The DKL LifeGuard is a "human presence/heartbeat detector" manufactured by the DielectroKinetic Laboratories, LLP. Tom Clancy featured it prominently in his recent novel, "Rainbow Six," and a police unit in Los Angeles has purchased four for use in counter narcotics operations.
I believe that it is the biggest "high-tech" scam going. Here's the case:
I hope that by compiling and presenting these pages to the World-Wide-Web, I will help prevent tragic loss of lives that may result from the use of these DKL LifeGuards.
[3/10/99] This is a very late reply, but I have just seen the Nov/Dec '98 issue of National Fire and Rescue Magazine. In the "Letters" section, a reader wrote in and warned the editor to revoke their recommendation of the DKL LifeGuard in an earlier issue. Ms. West, the editor, replied, trying to give both sides of the story, and admitting that she has gotten a lot of negative response on the original article. However, I was shocked to see that she still failed to see through the scam. From her reply to the letter:
Sidman, [sic] provided NF&R with copies of the other performance tests, including Sandia’s "Test B" of the DKL LifeGuard, which contradicts the findings of Sandia’s published report.... In this unreported test, the LifeGuard, operating in an autonomous mode (that is, fixed, without a human operator), detected a human target through a barrier with 100 percent accuracy. I have not seen this test report, but from that description, it's probably very similar to the Advanced Material Technologies test which I discussed in the Definitive Report section. If so, it does not contradict Sandia's published report at all, but is a test of the electrostatic portion of the device, which has nothing to do with detecting people at a distance, but only meant to fool people into believing that it does.
I also revisited the DKL booth at Fire-Rescue International to see the device demonstrated a second time. With Sidman holding the device level, I walked back in forth in front of it, and damned if the end of the rod didn’t follow me all the way. It is evident that Ms. West has not done her research and read any of the DKL-exposing web sites and material available on the web, or she would have realized that this is the oldest trick. By tilting your hand very slightly, you can swing and point that rod at anything. It is very easy to follow a walking person that way. It's is sad that a person so lacking in critical thinking skills gets to be the editor of a national magazine.
[3/18/99] Finally, the National Fire and Rescue Magazine has decided to delete the DKL Lifeguard from their FDIC 10 Best list. See: the Letters section of their March/April '99 issue.