Crave

Map the Fallen loaded in Google Earth

(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)

Each Memorial Day we honor the men and women in uniform who have paid the ultimate price for the freedom we enjoy. Traditionally, this is the day many people visit cemeteries and memorials, especially the Arlington National Cemetery. But not all of us can do that. This year there's an alternative.

Sean Askay, a Google engineer, released on Sunday a Google Earth layer, called Map the Fallen, that contains detailed information of more than 5,700 service members who died in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. This is an interactive tool that lets you see photos, learn about how each service member died, visit memorial Web sites with comments from friends and families, and explore the places they called home and where they died.

Askay has no military affiliation or background and developed the project on his personal time. He said on his Map the Fallen blog that he came up with the idea when he was still a student and ran across icasualties.org, a public database of soldiers who have died since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to Askay's blog, the Map the Fallen layer contains information collected from a number of sources, including the Department of Defense's Statistical Information Analysis Division, icasualties.org, MilitaryTimes.com's Honor the Fallen, The Washington Post's Faces of the Fallen, the Iraq and Afghanistan Pages, and Legacy.com.

The layer requires Google Earth 5.0 or later. Once the software is installed, you just need to download the Map the Fallen layer layer and choose to open it. After a few seconds, the layer will be loaded and you can learn much about honorable men and women who you might otherwise not know about at all.

Personally, seeing the sheer number of human figures closely shown on the surface of the Earth is enough to leave me feeling somber and humbled.

What Askay did shows the true meaning of Memorial Day, and for a lot of us it offers an easy and convenient way to frequently remember and honor those we are often too distracted to do that for.

One technology more than any other has stood out as a success story for the U.S. military in Iraq: unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs.

The best-known of the UAVs, the MQ-1 Predator, has evolved from its early use as simply a reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft to become a highly valued weapon in its own right. Armed with Hellfire missiles, it can both track enemy combatants and fire on them. A more recent version of the Predator, called the MQ-9 Reaper, was specifically put into service as a "hunter-killer" drone.

The Pentagon has been so impressed with the use of UAVs in combat zones that it has made a high priority out of training and assigning new pilots for the aircraft (though not without some controversy). While the Predators carry out missions in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, and are handled by ground crews there, the pilots generally operate from thousands of miles away, in places like Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.

In Sunday's installment of the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes, correspondent Lesley Stahl traveled to Iraq to talk to Gen. Ray Odierno, the new top commander there, and other senior U.S. military personnel about the role of UAVs.

During last spring's fight for Sadr City, for instance, UAVs including the Predator and the RQ-7 Shadow proved instrumental in finding and destroying insurgent targets. Cameras on the aircraft help commanders on the ground see and map out a wide area of operations with their "persistent surveillance" capability.

Stahl's report shows rare footage of the weaponry in action as the military pursued "fleeting and perishable" targets.

U.S. officials credit the high-tech aerial systems as among the top reasons that violence in Iraq dropped so dramatically this year. And earlier this year, although still a young technology, the Predator and the Shadow were among the half-dozen UAVs recognized with an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution.

The Predator--with its "snowmobile" engine and unobtrusive presence--has also become a favored tool of the CIA. Take a closer look in the January 2003 video below, from the 60 Minutes archives.

Members of the command staff of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing stand at ease as an Osprey taxis to a stop at Al Asad Airbase on December 22. Aboard the aircraft is Gen. Robert Magnus, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps.

(Credit: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Michael L. Haas)

The Pentagon hasn't been saying much about what's up with the Osprey in Iraq. That could be because it doesn't want to jinx what seems to be, after the first three months of deployment, a success story for the long-controversial tilt-rotor aircraft.

(By contrast, try getting it to stop crowing about the performance of a different breed of new aerial technology, unmanned aerial vehicles such as the Reaper.)

Since arriving at Al Asad Airbase last fall, the 10 MV-22 Ospreys of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 have accumulated more than 1,600 hours of flight time, carrying hundreds of passengers--from ground troops to VIPs--and thousands of pounds of cargo "without a mishap or even a close call," according to a story last week in The Dallas Morning News. That's no small feat for an aircraft that critics cited time and time again for its checkered history of fatal crashes; among other things, they said, the aircraft could well fall prey to the dust it would stir up in the desert environment. Time magazine in October tarred the Osprey--which flies like both a helicopter and a fixed-wing airplane--in a cover story titled "A Flying Shame."

