Debunking the CIA's “magic” heartbeat sensor [video]

(youtube.com)

25 points | by areoform 10 hours ago

6 comments

  • Aachen 38 minutes ago
    By Veritasium, for anyone else wondering whether to click
  • sippeangelo 42 minutes ago
    We know it's simple to detect someone's heartbeat from just colour changes of ones skin in a regular video taken with a phone camera. Wouldn't this be trivial with military level IR tech? Sounds way more likely than some amazing new top secret technology that is somehow filtering out every other magnetic field and can detect a heartbeat through mountains.
    • tgsovlerkhgsel 33 minutes ago
      Why is everyone debating some theoretical advanced heartbeat or otherwise people detection tech rather than the absolutely obvious answer - some kind of advanced, specialized transmitter that's designed to be hard to detect and simply transmits the encrypted GPS coordinates of the pilot?
      • subroutine 6 minutes ago
        Because the NY Post ran an article that said

        "The CIA used a futuristic new tool called “Ghost Murmur” to find and rescue the second American airman who was shot down in southern Iran, The Post has learned. The secret technology uses long-range quantum magnetometry to find the electromagnetic signal of a human heartbeat"

        Note, I agree that it was probably some novel beacon technology. Just answering your question about why people are debating whether it was a device that could detect a human heartbeat from long range.

      • twic 10 minutes ago
        Or just rocking up to the nearest village with a thousand dollars in cash and asking where the pilot is.
    • Joel_Mckay 17 minutes ago
      There were commercially available lidar/ladar sensors that can do basic spectroscopy at a great distance. Specifically, the public specification showed it was able to pinpoint C02 or nitrate levels over 14km away.

      Keep in mind this was published over a decade ago, and I'm sure they have systems with better specs these days. Too bad these were too cost prohibitive for FSD automotive platforms.

      There are magnetic sensors that could detect rusting-container currents over 3 meters away, but still unlikely possible outdoors. There is a point where the thermal noise floor means any signal is lost at a minimal threshold.

      I am sure folks are extra cautious about detailing key technology these days. =3

  • TrackerFF 31 minutes ago
    Back many years ago I worked on a research project which used UWB radar to detect breathing through walls / rubble / etc. But the distance was in the range of 1-10 meters. The application was to use such sensors for finding survivors after earthquakes etc.
  • 1e1a 35 minutes ago
    If they can detect the faint signal of a heartbeat from so far away, why not instead deliberately transmit a weak, wider-bandwidth pseudorandom magnetic signal? Such a signal would be even harder to detect than a heartbeat without prior knowledge, yet easier to identify and track using a matched filter.
    • andy_ppp 27 minutes ago
      They want to lie about how they found the soldier, and potentially have China spend a few billion trying to copy technology that can never work.
  • fjfaase 10 hours ago
    • areoform 7 hours ago
      That's my fault, I was writing an email about COPPA at the same time and pasted in the wrong link. Oops!
  • resters 23 minutes ago
    More likely, the story is designed to make the public believe that US propaganda is actually aimed at the "foreign adversary" rather than at the US population. The emotionally appealing bit is the idea that even if the story is fake, Iran is now thinking it is dealing with an adversary that has and is using tech that is right out of science fiction.

    In reality, it's all aimed at us, the people. All of the "tough talk", the comments that appear intended for dissident groups within Iran, etc., is all meant to mislead the people (us) who can stop the war so we don't do so.