Army Wants Cell-Spotter

The military knows a fair amount about jamming cell phones. Detecting 'em is harder, oddly enough. So the Army is on the lookout for a short-range cell-spotter for their secret facilities.

A camera-phone, after all, could cause a lot of mischief in the wrong place. And "current methods for detecting such devices such as manual searches or metal detector portals are not sufficiently accurate and consistent, and can create serious bottlenecks at entry and exit checkpoints.," an Army request for proposals notes. "Once the devices are in the secured area, it is difficult to detect unauthorized or unintentional use because transmissions tend to occur sporadically in short, low-power bursts."

A low-cost, safe, unobtrusive, and fast system for detecting communications transceivers or components would solve these problems. The ideal system would be able to detect the presence of transceivers within a five-meter range regardless of their operating mode, i.e.
whether the device is powered down, powered on but idle, actively receiving, or actively transmitting. Such a system could use active or passive detection technology, but cannot use ionizing radiation or high levels of radio frequency energy beyond those allowed under FCC regulations. The system must have a high probability of detection and a low probability of false alarm even when operated by unskilled personnel.

Initially, these detectors can be in fixed locations -- like at a checkpoint, say. But, eventually, the Army wants portable cell-finders, in case it misses any machines at the Situation Room door.