14 DAY TRIAL // The problem with using high-tech devices in the field, during a mission in enemy territory, is that they can be captured by said enemy and studied. Obviously, this endangers national security, so DARPA is doing something about it.
Long story short, DARPA has called on IBM and asked it to develop non-incendiary, self-destructing devices.
The idea is to attach a CMOS sensor to a piece of glass. The glass, when triggered by an RF-signal, would shatter on command, thus destroying the sensor.
This would prevent the “transient electronics” from falling into the wrong hands and leaking classified information.
DARPA has set up a new program for handling the new inventions, called VAPR (Vanishing Programmable Resources).
The devices invented through this collaboration will supposedly have performance just as good as that of commercial-off-the-shelf electronics, but with “limited device persistence that can be programmed, adjusted in real-time, triggered, and/or be sensitive to the deployment environment.”