For years, detecting snipers depended on the type of sleuth work depicted in Hollywood thrillers - figuring out where a military marksman or lone wolf killer might try to hide. Only recently has technology begun to tip the balance. Protecting a dignitary or a VIP in today's technology savvy terrorist generation is not as easy as it used to be. However, thanks to a new laser surveillance technology to be unveiled in Britain, snipers or assassins could be spotted in their nests before even firing a single shot.

European and U.S. defense companies are putting more effort into research of anti-sniper defenses in response to threats in Afghanistan and Iraq, and at home. Most systems use acoustic or thermal sensors that depend on waiting for the first shot, but the European aerospace group EADS has developed an alternative that aims to warn of attack and pinpoints the sniper before they pull the trigger by bouncing light off their telescopic sight.

 

The ELLIPSE unit, resembling a speed radar on a tripod, sweeps a protected zone with laser beams. These are reflected back off any lens they hit. A processor then distinguishes the signature of a sniper's sight. If several machines are deployed around a dignitary at a political rally or in a sports stadium, the position of a sniper could be revealed as soon as the sight is spotted by "triangulation," the technique used in GPS satellite navigation.

 

“It is the same principle as 'cat's eyes' in the middle of the road,” said Peter Talbot-Jones, research team leader at EADS Innovation Works at Newport in Wales. “Cat's eyes' behave like the retina of a cat by reflecting light from a car's headlamps to illuminate lines on the road.”

 

EADS, which stumbled on its optical technique through anti-missile research, hopes to present its idea to the hosts of London's 2012 Olympics as a way of shielding dignitaries.

 
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