DARPA's "Gandalf" project aims to hone in on cellphones and track 'em

It's not quite a Batman-type science-bending project, but DARPA's apparently hush hush "Gandalf" initiative looks to be fairly ambitious nonetheless -- at least as far as we can tell from the rather vague statements that have been made about it. In an announcement of sorts yesterday, DARPA reportedly said that the project's goal is to use "set of handheld devices" to track down a specific "signal emitter of interest" using radio frequency geolocation, and presumably some other measures they're not about to dish the details on. The Register's Lew Page further extrapolates that could mean that a group of undercover operatives or special-forces troops would be able to be dispersed near a target and hone in on a particular cellphone, or other electronic device for that matter, and then proceed to track it with no one the wiser. Whatever it is, it's going to be discussed at an event in Virginia later this month, though we're not exactly expecting any first-hand reports to come out of that.

[Via Danger Room]

[Omar @ Oct 8th 2008 3:44PM]

You mean event (typo)

[lowdef @ Oct 8th 2008 3:48PM]

nah he just meant "event".

[macserv @ Oct 8th 2008 3:58PM]

I think he means "home in", too.

[Omar Al-Qudsi @ Oct 8th 2008 3:46PM]

Somebody watched a little too much Dark Knight ;)

[fanthem @ Oct 8th 2008 7:08PM]

What are you?!?
I'm Darpa.

[_||_ @ Oct 8th 2008 3:47PM]

One Ring to Rule Them All

[Big Ed @ Oct 8th 2008 4:04PM]

One ring to find them.

[Trevor @ Oct 8th 2008 6:20PM]

One ring to bring them all

[Telanis @ Oct 8th 2008 6:23PM]

and in the darkness bind them

[Rogue_Genius @ Oct 8th 2008 8:59PM]

So is this the Grey Gandalf project or the white Gandalf?

[John @ Oct 8th 2008 9:47PM]

Why must the use the name Gandalf? My childhood memories are raped again.

[_||_ @ Oct 8th 2008 11:15PM]

my first ever comment to receive any notice at all, and yet there is no doubt that there are people far more witty and faster off the block at Engadget than I might ever be.

kudos to ye who submit the brilliant one-liners here.

[xcise @ Oct 8th 2008 4:04PM]

"hi, i'm calling from Darpa. have you seen a little alien near by ? no ? thanks..."

[Tim @ Oct 8th 2008 4:04PM]

Save us Ron Paul!

[Graham @ Oct 8th 2008 4:13PM]

Hear, hear! Viva la R3volution!

[A.C.E.R. @ Oct 8th 2008 4:05PM]

Maybe a group of people each has a sensor and the sensors all communicate with each other for a sort of distributed triangulation? That would be kinda cool

[Imran @ Oct 8th 2008 4:09PM]

2 rings to rule them all. Ring ring.

[gaforces @ Oct 8th 2008 4:20PM]

So they can send GPS guided missiles ...

[Mikey @ Oct 8th 2008 4:23PM]

Hello big brother...

[DirtyVegas @ Oct 8th 2008 4:24PM]

I'm okay with this as long as Morgan Freeman is in charge.

[eightysixFilms @ Oct 8th 2008 4:47PM]

Guess it's time to get one of these:

http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q407-a-pouch-for-the-paranoid-cellphone-blocker/

[Daniel @ Oct 8th 2008 4:32PM]

Nothing to add, just felt obligated to have Metal Gear mentioned in every post mentioning DARPA. That is all.

[tangotommy @ Oct 8th 2008 4:43PM]

HONE in? You mean HOME in.

[Shadyman @ Oct 8th 2008 5:08PM]

No, I think they meant HONE IN.

http://aolsvc.merriam-webster.aol.com/dictionary/hone%20in

[Wwhat @ Oct 8th 2008 6:17PM]

The real non-aol m-w site has some real etymology, which is shared by other mayor dictionaries I might point out.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hone%5B2%5D

[Wwhat @ Oct 9th 2008 5:16AM]

major*
Excuse me.

[neodorian @ Oct 8th 2008 4:42PM]

One ringtone to rule them all?

[jhracer3 @ Oct 8th 2008 5:24PM]

I'm assuming the Engadget under reported/misunderstood the statement, because what this article refers to has been possible for a long time. Cell companies do it all the time, thats why you can call 911 from your cell phone and get location based response.

Try calling your cell phone company and asking them to GPS your phone; if you give them a good reason they'll do it and tell you where it is (I lost mine once, I called and they said it was next to my driveway).

And yes, its already possible in portable form, just uncommon since its not particularly useful.

[jimmyfinch @ Oct 8th 2008 8:05PM]

"thats why you can call 911 from your cell phone and get location based response."