The Marines Corps did seem to be handling the 16-ton Osprey gingerly at first in Iraq, using it in less risky support missions, according to the Morning News story. (For the Dallas paper, this is something of a local story: Bell Helicopter Textron assembles the aircraft in Forth Worth and Amarillo.) But in December, the aircraft began to take part in combat missions. From day to day, anywhere from 50 percent to 100 percent of the Ospreys are ready to fly, the paper reported. That could be a sign of genuine and worrisome mechanical problems, or maybe just overly protective policies that keep airworthy Ospreys grounded.

If all continues to go well, scores more Ospreys will be hitting the production line for eventual use by the Marines, the Navy, and the Air Force.

The writing is on the wall, but what does it say?

(Credit: DARPA)

Foreign language translation on the battlefield is a dangerous and expensive proposition, and a job the military wants to see automated.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded BBN Technologies a $5.67 million contract to produce a Multilingual Automatic Document Classification Analysis and Translation (MADCAT) prototype capable of quickly converting to English everything from a crumpled, handwritten note in Arabic to computer files in Pashto using a PDA or a laptop.

Seems like a bargain, considering translation services in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere are expected to cost the U.S. taxpayer $4.6 billion over the next five years, according to one estimate. And that's without factoring the human costs. Translators suffer one of the highest mortality rates of any occupation in Iraq.

(Credit: DARPA)

Soldiers overseas are bombarded with foreign language images in the form of road signs, print media, captured documents, and graffiti, any one of which could be of immediate importance. The way it stands now, much of this material is either ignored or analyzed too late to be of any use, according to DARPA.

If and when it pans out, MADCAT is expected to provide "relevant, distilled, actionable information" to commanders and troops on the ground by translating foreign language text images accurately and automatically without bothering with linguists and analysts, according to the contract specifications. During the MADCAT proposal process DARPA demanded bidders demonstrate a "revolutionary approach," one that will produce a new benchmark in language translation. Specifically excluded were "minor evolutionary" improvements or "narrow applications" to current technology.

BBN says it plans to pull it off by integrating "optical character recognition with state-of-the-art translation and distillation techniques," while developing "novel methods for processing handwritten text," according to its press release.

If it works, MADCAT should be a major feather in DARPA's hat. Imagine being able to read "Yankee Go Home" on walls from Baghdad to Bagram. Better yet, French menus will be a thing of the past. Why print them, if everyone can read them?

Ustream cofounders Brad Hunstable and John Ham as West Point cadets in 1998

(Credit: The U.S. Army)

To many Americans with family members serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, the most wished-for holiday gift is simply a visit with their far-off loved ones.

Ustream.TV, a start-up that lets people stream live video to the Web, is planning to help military families connect through the Internet this holiday season.

The company has given Webcams to people who have family stationed in Iraq, so they can access the Ustream service and take part in a video chat.

Ustream, headquartered in Los Altos, Calif., has a strong military background. Co-founders John Ham and Brad Hunstable met each other while attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The former cadets reached the rank of captain before leaving the Army.

Frank Caufield, co-founder of heavyweight venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is an investor in the year-old company and is also a West Point grad.

Wesley Clark, a former four-star Army general, is a member of Ustream's advisory board.

Ham and Hunstable last February

(Credit: Ustream)

"Having served five years and being separated from my family for a year, I know what it's like to be away from home during the holidays," Ham told CNET News.com on Thursday. "Military families sacrifice so much so their loved ones can serve their country. We're doing what we can to make a difference."

Initially, Ustream intended to send Webcams to soldiers in Iraq as well as their families. But Army officials nixed the idea for security reasons, according to an Ustream spokeswoman.

Soldiers already equipped with a Webcam will be able to broadcast themselves to their families at the same time their families will be visible to them. Service members without cameras can still watch on their computer monitors and communicate with loved ones through instant message or telephone.

Ticket in hand

(Credit: Elsa Wenzel)

I'm holding a ticket to Baghdad in my hand. I just booked the flight at a kiosk in a storefront travel agency in San Francisco's hipster heart, the Mission District.

