Improved noncontact electrodes and noninvasive hybrid biosensors enable fast, reliable readings of hearts and brains, without requiring contact with the skin.

Firefighters and HazMat workers have a very tough job. They're frequently in heavy gear, in unfriendly atmospheres, and working hard. Unfortunately, this combination of equipment, environment, and job stress means that frequently they're operating at the limits of human endurance.

It's a fact that, in the chaos of the battlefield (and especially in confused urban warfare situations), people die from so-called "friendly fire." Adapting a MEMS technology developed for use in gas sensors, ICx Ion Optics has created IR emitters tuned to night-vision wavelengths.

The U.S. Navy Super Hornets are being equipped with a new type of radar made by Raytheon. This technology is a departure from conventional radar in that there is no moving antenna.

"Frangible" bullets are designed to break into small bits when they strike a hard surface. This ammunition might appear counter-intuitive, but it is used by law enforcement personnel in areas where ricochets could harm innocent bystanders.

CNN correspondent Brent Sadler, who is on assignment in Afghanistan, tells of a close encounter with a sensor-rich Predator UAV, "the U.S. military's most sophisticated killing machine in the war on terror."

We now face a new concept of war where instead of being miles away, the enemy may be in the same building or just a few feet away," says David Shumaker, director of SENSIAC, the new sensing information analysis center serving the U.S. Department of Defense.

According to Forecast International analyst Larry Dickerson, the market for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) reconnaissance systems, including air vehicles and payloads, is expected to be worth $13.6 billion through 2014. "Thanks to their battlefield successes in Iraq and Afghanistan, money is being lavished on UAV programs as never before," said Dickerson.

The second SensorsGov show (December 68) aimed to help engineers and managers in all sectors of governmentfrom military to health monitoring to transportation. But most of the discussion applied to nongovernment engineers, too.