John Cunningham, president of Band XI International LLC in West Hartford, Conn., said his company used Eclipse to build a commercial wireless application that runs on handheld devices and monitors sensors for nerve agents, cyanide, radiation and other threats.

The application, called Cyrano, was used by the Michigan National Guard to patrol for possible biological, chemical or nuclear attacks at the 2006 Super Bowl in Detroit and at NASCAR races in June and August.

Philip Rusiecki, survey team leader in the Michigan National Guard's 51st Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team, said that before automating the monitoring effort with Cyrano, soldiers at such events would use a radio to report the readings from sensors to a central command center. The unit first used Cyrano at this year's Super Bowl, he said.

In the past, soldiers -- who would typically be the first to respond to a terrorist attack -- would spend 20 percent to 30 percent of their time reporting results, he said. "Cyrano allows us to log all the readings that come back from the hot zone," Rusiecki said. "It allows the soldiers to concentrate on their mission and not on reporting back readings from radiation meters."

Rusiecki said he was initially worried that the system might not work with new detectors and sensors but found that it is "very adaptable."