From speakers in the room, a woman's soothing voice calls out some of the highlights there, like restaurants that are never crowded. Televisions spell out more urgent tips for travelers: "No skirts. No photos. No children."

No ordinary travel agency

(Credit: Elsa Wenzel)

Brochures in English, Spanish, and Arabic provide more details: "All the beautiful places that you might have read about have either been destroyed or looted."

The boarding pass will take me nowhere, however, except my imagination. The fake agency, Abidin Travels, is a political art exhibit in the culture-jamming vein celebrated by the likes of Adbusters magazine.

Stumbling across this interactive, digital exhibit brought me closer to the hard truth of a war that is remote from my daily grind, yet visceral and immediate for so many other people. The experience was both amusing and terribly unfunny.

This fall, I had the privilege of visiting Vietnam with my veteran father. He shook his head in astonishment and pleasure at seeing the vibrant, thriving culture in peacetime. During the war that ended a month after I was born, who would have dreamed of today's beach resorts, passion for gadgets, and Gucci stores?

You can book virtual trips in person or at the Abidin Web site.

(Credit: Elsa Wenzel)

"Can you imagine tourism like this in Iraq someday?" he asked. The question was already on my mind.

Abidin Travels is one piece within an eight-month Iraq-themed series of events supported by the nonprofit Montalvo Arts Center in Silicon Valley's Saratoga Hills. Its creator, Baghdad-born artist Adel Abidin, lives in Helsinki, Finland. You can visit his Web site, a replica of the art installation's kiosk screen, to book your own imaginary trip.

The Talon, locked and loaded.

(Credit: Qinetiq)

Does the right to bear arms also apply to robots?

That's no longer a question for idle speculation. And the answer appears to be a quiet but distinct yes.

These aren't autonomous robots, of course (so begone, you Terminator nightmares, at least for now). They're standard-issue remote-controlled machines like Foster-Miller's low-to-the-ground Talon, which has been put to good use in dangerous places for less-aggressive duties such as finding and neutralizing roadside bombs. That means a human operator well versed in the rules of engagement would make the actual decision on whether to shoot.

But their use as a weapons platform is only just beginning, so we've yet to see how well they perform and under what circumstances, and it could soon enough become more widespread. For instance, Foster-Miller parent Qinetiq this week is showing off a weaponized Talon at the DSEi (Defence Systems and Equipment International Exhibition) event in London. Military units can equip the so-called SWORDS (Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Direct-action System) variant with an M240 or M249 machine gun, a Barrett .50-caliber rifle, a 40mm grenade launcher or an M202 antitank rocket system, Qinetiq says.

A trio of M249-equipped Talons is already on deployment with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq. (That compares with hundreds of bomb-disposal Talons.) In-country since April, they were formally approved for combat use in June, according to National Defense, which first reported on the use last month. Some 80 more could eventually be on the way, if funding comes through, the magazine reported.

The Talon is driven by joystick from a briefcase-size control unit.

(Credit: Sgt. Lorie Jewell/U.S. Army)

Qinetiq says the weaponized systems are being evaluated by "other nations" as well.

The Defense Department had hoped to have the gun-toting Talons in Iraq a couple years ago, according to an Army News Service story from December 2004. That account also said that in testing, the system could hit a bull's-eye from 2,000 meters, though it was understandably less accurate when on the move. At that time, each unit had cost about $230,000 to produce, and estimates were that the figure would drop 20 percent to 30 percent when the robots went into production.

Not long before that article appeared, Time magazine had designated the weaponized device as one of the "coolest inventions" of 2004.

The 200-pound robot can move at up to 5.5 miles per hour, and its battery has a 4-hour run time.

Marines make use of the Biometrics Automated Toolset system in Fallujah on July 19.

(Credit: Cpl. Joel Abshier/U.S. Marines Corps)

As state-level officials and other critics push back hard against the federal Real ID mandate here at home, the U.S. government is reporting success abroad with a biometric ID system it has installed in Iraq.

The automated biometric identity system being used by the Iraqi government now holds more than 350,000 sets of fingerprints, photos and retina scans, and "we increase the database by 4,000 or 5,000 each week," Army Lt. Col. John W. Velliquette Jr. said in a teleconferenced briefing this week. Velliquette runs the fingerprint and retina scanning center in Baghdad's International Zone. Iraqis are expected to assume full operation by next summer.

