Robert Fontana disappears into a hallway. Seconds later, a small reddish blob of pixels appears and moves around a field of blue and green on a computer monitor hooked up to a shoebox-sized device. The splotch tracks Fontana's position in the building, even through the two walls between him and the technology he's showing off: a tracking and collision avoidance system that can "see" through barriers like walls (or trees) and measure a target's position, bearing and speed. Fontana, president of Germantown, MD-based Multispectral Solutions, says what's inside his shoebox can one day help keep helicopters, cars and other vehicles from ramming into obstacles like power lines or people.

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