GE Repurposing RFID Tags as Tiny Explosive Detecting Sensors… Anti-Terrorism Breakthrough?

By: | February 19th, 2015

GE worked with Technical Support Working Group (TSWG), a task force dedicated to anti-terrorism, in order to develop a new, small RFID sensor capable of detecting explosives.

Generally, the type of the devices used for detecting explosives are bulky and require some sort of manual operation, but GE’s new RFID sensor is durable and can automate what is a tedious process at the moment.

The new device is essentially an RFID tag that has been repurposed as a sensor, a technology about which General Electric is reluctant to release very many details.

In fact, the company simply states it’s developed “a sensing material that responds to explosives and oxidizers.”

The hope is, since the sensors are extremely cheap to make, that these devices can be placed in places like airports where they will work for months without replacement and detect explosive threats as far as 12 feet away.

If the RFID sensors prove to be reliable, in theory they could be mass-produced and installed all around places in need of high security measures at all times.

Marshall Smith

Technology, engineering, and design enthusiast.

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