{"by":"physcab","id":702476,"kids":[702566],"parent":702243,"text":"I've never been to Iraq and I don't know very many veterans that can confirm this, but I do know from my PhD research that this problem is not an easy one to solve.<p>As was mentioned in another post, these explosive devices are improvised, so once our deployed forces come up with a solution to a problem, the terrorists are quick to try another method. They have infra-red triggers, trip wires, pressure plates, RF triggers, and possibly using other forms of wavelengths. Some wavelengths are particularly hard to jam because they interfere with our troops' own communication systems. Plus these jamming systems are expensive and high powered which is not easily scalable.<p>The Washington Post ran an excellent series in which they talked about the difficulty of this problem [1]. As for me, I'm doing my PhD research on trying to stop these acts of violence prematurely. So even though this technology isn't immediately deployable, we're looking at other types of sensing technologies that can \"see\" explosives devices from a stand-off distance, particularly > 50meters.<p>[1] <a href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/specials/leftofboom/index.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/specials/leftofbo...</a>","time":1247519175,"type":"comment"}