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Researchers develop sci-fi method for catching car thieves

09/11/2006, 10:19 PM

By admin

Security researchers at U.S.-based Fujitsu Ten have developed an unusual method of stopping car thieves and preventing them from escaping the vehicle. The technology uses rapidly expanding polystyrene foam to fill the cabin and potentially trap the thief. Very few details are available on the system, but Fujitsu holds a U.S. patent for the technology. Police can apparently cut through the solid foam with a hot wire. The Leftlane Perspective: Somehow, we doubt this will even come to market. Not only are there legal and safety implications of trapping someone in a vehicle, but crooks could simply come equipped to cut through the foam.

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09/11, 10:24 PM

posted by:

Alex Dillon

awwww i want that so bad. why cant they just have a huge ice pick shoot out of the dash that sounds gruesome too!!!

09/11, 10:43 PM

posted by:

BAMF

i cant wait to see the video…

09/11, 10:47 PM

posted by:

Jim in LA

i prefer the 6000 SUX method of instant electrocution for my vehicle protection system.

09/11, 11:00 PM

posted by:

Thomas

Now that we’re getting creative, how about carbon monoxide filling the cabin?

That ice pick method mentioned above requires too much clean up.

09/11, 11:05 PM

posted by:

Don

there should be a system to instantly kill thieves

09/11, 11:26 PM

posted by:

Renton

Once my car is stolen, I want the car to disintegrate. I never want it back.

I also would like the thief to burn up as well.

09/11, 11:36 PM

posted by:

Eisen Faust

In South Africa where car theft and crime in general is extremely high you can get a system of flamethrowers that shoot out from under the car and directly up the sides to cook anyone tampering with the locks or glass.

For a while a spray was also avaliable that you can apply to the door handles with a chemical that leeches through the fingertips and causes paralysis and death to people trying the handle. It didnt take off because people were forgeting the accompaning neutralizing spray and were unable to open their cars. All True!

09/12, 3:29 AM

posted by:

Vel

What about unbreakable glass and stronger doorlock systems? It could be so simple…

09/12, 4:50 AM

posted by:

WEKS

>> Eisen Faust
I just saw that spray thing in a movie, nice try though.

09/12, 5:07 AM

posted by:

Eisen Faust

that system is seriously avaliable in South Africa without a word of a lie

09/12, 8:31 AM

posted by:

wetstuff

Make sure there’s Cyanide in the foam mix. Put a “Key in Car” sticker on the window inviting the dirtballs.

j i m

09/12, 9:41 AM

posted by:

A non E Moose

Instead of focusing on a security systme for this technology, they should focus on a safety system. There are already enough lawsuits now, imagine the thief suing and winning since he got “burned” by the hot wire.

As a safety system (like in the cheesy Stallone movie), the foam could deploy like an airbag system during a crash. Imagine how few injuries there could be. Nothing flying around in the car to hit you, no flailing limbs or glass. And the added benefit could be fire resistance and/or imobility if bones are broken.

What they really need is a fast acting (miliseconds) foam, that then breaks down after say 15 seconds or so, so you can be extricated quickly if need be.

09/12, 11:54 AM

posted by:

(V)ike

This is like what the police cars had in Demolition Man when they crashed… Maybe be a better use of this technology if it is instantanious. Kind of like an airbag, but holds the entire body still.

09/12, 11:55 AM

posted by:

(V)ike

Wow, I guess it pays to read everybodies comments… A non mentioned the same thing

09/12, 12:06 PM

posted by:

Jon Luc

Shades of Demolition Man? Not an original idea, but who foots the bill when the foam stains my leather?

09/12, 1:16 PM

posted by:

Dr*Manhattan

A non E Moose, and (V)ike — While these safety systems both sound somewhat desireable at the outset, there is one major flaw that would prevent them from coming to production…

According to physics, an object in motion will tend to stay in motion. Therefore, if an unrestrained individual in a car crashes, their body will fly forward at the speed the car was travelling just before it crashed. Once the person hits, say, the dashboard or windshield, their brain and internal organs will continue to travel at the same speed that the body was travelling, which is the same speed as the car. This is known as “inertia”.

Crash dynamics have been a constant throughout history. If you fall down and hit your head, you sometimes become knocked out. This is because the brain waves in your brain are temporarily interrupted. If you hit your head harder, the brain waves can be interrupted so severly that the resulting injury could result in a coma, or even death.

With modern car design, vehicles have been engineered to **absorb** the energy, so that by the time the resulting inertia (crash force) impacts upon the driver and passengers, it has been significantly reduced.

This can be seen in the forms of, in order or a frontal crash:
1. 5 MPH bumpers – absorb energy in minor collisions.
2. Crumple zones – areas designed to deform during a crash to dissapate energy
3. The ’safety cell’ of the car is designed to *not* bedn or crumple, it acts as the true armor in a crash

Inside the car, we have the following systems:

1. pretensioning seatbelts
2. airbags

All of the above absorb energy, depending on the crash. In the very best case scenerio, only the bumpers will absorb energy from very low-speed impacts, and the driver & passengers will feel a little bump. If a car was built completly rigid, you would feel quite a bit more of a shock. In the worst-case scenerio, all of the above would work together, which is why sometimes there are car wrecks where the car is completly destroyed, but the driver and passengers remain unhurt.

If the safety foam from “Demolition Man” (the Sylvester Stallone film) were to be brought into production, it would mitigate the entire point of the seatbelts and the airbags. Once a car was involved in a collision, if this quick-acting safety foam was to be deployed, it would stop the driver & passengers immediaetly, while their internal organs and brain would be pushed up against their ribs, and the front of their skull, respectively, resulting in serious injuries that with today’s current technology, may only result in a minor injury, if any injury at all.

09/12, 4:20 PM

posted by:

A non E Moose

Dr. Manhattan, I disagree. While I do not think the foam would be instananteous and stop the motion of the person immediately, airbags and belts have give in them, but they ALSO stop the movement of the body, and the brain and internal organs will still continue to move as well. It is not like seatbelts slow you and carefully bring you to a stop. They jerk tight. Your internal organs still “move” from the inertia. An airbag stops you, but you can still get whiplash, and your brain also keeps sloshing around in your head.

Now, since this is still “science fiction” in the sense that it will never come to market in my lifetime, my point was more to focus on a safety item, than a security one. The time to deploy the foam and make it expand and “harden” would be similar to an airbag deployment. There would still be some movement as it “hardened” of the person, so it would act exactly like an airbag, but would stop everything including the limbs (which airbags do not do.)

09/14, 2:14 AM

posted by:

Patrick

Demolition Man! Sly Stalone was on to something…

09/14, 2:14 AM

posted by:

Patrick

Now if only we could come up with a use/explanation for the three sea shells…

10/02, 8:09 PM

posted by:

J.A.N.E.

Make a public spectacle of the thief by showing what a jack-ass he is…I like it!

 
 
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