are some radar systems in development that can show the walls inside a building, and apparently people. The army is very interested for obvious reasons. But as far as I know it isn’t a functioning system yet.
On a related idea, I was intrigued by the concept of using a doppler radar tuned to the frequency of the heartrate. The radar would only detect a beating heart. What happened next is something I would rather not think about…
If it were a thermal imaging device tuned to the range of human temperatures, objects in the fridge would be cooler and not show up, while dishes that have been washed may be cooled to the point of human temperature. Or else it is Hollywood BS, your choice.
So objects in a fridge would be safe from thermal imaging OR from a nuclear bomb?
(Reference: Popular movie sequel that Jumped the Shark AND Bombed the Fridge)
Ok, let’s talk a bit about thermal imaging. It doesn’t work through glass, let alone any metal surface. Almost all surfaces are more opaque to thermals than they are IR or visual. The insulation of a dishwasher or fridge makes zero difference.
When you put a pan on the stove and turn on the burner, you’ll notice it takes a while for the edges of the pan to heat up. This observation explains why thermal can’t see through solid surfaces – the heat conductivity and thermal mass of almost any solid (and most liquid) material makes it too slow and too diffuse to provide a sharp image of a heat source inside.
The whole drug search camera thing happens because one section of a house, viewed from the outside through a thermographic system, will appear hot. It’s not seeing through the walls, it’s detecting that enough heat is inside the building to heat up the walls beyond ambient. The other thing is that thermals do make it easier to see through brush, etc. But this is a function of the target giving off heat, not because thermals see through anything. Think of a lamp sitting behind a bush. It’s easy to see a lit lamp through the branches, but not one that’s turned off.
Some bands of radar, or x-ray backscatter sensors, or some other fancy imaging system might be able to see through walls, eventually, at a level much below that depicted in Eraser. The funny thing about that movie is that they make such a big to do about the railgun weapon, but ignore the awesome technical achievement of a portable scope capable of looking through solid surfaces. It’s pretty much straight up sci-fi.
FWIW, I’ve heard that the big thing when searching for grow-houses or what-have-you is that there are enough cracks in a house to let the grabbable “data” appear – and random things like a window open. Any truth?
The new active millimeter wave systems developed for airport security could image through walls. Sheet rock and plywood should not present too much of a problem, but brick or concrete would be trouble, and metal would be impenetrable. Backscatter Xray would be able to penetrate better, but can’t be focused, like millimeter waves.
They also conveniently ignore the physics of if you shoot a gun that fires a projectile powerful enough to send a man flying 100 feet, it will also be powerful enough to send the shooter 100 feet in the opposite direction.
Yes, but can a man hold on by his fingertips in a 250mph slipstream? Or is that only in the airspace above Hollywood? I see where Ahnold can jump from the nosewheel of a passenger jet taking off (150mph?) and land unharmed in a mucky swamp without going in so deep he sticks and drowns… but that was a different alternate reality from Eraser.
Well, I can’t speak to the slipstream bit, but if he’s a zombie, it won’t matter how deep he goes, gotta have a central nervous system disconnect to kill a zombie, drowning won’t do it.
Regarding seeing through walls via IR, radar, x-ray, wifi, uv etc. There was a bit on NPR this am about a college(?) student who has developed an improvement to using the ubiquitous wifi/blutooth radio wave that surrounds us, flows through us,* to do exactly that. He said it doesn’t do it with great fidelity at this point, but he thinks it will serve as a jumping off point for further development of the idea.
Trying to find a the story online to provide a link, no luck yet, perhaps nothing will come of it, or someone closer to the field of research might have better luck.
