Word: detector
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Tired of setting off airport metal detectors with your change, belt buckle or pacemaker? GARY SETTLES, director of the Penn State Gas Dynamics Lab, has an invention for you. According to Settles, the human body produces a column of warm air that rises from the feet to the top of one's head, catching constantly shedding skin cells. Settles even has a catchy name for this phenomenon: the human thermal plume. He has created a portal, similar to a walk-through metal detector, that can detect the presence of microscopic amounts of explosive material in the plume...
Travelers passing through the detector will feel a rush of air as a fan blows the plume--and the dead skin cells with it--into a particle separator, which is able to detect the presence of bombmaking materials and other contraband sticking to the skin. Though the invention is thus far being designed only to detect bombs, Settles says his portals could also be used to detect illegal narcotics, smuggled money and evidence of chemical or biological weapons...
NIGHT LIGHT Here's a bit of practical magic: Huffy Sports' Twilight basketball ($25). A battery-powered bulb shines through the ball's translucent skin, so you can shoot hoops long after the sun goes down. It's easy to turn on and has a motion detector to shut it off automatically after five idle minutes. But what good is seeing the ball if you can't see the net? You might just have to spring for Huffy's Satellight lighted backboard...
...There's more, like the female scientist who saw a flashing light in the smoke detector and heard "an unusual noise that sounded like an auto-focus camera lens as it adjusted" whenever she got undressed. Another scientist traveling in a foreign country checked his laptop - which had been padlocked - to find it had been entered with a "guest access" sign-in. Computer logs revealed that the same logon had been used the last time he was in that country...
...reason why, within the next quarter-century, the industry can't at last conquer a driving menace as old as the automobile itself. Think of it: a built-in car-sickness detector, able to identify the motion-queasy before they get into the car and start whining, and instantly bar their entry. Surely it's not asking too much to expect cars of the future to incorporate a dainty but palpable electric shock that reminds front-seat passengers to keep their stupid feet off the dashboard...