Resead's real secret, though, is in the way it handles the incoming data.First, these are pre-crunched by powerful hardware built into the sensors themselves.This step, a form of parallel processing, greatly reduces the time required by the central receiving computer to finish the job.Second, the mathematical technique employed, a species of finite-element analysis, divides the volume represented by the incoming data not merely into blocks,as is normal in this approach, but into blocks the faces and edges of which can have different properties.This means a block can straddle, say, the interface between a metal pipe and the rock surrounding it.That considerably reduces the number of blocks needed, and further simplifies the calculation.To test their system Dr Weiss's team decided to look at an oilfield. Most oilfields have only one or two wells per square kilometre, which is hardly challenging.The team, however, chose in Bakersfield, California, which has a dense network of oil-related infrastructure.The square kilometre they picked contains more than a hundred wells, many underground storage tanks and tens of kilometres of steel pipeline.Resead made short work of this challenge. It produced an accurate map of the area in just ten minutes.Exactly how Resead sensors would be put in place in a zone of active conflict remains to be seen. But the system could certainly be useful for other sorts of security.
然而，Resead真正的秘密在于它处理传入数据的方式。首先，传感器本身内置的强大硬件可以预先处理这些数据。这一步(一种并行处理的形式)大大减少了中央接收计算机完成工作所需的时间。其次，所采用的数学技术，一种有限元分析，不仅把输入数据所代表的体积分成块(这是该方法的正常做法)，而且分成块，这些块的面和边可以有不同的属性。这意味着块体可以跨越金属管道和周围岩石之间的界面。这大大减少了所需的块的数量，并进一步简化了计算。为了测试他们的系统，韦斯博士的团队决定对一个油田进行考察。大多数油田每平方公里只有一到两口井，没什么挑战性。然而，该团队选择了加州贝克尔斯菲尔德，那里有一个密集的石油相关基础设施网络。他们选择的那块土地有一百多口井、许多地下储罐和几十公里的钢管道。而里德很快就解决了这一挑战，它在十分钟内就绘制出了该地区的精确地图。Resead传感器将如何安装在冲突频繁的地区还有待观察，但该系统当然也可以用于其他类型的安全。
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