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Comment by westurner | Hacker News Reader

What about muon imaging?

What about Rydberg sensors for VLF earth penetrating imaging, at least?

From "3D scene reconstruction in adverse weather conditions via Gaussian splatting" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42900053 :

> Is it possible to see microwave ovens on the ground with a Rydberg antenna array for in-cockpit drone Remote ID signal location?

With a frequency range from below 1 KHz to multiple THz fwiu, Rydberg antennae can receive VLF but IDK about ELF.

IIRC there's actually also a way to transmit with or like Rydberg antennae now; probably with VLF if that's best for the application and there's not already enough backscatter to e.g. infer occlusion with? https://www.google.com/search?q=transmit+with+Rydberg+antenn....

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This is pretty cool! I need to learn more about both.

I imagine such fancier tools would be less available among common folks, and more among first responders.

NASA already has the tech to detect heartbeats under rubble using radar [1]. No additional equipment is needed by the rescued. The problem is emergency response can get overwhelmed in large disasters.

If Rydberg sensors would be more common, and new tech is added to mobile devices, this can seriously shift the playing field.

I will look into this, because we need out of the box solutions. Thank you!

[1]: https://www.dhs.gov/archive/detecting-heartbeats-rubble-dhs-...

"The Dark Knight" (Batman, 2009) is the one with the phone-based - is it wifi backscatter imaging - and the societal concerns.

FWIU there are contractor-grade imaging capabilities and there are military-grade see through walls and earth capabilities that law enforcement also have but there challenges with due process.

At the right time of day, with the right ambient temperature, it's possible to see the studs in the walls with consumer IR but only at a distance.

Also, FWIU it's possible to find plastic in the ground - i.e. banned mines - with thermal imaging at certain times of day.

Could there be a transceiver on a post in the truck at the road, with other flying drones to measure backscatter and/or transceiver emissions?

Hopefully NASA or another solvent company builds a product out of their FINDER research (from JPL).

How many of such heartbeat detection devices were ever manufactured? Did they ever add a better directional mic; like one that can read heartbeats from hundreds of meters awat? Is it mountable on a motorized tripod?

It sounds like there is a signal separation challenge that applied onboard AI could help with.

Anything in the THz range has the potential to interact with physiology (i.e. cell, DNA, etc). Its also not straightforward because any collapsed mass will be in an unknown state and reflections or geometry can greatly impact exposure.

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