Military Tech
New Army helmet to measure head impact
Three words you don't want to hear around the Simbex's new shock measuring helmet. "Wait! Wear this."
The U.S. Army has awarded $932,000 to Lebanon, N.H.-based Simbex for 20 Head Impact Telemetry (
"There has been tremendous interest in better understanding the biomechanics of brain injury following both blunt trauma and blast events," Simbex founder Richard Greenwald said. The technology is already in use by college and high school football players, where it has recorded more than 370,000 impacts, according to the company's Web site.
The helmets are outfitted with sensors that measure
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DHS fudged test results, watchdog agency says
A new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office charges that the Department of Homeland Security used biased methods to enhance performance results in tests on a new generation of radiation detectors meant to protect U.S. ports.
At stake are $1.2 billion in contracts to produce advanced spectroscopic portal (ASP) monitors and thousands of lives should they fail to work.
Experts from four national laboratories were consulted prior to publication of the report (
The agency found that the DHS'
It is "highly unlikely that such favorable conditions" would be found in a real-world situation, the GAO report
moreInfantry to lead the way with a new PDA
A collaboration between military R&D and industrial designers is bringing state-of-the-art PDA technology to Joe Snuffy out on the battlefield.
The Soldier Flex PDA (SFPDA) introduced by
The PDA offers InHand's PXA270-based Fingertip4 CPU board, along with Ethernet, USB, Bluetooth and keypad interfaces all in a "ruggedized" glass-free package that weighs less than a pound. Best of all, the unique low-power characteristics of electronic paper displays and InHand's patented BatterySmart system keep power consumption at well below a single watt. Battery life runs about six hours, according to the Maryland company.
The device opens up the realm
moreHypersonic cruiser is one step closer
Oh ye of little faith,
By contrast, one of the fastest conventional Air Force jets--the
The engine technology was developed for
'Hacker-proof' system? You be the judge
Aerospace giant
The system, called "
The system owes its success to the "lightning speed with which the 'keys' needed to enter the computer systems can be scrambled and reformatted," reports the
How secure is it? Send your most excellent and sensitive Ectocryped data around the globe, and "all the computer technology in the world cannot break it," EADS sales manager Gordon Duncan boasted to the Telegraph.
Note to hackers of the
Bomb-detecting bees work for food
Another member joins the anti-terrorism team: working bees.
Inscentinel uses Pavlovian principles to train the bees, the same way it's done with canines. For every successful sniff of contraband, the little guys are rewarded with food. The bees are taped to the "measurement device," and a camera alerts the operator when they stick their little tongues out in hunger.
So don't be alarmed if you see the yellow and black patrolling the airport. And don't bother calling PETA, because the "bees are happy undertaking their sniffing tasks and are comfortable throughout," more
'FlatWorld' gives Marines a taste of chaos
Camp Pendleton, home of push-ups and
Known as "FlatWorld," the course is an in-depth blend of stagecraft and high tech created by the University of Southern California's Institute for
Units will maneuver through a 3D video game that combines the ring of battle with high-resolution images flashed on digital screens amid movable props and reconfigurable sets. The sets are large enough to drive a Humvee through, and will be enhanced with live, role-playing civilians and enemies. Details like It's still a couple bricks short of the Star Trek "holodeck," but it's light years ahead of the two-dimensional
more'Land Rover on steroids' ready to rip
There's a silver lining in the war on terror. The need for beefy, bulletproof buggies to patrol the Afghan and Iraqi outback has translated into factory jobs on the home front for at least one NATO ally.
Described as "a Land Rover on steroids," the new MWMIK (Mobility Weapon Mounted Installation Kit) 4x4 looks more like an armored forklift chassis. But with a top speed of 80 mph and wide range of armaments, it won't be pulling pallet duty anytime soon.
The Designed by Supacat, it will have a chassis by Universal Engineering, a Cummins engine and an more
When all else fails, read the enemy's mind
Every morning, generals across the world wake up and wonder what the enemy is thinking. Well, it depends: Are they "chicken" or "Rambo"?
That's the bottom line for a new DARPA-funded based on the child's game "Capture the Flag." The strategy-predicting software BEE (Behavioral Evolution and Extrapolation) is designed to anticipate enemy actions and deceptions--ideally in time to do something about them.
BEE works by replacing large numbers of combatants with digital avatars on a simulated battlefield, assigning them individual personalities (e.g., alive enemy, injured friendly), factoring in beliefs and desires, triggering an event (like an attack), more
