1. A "fake" cellphone tower - device pretends to be a cellphone tower (say, on a humvee) and probes the area for cell phones. options: a) ring any cellphone in radius (pre-explode) b) show position of device on a LCD display ("top down") c) jam signal
2. Jammer for garagedoor opener and other consumer frequency.. just like good ol ECM-- bigattichouse, Sep 28 2006 Bad Science.
No real way to locate a cell phone from the tower.
Cell phones work on a call and response system I believe, but I think the tower does the call and phone only responds if the correct ID is sent. So unless the tower sent out a call for every possible phone ID, I don't think it would get a response.
Please correct me if I am wrong.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Sep 28 2006 If I am in new york, and you are in LA the cell network has to know where you are. At some point your phone "registers" with a tower. With multiple towers you can pinpoint a certain phone... If we are 100% in control of a tower, we can pretend - intercept - and do quite a bit not normally possible. In computing it is called "man in the middle" attack. The general idea in this case is to remove certain possible IED choices from circulation.-- bigattichouse, Sep 29 2006 I believe this is possible with current technology; I've heard of studies where they triangulated positions of cellphones in cars to monitor traffic, I'll see if I can cough up the link.
I'm not sure how good cell phone reception is in the regions this would affect, though. And if it were good, how do you differentiate between good and bad cellphones? It would get annoying to have my cell ring all the time for no reason, or get jammed. The tracking thing would be good if there weren't a lot of people around, like on a roadside, and if the positioning were very accurate and the sweepers going slow enough to check the area for people. It's certainly an idea.
One more thing- I've read about cell jammers in spy thrillers, maybe they're already doing this... ;)-- omnilynx, Sep 29 2006 As omnilynx points out, a localized jammer on the convoy truck itself could do the trick -- "simply" disrupt service in a zone around it as you pass.
However, this is an interesting idea. First, yes, triangulation is possible and I just read recently that someone is taking advantage of the speed with which a cell phone moves through the zone to predict traffic.
Well, a cell phone on a highway should not be in the same position for a long time -- unless it's calling from a broken down car. Assuming it's actually a call that triggers the explosion, one could start trying to isolate those pairs of phones that are involved. The "caller" could be then analyzed further to see if there's a pattern.-- theircompetitor, Sep 29 2006 I was working this idea over myself. I must have seen the same thing on TV that cell phones and garage door openers are used as detonators. I was also wondering why they don't use inflating Kevlar walls like air bags. This is baked and developed to deter assassinations Pop-sci from several years ago.+-- pydor, Sep 29 2006 random, halfbakery