Shadow Analysis Could Spot Terrorists

I heard about this in the news... I don't really trust satellites, or people for that matter, to determine whether to kill someone or not by the way they walk.

I heard about this in the news... I don't really trust satellites, or people for that matter, to determine whether to kill someone or not by the way they walk.

Well good thing its not like that. There's no laser death ray that fires from space on a target after its shadow has been identified. It would be used to locate a person, so that authorities could capture them and if that person is who they were trying to find send them through the correct channels of investigation.

Can you really be sure? Even if you can document that the US has never put such a system up there (as if that were even posible), who's to say Russia didn't deploy such a system during the cold war and turn over control for some sort of payment when they fell on hard times?

NASA has already designed a Space Solar Power satellite which can, in theory, convert sunlight in space to electricity and beam it back to Earth via the microwave spectrum. The received power (on Earth) will be in gigawatt order, and I presuppose the beam divergence will be small enough for the beam to be able to cause some significant damage even in small temporal frames, should it be used for such alternative purposes.

Now, I wonder if it could be possible to retrieve gait data from people inside buildings via infrared or x-ray spectrum satellites, given sufficient power output and resolution...

I wasn't saying that some laser would come from the satellite, I don't trust it to determine whether or not the person(s) should be killed or captured.

I wasn't saying that some laser would come from the satellite, I don't trust it to determine whether or not the person(s) should be killed or captured.

I don't think that's what it does. I don't think it says that you're a terrorist because of the way you walk. I think what it does is identifies who you are based on the way you walk. For instance, if they're looking for a specific person, they could use this to find them. It won't say "this person is a terrorist."

Ah, I see.

Interesting.

I don't think that's what it does. I don't think it says that you're a terrorist because of the way you walk. I think what it does is identifies who you are based on the way you walk. For instance, if they're looking for a specific person, they could use this to find them. It won't say "this person is a terrorist."

This.

Also, how would the system search for its target? Without a fairly specific location in mind to find said terrorist, it'd be searching gait profiles for a long time. Even if it's as small as area as the City of San Diego, there are millions of people to sort through.

The other alternative would be to map all visible persons to have tabs on everyone all the time, but that's extremely creepy and would be difficult to maintain. If it couldn't penetrate buildings, people would disappear and reappear on the grid all the time.

If it COULD penetrate buildings, any operator would basically be seriously invading your privacy, as it could catch you in any location, including showers/etc.

What would be the procedure if you were spotted taking some controlled narcotic? While this is a minor crime, where is the line for punishment? There's a reason why the locator in your cell phone only activates when 911 is dialed, I couldn't see any way this would constitutional.

With the orbital lasers, you mean?