back to article Looking through walls, now easier than ever

Seeing through walls, a capability available to law enforcement and military authorities for several years, could become a bit more predictable in the future thanks to a technique developed by researchers at Duke University. In a paper published on Thursday in the journal Optica, Duke professors Daniel Marks and David R. Smith …

  1. LaeMing

    I think I just heard several MPs having an evilgasm.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Snoopers Charter 2.0

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        Seeing through walls

        Hang the snoopers, this is sure to be top of the Crimble list for break-in artistes.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: Seeing through walls

          "Hang the snoopers, this is sure to be top of the Crimble list for break-in artistes."

          ...and curtain twitchers! "Eeeeee, them at No 22 are having sex again!"

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Seeing through walls

            Ah, so that's why I'm not getting any: I live at number 15.

    2. Sparks_
      Boffin

      With this tech you can see them have it too!

      1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
        Coat

        Yes please

        Says the BBC and Capita's TV Licence unit

  2. Mark 85

    Time to upgrade the house walls with a Faraday Cage, I believe and I just got done repainting this summer. <sigh> .

    1. Charles 9

      Don't think that's going to help you. Those frequencies mean a very narrow bandwidth, meaning they're likely to get through the case. Plus they can probably use enough local power to overwhelm it in any event.

    2. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      The system depends on a regular pattern to the intervening materials. Stucco might defeat that.

      1. Teiwaz

        Stucco the entire house...

        Sarge: 'What do you see, private?'

        Private; 'I think they are have a last supper, sarge.'

        Sarge: 'Still? It's been an three hours, are they french?'

        Private: 'Can't say, sarge. It's hard to tell, there appear to be a lot of cherubs.'

      2. Alan Brown Silver badge

        Stucco might do so if salted with wire fragments of random lengths.

    3. Duncan Macdonald

      At these frequencies a traditional faraday cage made of mesh will probably not be effective unless the mesh is very fine (under 0.5cm wire spacing). A cage made of sheet metal (eg aluminium foil) would be a better bet. Include some moving corner cube reflectors in the room to swamp the desired target (human) reflections with spurious reflections.

      Of course if you want to keep something secret you need your own underground bunker - ten feet of damp earth will completely defeat this technique.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        A cage made of sheet metal (eg aluminium foil) would be a better bet.

        Mark 85 needs to investigate electrically conductive paint. At £165 a litre, doing the outside of the house might prove expensive, mind you. If he orders now he'll have it in time for Crimble, although I can't see a gift wrap option on Amazon for this.

        1. Mark #255

          Another alternative is foil-backed insulation board, eg Kingspan or Celotex.

          You even get plausible deniability, 'cos it's bog-standard construction material.

          You also get massively reduced Wi-Fi & mobile phone signals, as long as you tape the seams properly.

          1. Alan Brown Silver badge

            "You also get massively reduced Wi-Fi & mobile phone signals"

            Yes, I've noticed this. A new building on campus ended up having to have an AP in every individual room AND ones in the hallways, to give adequate coverage,

        2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          "electrically conductive paint. At £165 a litre, "

          Currently (see what I did there?) a niche market, low volume product. I wonder how much the price would drop if, say 1% of people suddenly decided they want 40 or 50 litres and it goes into mass production with competing suppliers?

      2. AJ MacLeod

        Most recently built (or renovated) houses in the UK will already have a fairly complete metal foil surround in the external walls thanks to two layers of aluminium foil either side of Kingspan/Celotex insulation and maybe another on foil backed plasterboard.

      3. Alan Brown Silver badge

        "A cage made of sheet metal .... would be a better bet"

        Coming soon to a survival bunker supply depot near you, anti-spook metal-backed Laura Ashley wallpaper and conductive wall paint

      4. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Pint

        "A cage made of sheet metal (eg aluminium foil) would be a better bet. Include some moving corner cube reflectors

        So, basically, pop down to Morrisons and get 120 rolls of Xmas turkey foil and a couple of disco mirror balls and party like its 1980?

    4. usbac Silver badge

      We're getting ready to build a new house (owner builder), and I'm really considering wrapping the whole thing in foil that's properly grounded.

