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“Nanotubes for Noisy Signal Processing”
by Ian YenYin Lee
May 2005
Nanotubes can process noisy signals. We present two central results in support of this general thesis and make an informed extrapolation that uses nanotubes to improve body armor.The first result is that noise can help nanotubes detect weak signals. The finding confirmed a stochastic-resonance theoretical prediction that noise can enhance detection at the nano-level. Laboratory experiments with nanotubes showed that three types of noise improved three measures of detection.
Small amounts of Gaussian, uniform, and Cauchy additive white noise increased mutual-information, cross-correlation, and bit-error-rate measures before degrading them with further increases in noise. Nanotubes can apply this noise-enhancement and nanotube electrical and mechanical properties to improve signal processing. Similar noise enhancement may benefit a proposed nanotube-array cochlear-model spectral processing.
The second result is that nanotube antennas can directly detect narrowband electromagnetic (EM) signals. The finding showed that nanotube and thin-wire dipoles are similar: They are resonant and narrowband and can implement linear-array designs if the EM waves in the nanotubes propagate at or near the free-space velocity of light.
The nanotube-antenna prediction is based on a Fresnel-zone or near-zone analysis of antenna impedance using a quantum-conductor model. The analysis also predicts a failure to resonate if the nanotube EM-wave propagation is much slower than free-space light propagation.
We extrapolate based on applied and theoretical analysis of body armor. Field experiments used a baseball comparison and statistical and other techniques to model body-armor bruising effects. A baseball comparison showed that a large caliber handgun bullet can hit an armored chest as hard as a fast baseball can hit a bare chest. Adaptive fuzzy systems learned to predict a bruise profile directly from the experimental data and also from statistical analysis of the data. Nanotube signal processing should help disguise armor by adapting camouflage to match changing backgrounds while nanotube additives should strengthen armor materials.