When you call 911 you get the emergency center associated with your Area Code.

I have a GPS cell phone with a number from Orlando Florida, but I live in Los Angeles. I called 911 to report a drunk driver/hit and run last month and the Orange County (Florida) dispatch center answered.

[DirtyVegas @ Oct 9th 2008 6:04PM]

They did that? Weren't the carriers in news somewhere because they wouldn't triangulate a phone's location even when asked by the govt.? I thought the only solution to a lost cell was to disable it. Surely a lot of people would never lose phones if that was possible!

[Shadyman @ Oct 8th 2008 5:10PM]

Sounds kinda like foxhunting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmitter_hunting

[Marty K. @ Oct 8th 2008 9:00PM]

This new technology that can be used to track a terrorist on the other side of the world can also be deployed to track a "terrorist" at home. Who do we trust to make that distinction, with legislation like the Patriot Act? Remember, this administration is flat out deceitful if it helps them get what they want. Why did we invade Iraq? Because we were told that 1) Saddam had WMDs, and 2) Al-Queda was in Iraq. Neither proved to be true. So what guarantees do we have that "Gandalf" won't be used for surveillance of American citizens domestically?

Vote third party. Anything is better than this.

[Az @ Oct 8th 2008 9:00PM]

DARPA or DHARMA?

Coincidence?

[Chris Taylor @ Oct 9th 2008 12:14AM]

I do not recognize the right of the government to have "secrets" lets get something straight here. WE the people are the employers THEY the Government are the "Employee's" since when is it ok for Employee's to keep secrets from there employers ragarding the employers organization. Besides Imminent Threat secrets (military actions etc..) when did this become OK ?

I would love it if people would Get into these kinds of events record them and publish the audio on the net.

[solarbuddy @ Oct 9th 2008 2:05AM]

What's all the yak about terrorism and privacy? The *real* issue is here is why the editors used the word "hone" in the headline when any diction-maven will tell you that the word they were phishing for is "home," as in a "homing pigeon."

C'mon, get perspective! Terrorism comes and goes, but diction is FOREVER

[Wwhat @ Oct 9th 2008 5:26AM]

Merrian-Webster:
Hone
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): honed; hon·ing
Date: 1798

1 : to sharpen or smooth with a whetstone 2 : to make more acute, intense, or effective : whet

Oxford dictionary:
hone /h@Un/ v.2t.E19. [f. HONE n.]
Sharpen on a hone or whetstone; transf. & fig. sharpen, streamline, focus. (Foll. by up.)
examples:
C. MCCULLOUGH Colonial axes had only one blade, honed to hair-splitting sharpness.
A. PRICE Desperation honed up her wits to a razor edge.

[saywhat @ Oct 9th 2008 7:37AM]

Firefox Geode: Web sites know where you are

Gandalf will find you

the black helicopters are circling

i am donning my tinfoil hat atop the wet towel wrapped around my head

[Jeremy T @ Oct 9th 2008 9:59AM]

To address some comments here...

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/home[4]
Main Entry: home
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): homed; hom·ing
Date: 1765
intransitive verb
3: to proceed to or toward a source of radiated energy used as a guide
4: to proceed or direct attention toward an objective

Regarding Chris Taylor's comments:
If you consider any company or organization that works with secret materials, the employees will quite often keep secrets from their employers. The less people that know something, the less chances for security breaches. Same idea here. We Americans love to tout our freedom of speech. So much so, that the government has to keep secrets from us so we don't make these secrets available to the rest of the world (blogs, emails, etc etc). It would be such a good thing for the audio/video/text regarding covert operations (including R&D) to be posted all over the internet for every terrorist organization in the world to have access to and know exactly what our country is doing... (/sarcasm off) We're being protected from our own ignorance regarding security and secrecy.

This idea and capability has been around for years, just this is probably the first time it's being used in a portable/mobile format. Most cellphones have GPS installed in them, and even those that don't can be triangulated without using GPS.
Not going into the political ideas here, just clearing some things up. :)

[Draco Red @ Oct 9th 2008 1:38PM]

Funny, I though that this was just a Sci-Fi short story in the MIT Tech Review. Life imitates art in the oddest ways.

March 2007, "Osama Phone Home"

http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=18307&channel=communications§ion=

[Johny @ Oct 9th 2008 4:37PM]

Based off the description(and links) provided this is not a new concept or even new technology. Granted the description provided by DARPA is vague, but it sounds like simple signal triangulation. It wouldn't be at all difficult to implement on existing platforms. To be honest I'd be surprised if there wasn't some implementation of this for notebooks and possibly some smart phones already available.