Researchers from Vanderbilt University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will hold a media demonstration of a dirty bomb detection and location system that illustrates the potential of advanced networking technology for homeland security applications. For the April 20 demonstration at Vanderbilt’s football stadium, ORNL researchers will place a low-level radiation source in the stadium to simulate a dirty bomb. A person carrying a portable detector will move around the field and then up into the stadium. All the while, the network will track his position. When he passes close to the target, a warning will be triggered, a camera mounted high in the stands will zoom in on his location and the camera image will be displayed on the stadium’s Jumbotron. The demonstration was developed for the Fifth International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks to be held at the Vanderbilt Marriott and will be shown to attendees on April 20 at 5:30 p.m. at the Vanderbilt stadium.
WHAT: Dirty bomb detection system demonstration for media
WHERE: Press room on the west side of the Vanderbilt football. Parking will be available on the concourse through Gate 2, closest to Jess Neely Drive and Natchez Trace.
WHEN: Thursday, April 20 at noon.
HOW: Researchers from Vanderbilt’s Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) and ORNL’s SensorNet Program have created a dirty bomb detection and location system that can track the position of people or objects even in the presence of large crowds with a precision of one meter, compared to the 10 meter resolution typical of GPS. In a crowded stadium, that translates into an area of about 10 seats, as compared to 700. ORNL researchers added an off-the-shelf portable radiation detector, linked it to a mobile phone and programmed it so that it continuously sends readings to a computer that will sound an alarm when the readings go above a threshold level. More information about the demonstration is available on the web at www.isis.vanderbilt.edu/projects/rips/. The website will carry a webcast of the demonstration.
Contact: David F. Salisbury, (615) 343-6803
david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu
Vivian F. Cooper, (615) 343-6314
vivian.f.cooper@vanderbilt.edu
Michael Bradley (ORNL) (865) 576-9553
bradleymk@ornl.gov