By Engr. AbrarHussainTunio
This every day bombing and killings have ruined several families in Pakistan. According to reports approx. 34 people are killed and 60+ are injured in this Jan 2015, excluding the recent terrorist attack at Shia Masjid in Shikarpur where more than 50 lives were put to death. This seems a never ending story in Pakistan since 2001. It has become uncertain for every person to reach back to home safely. A proper use of modern technology can give this “never ending story” to an end. [1]
Effective measures are taken to avoid bomb attacks, like implanting bomb detector gates, hiring security guards, cameras and bomb-sniffing dogs. “Bomb-sniffing dogs are expensive to train, and they can become tired,” said study co-lead author Ren-Min Ma, an assistant professor of physics at Peking University who did this work when he was a postdoctoral researcher in Zhang’s lab. Bombs-sniffing dogs can work well only if you already know that a bomb is planted. It has been proved that these measures are not enough after terrorist broke into PIA airport Islamabad in 2014 and recent attack in Shikarpur. Few enhancements in these effective measures can develop an efficient environment that will be capable of doing a lot of smart tasks in very little time to fail these attacks.
Sensors are devices that can be used efficiently to refrain and resist these bomb attacks by alarming several minutes before its happening. I am not talking about just sensors; I am talking about Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and Internet of Things (IOT). WSN and IOT are two best technologies that can be utilized to stop bomb blasts in Pakistan.
These sensors come in various sizes and shapes, bearing several capabilities. These are easy to deploy anywhere and are smart enough to make Ad-Hoc topology. Following are simple rules that I am sure can design efficient environment against bomb blasts.
Rule 1: Gathering knowledge about the Bomb
• Kind of Bomb
o Every bomb has its own characteristic and emits various rays, some sensors need to come into close contact to the bomb in order to detect it others just emit high rays that can be detected easily at distances [3,7]
• How is it created?
o This is very important, because it can be linked to the question “how it will be operated?”, If it is using mobile networks or radio frequencies to explode than it can be diffused or blocked remotely in a very efficient way after its detection [7]
• How can be stopped remotely?
o By blocking and jamming electromagnetic waves in that area.
• Now when all information is gathered, the question is; can we detect it prior to blast or even activation? I am not an expert in bombs but I know one thing that bombs releases rays and those rays can be detected through Nanotechnology Sensors.
The new sensor could have many advantages over current bomb-screening methods.
“The other thing we see at airports is the use of swabs to check for explosive residue, but those have relatively low-sensitivity and require physical contact. Our technology could lead to a bomb-detecting chip for a handheld device that can detect the tiny-trace vapor in the air of the explosive’s small molecules.” Said Sarah yang in her article [2]
Rule 2: Protection from Incoming
• Implanting security gates
o About 80% of risk can be avoided through these gates but it’s not enough because you need to come into close contact of these doors to get bombs detected.
• A security guard with sensor device
• Here is one cost effective method, I am calling it a modern idea because I haven’t seen such technique being used anywhere.
o I already have talked a little about the capabilities of Wireless Sensor Networks and Internet of Things but how can we used it?
Step 1: Deploy Sensors to venerable premises that you want to protect, inside and outside of buildings, we can deploy these over security cameras.
Step 2: These sensor will be sensing the environment all the time, so there is no way a bomb can remain hidden from its senses.
Step 3: Connect these sensors directly to 4 main places
• Police Station or Bomb squad
• Radio sensing Department where frequencies can be controlled and blocked
• Hospital
• Authorities of that place like Airport, Mosque, Auditorium, Seminar hall, Super Stores etc.
Rule 3: Finally, A secure Exit
• We can send alarm for evacuation of that area directly to all mobiles within that area, and it’s very simple as Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) are locating to mobiles all the time and there is no need to Broadcast to all mobile phones but multi-cast only to mobile phones in that BTS.
Rule 4: Review these rules and make amendments according to the gathered information
Rule 5: Ask “Do you have other solutions?”
An Alternative Method
• Now a day mobiles come with many features of sensing the environment, telling the weather etc.
o It just need a little more enhancement put bomb-detecting sensors in each mobile equipment
o Keep the larger range of sensing of mobile equipment
o Good thing is that mobiles are always connected to network
o Put alarming software in mobile which will alarm the Head office about threat automatically.
o Apply few points from RULE 1
o Now you should have technique for disarming the bomb remotely
o OR
o Reach the place on time with proper equipment
References:
1. http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/database/bombblast.htm
2. http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2014/07/20/plasmon-laser-bomb-detection/
3. http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=28691.php
4. Prabhakaran, S. Dept. of IT, Hindustan Univ., Chennai, India, “Detecting and spotting bombs using wireless sensors and expert systems” Communication Control and Computing Technologies (ICCCCT), 2010 IEEE International Conference on, 7-9 Oct. 2010, Pages 366 – 371
5. http://www.gtri.gatech.edu/casestudy/paper-based-wireless-sensors
6. Larry Senesac, Thomas G. Thundat, “Nanosensors for trace explosive detection” Materials today, Volume 11, Issue 3, March 2008, Pages 28–36
7. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/newsevents/news/newsrecords/2011/05May/Bombdetection.aspx
V.nice piece of writing