Gadgets and gizmos

Dolphins are pretty cute, aren’t they? Of all the creatures which live in the sea these are ones you wouldn’t want to see ending up on your dinner plate. However, it turns out that as well as being cute they have also inspired a brand new kind of radar which could be used to locate bombs beside the road

The work on the radar has been carried out by the researchers at the University of Southampton and University College in London.

2 Pulses Instead of 1

The idea which the scientists stole from the dolphins is that of sending out a radar signal with 2 pulses instead of the typical method of using just 1 pulse. This mimics how our flippered friends use their ability to send out sonar signals in order to accurately locate prey in the water and distinguish them other objects.

The new radar is called TWIPR, which stands for twin inverted pulse radar. It uses the technique of sending out a second pulse along with the first one which has the reverse polarity of the original. This way it can tell the difference between bombs and other things like pipes and other objects.

The radar device they created cost under £1 to build and is only 2cm in size. When the signal finds an electronic device the pulse becomes a positive one, which allows the device to give off a strong signal. When the researcher tested it they found that an antenna appeared as 100,000 times stronger than other metal things around it which weren’t part of electronic devices.

It has been said that with some adjustments is could even be used to locate buried earthquake survivors.