Technology that helps see through walls

Washington: Peering through thick walls is no longer science fiction but stark reality, thanks to a new cutting edge technology developed by scientists.

MIT's Lincoln Lab researchers Gregory Charvat and John Peabody have built a system that can see through walls from some distance away, giving an instantaneous picture of the activity on the other side.

Their device is an unassuming array of antenna arranged in two rows - eight receiving elements on top, 13 transmitting ones below - and some computing equipment, all mounted onto a movable cart.

But it has powerful implications for military operations, especially "urban combat situations", says project leader Charvat according to a Lincoln Lab statement.

Walls, by definition, are solid, and that's certainly true of the four- and eight-inch-thick concrete walls on which the researchers tested their system.    More