One of the DS 9 episodes SF Debris has reviewed (Improbable Cause/The Die Is Cast) makes a passing mention to a 'Pheromone detonator'. That is to say, a detonator that is triggered, not by proximity or wireless impulse or some other conventional method, but by pheromones.

In the show they use this to target a specific species, specifically Cardassians, as the person that they are trying to assassinate is the only Cardassian aboard the station. Yes, it's more complicated than that, I'm making the context as simple as possible without giving away spoilers.

Now I was thinking: Wouldn't this be a good tool for shadowrunners?

I mean, forget race. Have your bomb set to go off when a specific brand of deodorant that the target favors is present. Have it configured to detonate if someone carrying bullets passes by.

This tool has possibilities. It's not perfect, but it's more discerning than a motion sensor and more accurate than a timer (for assassinations that is).

Thoughts?

How about Joker's plot in the Michael Keaton version of Batman. Though that was kind of deliberately indiscriminate.

It's the Joker. Collateral damage is more important than the primary target to him.

I can't think of any reason it couldn't be done, although you would probably want a high-rating detector to reduce false positives.

Depending on how accurate your detector is, this could be tantamount to a biometric trigger. As in, person-specific.

Still, I think the other potential uses are even more fun. If you wanted to be really mean, set up a reinforced security chokepoint with chemsniffers programed to detect explosives. If trigered, they activate a series of shaped charges designed to trigger sympathetic detonation. Hope you like salsa, chummer.

I'd like to take that idea. It's very useful. May I?
I'll have to crunch numbers and dice pools a bit to see if it is worthwhile, but it's a goood idea.
The one about the explosives, too

Be my guest. For the security booth, you might be better off using some kind of electrical discharge or microwave pulses instead of the shaped charges though. IIRC it's easier to set off explosives with electricity than fire/explosions in shadowrun. Plus it costs less and gives you plausible dependability.

"Well, our weapon scanner tripped so we sent a nonlethal shock into the booth to disable the suspects and a HERF pulse to knock out their equipment. It's possible that this could have been what set off all that C4 they were carrying, but our forensics guys say it was probably due to faulty detonators, not our security system."