Most people have never heard of such a thing as laser vibration analysis, and most of those who have probably did so came by it in an industrial context, where it is employed as a way to check up on equipment before they fail, preventing costly production delays.
But there is a more exciting use of laser vibration analysis, known to intelligence officers who keep up with the technology of spycraft.
And after the capture of the most wanted man anywhere in the world for the past ten years, this particular application is about to become even more widely known than that found in industry!
For it was employing just such a method that lead U.S. agents to practically confirm, with unparalleled accuracy, that Al Quaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden was hidden within an Abbottabad compound in Pakistan. CIA operatives were surveilling the location and were able to establish by visual observation that a certain number of people resided there. However, by using a kind of laser vibration analysis
American intelligence officials found one more person, who was never seen because he never ventured outdoors in all the many months that the compound was staked out.
Again, this kind of analysis is most often employed by industry in order to prevent catastrophic failure of crucial hardware. A laser is used in order to carefully measure certain tell-tale characteristics; for example, hard-to-reach bearings in a machine can be analyzed for strength and tolerance much more easily and accurately.
In the case of the Al Qaeda chief, lasers were pointed at his windows, which panes were subject to the minute vibrations caused by conversations — which vibrations were picked up by the lasers!
By carefully poring over these vibrations, analysts were able to determine that there was a person who was never observed outside at all…a clear sign that someone was hiding — someone very, very, very important!