IED Detection: I had the right idea

Smiths has been working on such a device, a handheld wand with a laser that could be pointed at a car or person from 500 yards away to detect explosives material. The challenge, Phipson said, is detecting material hidden inside something, like a car's trunk. Already, detection is possible for surface containments, he said.

"It's something that is obtainable," Phipson said, adding that this capability is already being achieved in lab environments.

Look here.

His detection method is to use a laser spectrometer to coupled to a computer to detect explosives. I bandied the idea around with a bunch of physicists when my brother was in Iraq between Spring 2003 and Summer 2004. Everyone thought it'd work and work well. It seems that the guy quoted in the article had the same idea. Now why it'd cost billions like he said, I have no fscking idea.

Damn. I should have put in for a grant back then. My concern wasn't making money, but protecting my brother who had been wounded in a nontrivial way by an IED (a 4 in/10 cm chunk of metal buried in the skull just below the helmet). He survived, but it focused my attention a bit.

From now on if I have an idea, I'm fscking doing something with ASAP. This is hardly the first time I've been really on the right track with something.