      It would kill cell phone usage. However, maybe our guests would actually want to talk instead of just sitting with their face stuck to their goddam phones. My long time best friend from out of state visited with his wife a while back, and I don't think he had his iCrap out of his hand for more than 10 minutes the whole weekend!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cuban embassy

    And this is why those embassy staff in Cuba have had their cerebral white-matter cooked and cochlear nerve endings jangled.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Handheld units $6000 in low volume

    If there was a market for this technology (presumably for a purpose other than spying on your neighbors) and Apple or Samsung decided they wanted to build into their phones, the tech could be mass produced for a fraction of that price. Handheld GPS units used to cost $6000 once upon a time...

    Imagine a world where your annoying neighbor would knock on the door and you can't pretend you aren't home because they can see you through your walls!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Surprise

    Microwaves make things glow in the dark, certainly no chance of blinding suspects so long as they are not suspected too often

    Just sign here, dont'w worry about the small print thats just there to waste everyones time.

  6. TrumpSlurp the Troll
    Windows

    Faraday+?

    So far; static picture from the walls and wavelengths short enough to penetrate a Faraday cage.

    Is one counter measure to feed random radio noise into (or just outside) your Faraday cage walls? Possibly around the frequencies the scanner uses?

    Random search engine fettling suggests a cage (mesh) is less effective than a shield (kitchen foil). Also, windows. Metal blinds? I think the market is for detectors which alarm if you are being scanned, plus possibly scramblers which kick in if the alarm goes.

    Also, tin foil underwear to match the hat. Faraday Bloomers. Kickstarter ahoy! :-)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Yes

      Any system based on RF waves can be reduced in effectiveness or even completely defeated using Jammers.

      There are some questions regarding the legality, for example phone jammers are said to be illegal.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        So

        What is going to happen is that politicians will get their jammers while the plebeians will have them outlawed. Just in in the unlikely case they turn out to be terrorists, you know.

      2. Charles 9

        Re: Yes

        "There are some questions regarding the legality, for example phone jammers are said to be illegal."

        That's correct in the US. Jammers of any kind are illegal for any civilian use. You can legally shunt a signal, but you can't jam it.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: Yes

          "That's correct in the US. Jammers of any kind are illegal for any civilian use. You can legally shunt a signal, but you can't jam it."

          It might be worth investing in a medical device that operates on the proposed 24-24.5GHz range. Just need an excuse to have it always on :-)

    2. Mage Silver badge

      Re: windows. Metal blinds?

      K glass or similar energy saving double glazing can block RF (blocks 3G).

      Foil is cheap and plasterboard on walls and ceilings even 30 years ago had a foil layer.

      Mesh and joins do need to be smaller than 1/10th wavelength to be reliable.

    3. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: tin foil underwear

      Tin foil underwear - these guys have it. And an EMP blaster to short out unwanted electronics.

    4. Charles 9

      Re: Faraday+?

      "Is one counter measure to feed random radio noise into (or just outside) your Faraday cage walls? Possibly around the frequencies the scanner uses?"

      That's an active jammer and illegal under US federal law. This is true of the LEOs, too, though. AFAIK, only the military can use jammers and only while in active operations.

    5. Mike Moyle

      Re: Faraday+?

      "Also, tin foil underwear to match the hat. Faraday Bloomers. Kickstarter ahoy!"

      Shouldn't that be Knickstarter?

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Faraday+?

      > Also, tin foil underwear to match the hat.

      Ironically, there's a real life equivalent:

      https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01DWPNXHQ/

  7. Alan Brown Silver badge

    Shielding - attention getting

    If the spooks find they can't see through your walls then they'll assume that you have something to hide.

    Perhaps something loaded up with corner reflectors would be a better idea.

    1. Marcelo Rodrigues
      Trollface

      Re: Shielding - attention getting

      "Perhaps something loaded up with corner reflectors would be a better idea."

      Not round ones: it would drown the entire world in lawsuits from Apple! :P

  8. Unicornpiss
    Black Helicopters

    Get out the tinfoil hats..

    ..and wallpaper!

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