• California police employs nonlethal weapon used against pirates

    ATC’s long range acoustic device (LRAD) blast sounds at 150 decibels — 50 times the human threshold of pain — to fend off approaching pirates or massing insurgents; California law enforcement is now using the device at local political events

  • U.K. equips soldiers with thermal rifle sights

    The red dot sight is more accurate than iron sights, could be used with both eyes open, and is generally more effective at typical combat ranges (under a hundred meters)

  • Turning water fountains into infection control units

    Toronto’s Farrow Partnership Architects sees future in infection-control units

  • Detecting counterfeit pharmaceuticals

    Researchers develop a method which quickly and cheaply identifies counterfeit drugs in the health care industry

  • Electronic nose detects toxins

    Physicists have radiation badges to protect them in the workplace, but chemists and workers who handle chemicals do not have equivalent devices to monitor their exposure to potentially toxic chemicals; new electronic nose will change that

  • Surveillance software solves security snag

    Network security monitoring is currently limited by the inability of operators to recall the relationships between more than about 40 cameras in a network; the new software will automatically integrate data from thousands of security cameras in a video surveillance network into a single sensor, eliminating existing problems with huge information overloads

  • Cocoon Data: Securing Internet communication

    Cocoon Data’s Secure Envelopes is a way of electronically “wrapping” sensitive files, e-mail attachments, and other data to keep them from being seen by unintended eyes

  • Catalyst Interactive: Training for the security industry

    A conversation with Catalyst Interactive managing director Ken Kroeger; “What the public sees are the people on the front line, but its important to remember that putting those people on the frontline requires a fair bit of investment to their training. That’s were we come into play — to make sure that those people have the skills and the attitude they need to do their jobs”

  • Airborne laser ready for flight tests

    The coming months will be important for the airborne laser — the multibillion-dollar laser built into a customized Boeing 747 will try to shoot a ballistic missile as it rises above the clouds

  • U.K. orders helmet-mounted displays

    BAE’s The Q-Sight display is a key element of the Gunner’s Remote Sighting System (GRSS), a system that will allow the image from a machine-gun-mounted thermal weapon sight to be displayed remotely on a see-through display mounted on the weapon operator’s helmet

  • New type of blast-resistant glass

    Currently, blast-resistant window glass is more than 1in thick, which is much thicker than standard window glass that is only one-fourth of an inch thick and hurricane-protected window glass that is one-half of an inch thick; the new glass being developed is less than one-half of an inch thick

  • Home power plants project unveiled in Germany

    Two German companies unveil plans for installing gas-fired power plants in people’s basements; in the coming year the program will install 100,000 of the mini plants, producing among them 2,000 megawatts of electricity, the same as two nuclear plants

  • Instantly dimmable bullet-resistant windows

    Company awarded a contact to develop instantly dimmable bullet-resistant windows for military and law enforcement vehicles; company says the new product will have its initial application in the global counter-terrorism market for government VIP Armored Personnel Vehicles, but that it also has real value in the civilian VIP market

  • DARPA looking to harness water's power potential

    Bringing power to military units in far-away, and often inaccessible, places has always been a major problem; DARPA is now looking for ways to use seawater to create liquid fuel

  • NIST researchers develop more sensitive explosives detection method

    NIST researchers develop a simple method for detecting and measuring small quantities of explosives which is more sensitive than conventional techniques