Homeland Security Dollars Create Spate of Invention

They said that for every dollar spent on NASA, 7 dollars of research and investment in new technology is generated.  That’s why we have everything from faster computers to ultrasound machines-  they arose out of the need to fulfil the Space Mission.

The same is happening with Homeland Security.  Now that billions of dollars have been spent on some of the best ideas for DHS, the high-tech improvements to everyday security issues are beginning to cascade down into common everyday situations.  Case in point is the License Plate Reader.  This device sits passively on a squad car and reads all of the license plates of the vehicles around it as it moves around on a daily patrol.  When it spots a plate of a known wanted criminal, it alerts the cop inside.

From Reuters here:

Americans are facing a brave new world of post-September 11 technology marvels that could soon find their way into billions of dollars of projected homeland security spending.

Gee-whiz know-how — from swarms of tiny airborne sensors to ever-sharper satellite imagery — is being developed by companies chasing potentially lucrative federal, state and local deals to address 21st-century security threats.

Already in use are such things as infrared cameras with built-in brains that capture license plate images and match them in milliseconds to police records of vehicles of interest to the authorities.

Such license plate recognition systems, fixed and mobile, already are stopping criminals in cars in New York City, Washington D.C. and 23 states, according to Mark Windover, president of Remington ELSAG Law Enforcement Systems, which is marketing its product to 250 U.S. police agencies.

“Seventy percent of all criminal activity can be tied to a vehicle,” he said. “Had to get there, had to go home.”

The article goes on to talk about tiny sensors that could swarm a battlefield or a disaster area to detect survivors.  It reminds me of the “toner swarm” of nanobots written about by Neal Stephenson in the futuristic book, Diamond Age.  Swarms of nanites would serve a purpose such as filtering out pollution or surveillance, but other city-states developed their own swarms to kill off the other nanobots.  Such escalating warfare among these nanobots created a dark cloud at times that people would call “toner” after the black dust from copiers.