Israeli co invents see through device

Military and rescue operations around the globe will now get a tad easier with the invention of a radar that can see through walls. An Israeli firm, Camero, has developed this technology and already sold it to several army and police forces. The company feels that the device can be beneficial for special unit soldiers or for human operations like locating people trapped in burning buildings, the daily Haaretz reported.

"The idea of seeing through walls has been around since the 1960s, but modern technology is now ripe enough to enable it to happen," Camero's technology director Amir Beeri said. "When we established the company in 2004, we intended to develop sufficiently high vision resolution to allow an untrained user to see through a wall," Beeri said.

Camero's unique radar utilises Ultra Wide Band (UWB), a technology that has come of age recently and with the use of special algorithms can process data picked up by the detector to give a reasonable image of anything behind the wall.

The system made by its competitor, Time Domain, lacks imaging algorithms and is able to reveal only whether there is someone on the other side of the wall, the report said.

The firm's earlier version of the system weighed about 10 kgs and was too clumsy for use, but the new system is smaller, light in weight and meant for use as a quick-to-use tactical tool. The system is capable of penetrating various types of walls, but not solid metal ones like the walls of shipping containers.

The firm's CEO, Aharon Aharon, is optimistic about the future of the technology and says, "Like the Israeli army's night vision system, which was once an expensive product and eventually came into broad, general use, we hope that our radar too will become standard issue for all military units."