If a wireless device passes through this
mechanism, the pulse creates an opposite magnetic field in the object.
When the pulse's magnetic field collapses, causing the reflected pulse,
the magnetic field of the object makes it take longer for the reflected
pulse to completely disappear. This process works something like echoes:
If you yell in a room with only a few hard surfaces, you probably hear
only a very brief echo, or you may not hear one at all. But if you yell
into a room with a lot of hard surfaces, the echo lasts longer. In a PI
metal detector, the magnetic fields from target objects add their
"echo" to the reflected pulse, making it last a fraction
longer than it would without them.
A sampling circuit in the metal detector
is set to monitor the length of the reflected pulse. By comparing it to
the expected length, the circuit can determine if another magnetic field
has caused the reflected pulse to take longer to decay. If the decay of
the reflected pulse takes more than a few microseconds longer than
normal, there is probably a metal object interfering with it.