The system is used to verify the identity of members of the Iraqi police and military, prisoners and prison guards, and authorized gun owners. (The guns must be kept in homes; they're not to be carried out in the streets.) It's also used to identify criminals and suspects in criminal cases, Velliquette said. "We will get criminal hits; we get 10 to 20 a week from the minister of Interior."

And then there are the bureaucratic benefits. "We also weed out ghost employees," Velliquette said, "people who collect two paychecks but actually only work one job."

The ID system may not be as futuristic as the term "biometrics" would imply. Judging by the briefing transcript, it seems skewed heavily toward fingerprints--a biometric identification technology that's been around since the Sherlock Holmes era. Indeed, Velliquette referred to it as the Automated Fingerprint System, or AFIS.

And civilian employees of the Interior Ministry who collect information in the field via "jump kit" (Panasonic Toughbook computer, Livescan fingerprint scanner) can't upload the data directly to the main office. "Because of connectivity problems over here, the information is burned onto a CD (and) taken over to Adnan Palace," Velliquette said.

While we all hope that the ID system is helping to take some of the danger out of a dangerous place, the possibility exists that access by bad guys to the Interior Ministry database could lead to harm for some. Noah Shachtman, writing in Wired's Danger Room blog, called out Velliquette's concern that the database could become, in the lieutenant colonel's words, "a hit list if it gets in the wrong hands."

The business end of the BAT system.

(Credit: Cpl. Joel Abshier/U.S. Marines Corps)

Personal information in the database includes an individual's name, parents' names, address, birth data, height and weight--but not religious affiliation.

"Some sectors are entirely Sunni, some are entirely Shi'ite," Velliquette said, "so we take great pains to make sure this database stays in proper hands."

At the moment, the only people in Baghdad with access to the main database are seven American contractors and 24 employees of the Interior Ministry.

Actually, there are three biometric systems in operation. In addition to AFIS, there's the Biometrics Automated Toolset system, which is used to identify residents of particular cities, and the Biometric Identification System for Access, which is used for access to bases and to the International Zone, where U.S. and Iraqi officials and foreign diplomats work. All of the local systems are linked to the Pentagon's Biometric Fusion Center, in Clarksburg, W.Va. But they don't connect to each other, meaning that someone recorded in a BAT database in Fallujah who then moved to Baghdad wouldn't necessarily be readily identified.

The U.S. Marine Corps has found the BAT system to its liking. Fielded initially for use in military detention centers, it has come into everyday service on a much wider scope by units in Iraq (and Afghanistan). Residents of Fallujah, for instance, have to show ID badges created in connection with the system to get past checkpoints. "With the occupation here, badges have become part of the Iraqis' way of life," Cpl. Jonathan Rudolph, the BAT system noncommissioned officer with 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, told Marine Corps News recently.

As of the end of July, Marine BAT system operators had completed, updated or renewed over 5,200 ID cards since the beginning of June.

The Brits are using a simulated combat environment developed by the University of Southern California, to treat soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

By bringing to life a "virtual Iraq," complete with the realistic thumps and bumps of battle, the program allows troops to "relive and confront psychological trauma." All this takes place in a graduated manner so as not to re-traumatize, according to the University of Reading's Visualisation Centre.

(Credit: Pagan Forum)

The Iraq simulation experience is "fully immersive," meaning that patients wear VR goggles that transport them to the virtual battlefield. There, an attending therapist dials up the sights and sounds of roadside bombs, gunfire and low-flying helicopters. Don't forget the stench of battle; bouquets include gunpowder, cordite, burning rubber, Iraqi spices and B.O. The patient takes all this in while talking through the experience with the therapist.

Wearing the headsets does pose the risk of heightened trauma, University of Reading scientist Professor Paul Sharkey admitted. To avoid this, treatment is "carefully controlled by psychologists."

The goal is for "people to manage their emotional responses," Sharkey says. "For example, when a car backfires, you want to help a patient get to the point where he doesn't have a flashback of a gun going off."

The Iraq scenario has been around for a while, having been pieced together and then extensively customized by "recycling" virtual graphics from the U.S. Army combat tactical simulation trainer and the X-Box Full Spectrum Warrior, according to the USC development team.

Burning rubber and B.O.? Sign us up.