Originally published on November 9th, 2013

The Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI) has developed a system which can be installed inside sewage tunnels to detect the human waste from bomb makers to discover the precise locations of their bomb making factories.

The system is called EMPHASIS, which stands for Explosive Material Production Hidden Agile Search and Intelligence System. The system is designed to detect illicit production of bomb making and improvised devices (IEDs) in urban areas.

"It's made up of a network of sensors plotted above the below ground which can detect chemicals in liquid waste and detect gas vapours," according to information provided by EMPHASIS.

Every sensor contains "ion-selective electrodes" over which sewage in the tunnels is allowed to flow. Once the ions emitted from chemicals related to bomb making travel through the electrodes of the sensors, the resistor's voltage changes. This change is recorded and tracked using software designed to detect even the smallest traces of suspect ions.

If the ions of bomb related chemicals are detected in suspicious amounts than the data from the networked sensors will be fused and sent to the command centre. Since the target area is narrowed, the final verification is stand-off trace detection with equipped mobile units for pin-pointing the bomb maker's precise locations.

The team is hoping to trial the system in sewer under urban cities in Sweden next year.