US military laser can ID terrorists ‘by scanning their HEARTBEAT from 650 feet away’

THE US military is testing a laser that can pick a terrorist out from a crowd by scanning their heartbeat.

The laser, dubbed Jetson after the popular sci-fi cartoon family of the same name, can apparently identify someone hundreds of feet away by reading tiny vibrations given off by their ticker.

The technology could be used to positively identify known terrorists before taking them out with a drone strike or sniper.

Developed by the Pentagon, the aim is to deploy Jetson with Special Forces troops, reports MIT Technology Review.

Prototypes work at distances up to 650ft but experts say the final version will have a greater range.

“I don’t want to say you could do it from space,” Steward Remaly, of the Pentagon’s Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office, told MIT Technology Review.

Alamy

“But longer ranges should be possible.”

Jetson has been in the works for several years. It takes advantage of the fact that, like fingerprints, our heartbeats are unique to us.

An invisible, infrared laser is fired at the target and senses vibrations reverberating from their heart.

An algorithm then translates the patterns in the heartbeat into a unique “cardiac signature”.

This can then be cross-checked with a database of known heartbeats to see if the target is the right man.

If a target is confirmed, they can be shot without running the risk of hitting the wrong person.

Terrifying space weapons of the future

Here are three of the scariest...

Rods from God

• A strange but utterly terrifying weapon has been dubbed “rods from the God” and is based on the concept of creating man-made meteorites that can be guided towards the enemy.
• Instead of using rocks rods the size of telephone poles are deployed.
• These would be made out of tungsten — a rare metal that can stand the intense heat generated by entering Earth’s atmosphere.
• One satellite fires the rods towards the Earth’s atmosphere while the other steers them to a target on the ground.
• Reaching speeds of 7000mph they hit the ground with the force of a small nuclear weapon — but crucially creating no radiation fall out.
• As bizarre as it sounds, a US Congressional report recently revealed the military has been pushing ahead with the kinetic space weapons.

Molten metal cannons

• This intriguing idea is being developed by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
• It is called the Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munition or MAHEM.
• This game changing rail-gun can fire a jet of molten metal, hurled through space at several hundred miles per second by the most powerful electromagnets ever built.
• The molten metal can then morph into an aerodynamic slug during flight and pierce through another spacecraft or satellite and a munition explodes inside.

Space force ships

• Already the United States is powering head with its spacecraft, although China is busy developing one of their own.
• The top secret American XS-1 under development by DARPA.
• It can travel ten times the speed of sound and launch missiles.
• Meanwhile an unmanned craft is currently being developed in the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Centre in Mianyang, Sichuan province, which is also known as Base 29.

Currently, Special Forces use facial recognition scans or “gait analysis” – tracking how somebody walks – to spot known terrorists at distance.

The trouble is, a target can easily change their gait or disguise their face to avoid detection.

The benefit of cardiac signatures is that they’re difficult for someone to change deliberately.

It’s also more accurate and works at greater distances than other forms of so-called biometric analysis.

“Compared with face, cardiac biometrics are more stable and can reach more than 98 per cent accuracy,” said Wenyao Xu, a researcher on remote cardiac sensors at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Scans with Jetson will likely be cross-checked with facial recognition scans to confirm an ID. It’s not clear when the Pentagon plans to deploy it on the battlefield.

In other news, the US Navy Seals and Royal Marines are looking to kit out their special forces with 50mph Iron Man-style jet packs.

The US military discussed plans to fit humans with microchips and track their every move, according to reports.

And, here are the weirdest things lost by Uber passengers – including a jetpack and a bulletproof vest.

What do you think the underwater bullets could be used for? Let us know in the comments!

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