Quantum Detector for Oil and Submarines?

Professor Hans A. Bachor talked about quantum technologies on Friday, in a language even I could understand. One interesting possibility is to apply it to build gravity detectors used for mineral exploration and detecting submarines:

Optical technology is reaching a most interesting stage: the particle nature of light becomes more and more important. On the other hand new forms of matter are being generated where atoms are dominated by wave properties. In several applications this already poses practical limitations but it also opens new opportunities. This talk will review some practical but perplexing features of this quantum duality and it gives examples how our Australian team is working towards future technologies based on the ideas of quantum statistics.

From: Particles and waves, photons and atoms: a path to quantum technologies, Professor Hans A. Bachor, Research Director and Federation Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics, ANU, 2006-10-06

The ANU has produced a atom laser using Bose-Einstein condensate. With such a gadget you might build a gravimeter, to measure gravity and look for minerals, or submarines.