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Terror Networks | |
Snipers (don't) See Red. | |
2007-01-19 | |
Controlled by a laptop-wielding soldier, the RedOwl's superior senses can read a nametag from across a football field and identify the make and model of a rifle fired a mile away simply by analyzing the sound of the distant blast. And soon it could be putting its powers to use in Iraq. RedOwl's developer, Glenn Thoren, now a director at Insight Technology in Londonderry, New Hampshire, says several prototypes have finished an intensive 10-week field test at Fort Benning in Georgia. Given the defense department's budget approval early this year, he hopes the $150,000 sniper-finders will be in Iraq by this spring. The robot's mechanical ears were originally designed to improve hearing aides. But Thoren, then with Boston University's Photonics Center, which heads the RedOwl project, thought up a new application after learning of a spike in sniper activity surrounding Iraqi hotspots like Abu Ghraib prison. He combined the original listening system -- which processes sound received by four microphones to determine the direction and elevation of a noise -- with a suite of sensors, spotlights and a laser rangefinder. When the RedOwl hears gunfire, it swivels its head toward the source of the noise. A thermal imager can pick out the sniper while an infrared spotlight illuminates him for night-vision-equipped troops. Attached to a PackBot, a miniature robot tank built by iRobot in Burlington, Massachusetts, and steered by a modified Xbox videogame controller, the RedOwl can also enter dangerous buildings in advance of soldiers. "We're hoping to put the robot in situations where it would be less safe for a soldier," Thoren says. How it works: EARS: When a shot is fired, the incoming sound waves pass over four microphones, and a processor parses the data to pinpoint the source of the sound, all in a few milliseconds. The system can recognize weapons by their report, and thus ignore friendly fire. | |
Posted by:Omaque Ulerens6556 |
#7 A related proposal was to dev SPECTRE-style MINI-BLIMPS equipped wid computer-aided/targeted, high-precision rifles and grenade launchers, etc. Was shot down due to resistance by various police units. |
Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-01-19 22:29 |
#6 Lots of counter-sniper tech heading into theater in the coming weeks/months. The local hard boyz are not going to like it one bit. |
Posted by: remoteman 2007-01-19 21:29 |
#5 I guess the Jihadis would have to trade in their Russian made sharpshooting equipment for stuff used by the Iraqi army. But wouldn't they be doing this already? |
Posted by: mhw 2007-01-19 12:45 |
#4 Wow. |
Posted by: trailing wife 2007-01-19 11:53 |
#3 Another technology was of a blimp flown only at night, that would use similar systems, and ground intelligence, to identify known enemy occupied buildings, which would then be illuminated with IR spotlights from the blimps. For ground troops, it would seem that most buildings in a city or town would be dark, but one or several would be brightly lit by the IR, identifying them as known hostile buildings. They would stay illuminated until cleared, or until the ground personnel told them to turn the light off. The biggest advantage of this is that troops would have a "map" of which buildings were hostile, so they wouldn't unintentionally miss them. This system could also illuminate moving targets, much like a police helicopter searchlight IDs a running perp, making it very hard for them to hide. |
Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-01-19 10:46 |
#2 some tec developer here in Silicon Valley was testing proto 'ears' about 8 ot 9 years ago in East Palo Alto, environs. |
Posted by: RD 2007-01-19 09:08 |
#1 The RedOwl * linkage Omaque Ulerens6556 |
Posted by: RD 2007-01-19 09:01 |