Re: Stealth Buildings Was Re: "X-Ray Gun" for imperceptible searches

At 09:08 PM 8/13/96 -0400, Alan Horowitz wrote:
>> If foil or metal mesh would block it, then many recently built houses
>> would be already set.  Usually that 1/2 - 1 inch styrofoam used 
>> on almost all exterior walls has a reflective layer of foil to help
>> keep the heat/cold out.

>Take a course in Tempest practices.  Casual residential practice 
>implemented by construction workers do not a vault make.

The context of the discussion wasn't TEMPEST (as you say,
it's not enough for that), but new high-frequency hand-held radar imaging,
which ostensibly uses radio emissions from human skin or some technique
to create images.  Foil-backed insulation ought to do a good job
stopping that, as well as making infared snooping less useful.

Now, the police _claim_ that the product that lets you see the
shape of objects under people's clothes has the resolution to find
guns and knives and non-naughty-bits of human flesh, but not enough
to let those dirty-minded privacy-invaders leer at their victims.  Uh huh.
At least they probably don't come with printers or data links,
so they'll just have to leer at the screen and not save and distribute
copies....  Somebody ought to complain to Phyllis Schlafly about this!

[less serious material follows:]
[Not only will you need the tinfoil lining to your hat, you'll have
to get some metallic-lined underwear to avoid being entrapped into
aiding and abetting police pornographers.  Maybe Erik's gold-lame' suggestion
will catch on, at least here in San Francisco....]

#			Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts@ix.netcom.com
# <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> 	Defuse Authority!

I just happen to have the following article sitting on the desk next
to me:

San Jose Mercury News, Saturday, May 6, 1995, page 7A

Radar gives strip search a new meaning

New York Times

Engineers at a federally financed laboratory are developing a security
device that uses radar to peer through clothing to inspect for hidden
objects.

Working prototypes of these holographic radar scanners already exist,
and engineers at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Richland, Wash.,
believe a perceived need by security officials to scan for concealed
weapons and explosives may eclipse issues of cost.

The laboratory [...] has built two versions of its radar skin scanner,
one a walk-in booth that can scan an entire body and the other a
handheld device resembling a camcorder that can be pointed at specific
parts of a body.

The ultra-wind-band radar technology used in these inventions depends
partly on powerful computers, which analyze radar echoes reflected by
a subject's skin to construct visual images of the person's body in a
matter of seconds.

[...]

Representatives of the laboratory acknowledge that the sense of
modesty of some airline passengers, jurors, federal office workers and
others subjected to radar scanning might be offended.

"But the images, although explicit, are not pornographic," [Thomas]
Hall said.  "In any case, we foresee setting up the scanners in pairs
at each entry point - one for males and one for females, with security
officials matched by sex."

On Sat, 17 Aug 1996, Eric Messick wrote:

> Representatives of the laboratory acknowledge that the sense of
> modesty of some airline passengers, jurors, federal office workers and
> others subjected to radar scanning might be offended.



   The output is false-color scaled.


Look at IR sat-photos of the earth to get a sense of this.