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.
“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.
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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.
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