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UA engineers develop 'invisible,' fiber optic border monitoring system
As if the nation's overexcited and misguided border vigilantes didn't have enough ways to trigger alarms and bedevil the U.S. Border Patrol (whose job is hard enough as it is), University of Arizona researchers have developed Helios, a monitoring system that uses an acoustic sensor to detect movement via fiber optic cables buried beneath the US-Mexico border. The system is evidently able to distinguish between vehicles, animals, and humans -- and it can even differentiate between different types of human activity, including walking, running, and digging. But that ain't all! UA is looking to spin the technology out into the private sector, working with a company called Fotech to automate the system, further refine the database of signals, and maybe even integrate this into a comprehensive border security system complete with mobile surveillance vehicles and an animatronic Jan Brewer that is, according to a guy we overheard at the bar, "only slightly more human than the actual Arizona governor."
Border Patrol's mobile sensor tower passes first test
It looks like the U.S. Border Patrol's fleet of aerial drones will soon be getting a bit of land-based backup, with the first of a series of Boeing-built mobile sensor towers recently passing its first key test. According to the company, the 98-foot tall towers will each be loaded up with a full array of gear, including cameras, radar, wireless data access points, and a tower security system, among other communications and computer equipment, with each tower boasting a line of sight range of about 12 miles. Don't expect the border to become one big hotspot anytime soon, however, with just nine towers currently on track for deployment along the Southwest border in June and no apparent word on further expansion just yet. In any event, we're guessing they wouldn't take too kindly to anyone trying to leech on their bandwidth.[Via The Register]
