October 24th, 2008 by
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
If we had our way, all our military tax dollars would go to DARPA. Whether it be nano planes, robot arms, or high-resolution sniper scopes, it always has something interesting cooking, and today’s defense-minded gadget is no different. It’s called a DBAC device, for Deep Bleeder Acoustic Coagulation; basically a portable ultrasound wrap that can identify wounds (”bleeders”) and reduce their severity. It uses Doppler waves to find an internal leak, then turns up the frequency and amplitude on that location to stem it, all in a completely automated fashion able to be managed by any Joe in a hot zone. Okay, so perhaps it’s not as cool as a remote-controlled zombie shark, but this cuff has the potential to save many lives and limbs on the battlefield — assuming it works. DARPA hopes to have a functional prototype ready in 18 months. [Warning: PDF read link]
[Via CNET News]
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Posted in War, military, Government, DARPA, usa, ultrasound, battlefield, coagulation, DBAC, Deep Bleeder Accoustic Coagulation, DeepBleederAccousticCoagulation | No Comments »
October 24th, 2008 by
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
If we had our way, all our military tax dollars would go to DARPA. Whether it be nano planes, robot arms, or high-resolution sniper scopes, it always has something interesting cooking, and today’s defense-minded gadget is no different. It’s called a DBAC device, for Deep Bleeder Acoustic Coagulation; basically a portable ultrasound wrap that can identify wounds (”bleeders”) and reduce their severity. It uses Doppler waves to find an internal leak, then turns up the frequency and amplitude on that location to stem it, all in a completely automated fashion able to be managed by any Joe in a hot zone. Okay, so perhaps it’s not as cool as a remote-controlled zombie shark, but this cuff has the potential to save many lives and limbs on the battlefield — assuming it works. DARPA hopes to have a functional prototype ready in 18 months. [Warning: PDF read link]
[Via CNET News]
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Posted in War, military, Government, DARPA, usa, ultrasound, battlefield, coagulation, DBAC, Deep Bleeder Accoustic Coagulation, DeepBleederAccousticCoagulation | No Comments »
October 8th, 2008 by
Filed under: Cellphones
It’s not quite a Batman-type science-bending project, but DARPA’s apparently hush hush “Gandalf” initiative looks to be fairly ambitious nonetheless — at least as far as we can tell from the rather vague statements that have been made about it. In an announcement of sorts yesterday, DARPA reportedly said that the project’s goal is to use “set of handheld devices” to track down a specific “signal emitter of interest” using radio frequency geolocation, and presumably some other measures they’re not about to dish the details on. The Register’s Lew Page further extrapolates that could mean that a group of undercover operatives or special-forces troops would be able to be dispersed near a target and hone in on a particular cellphone, or other electronic device for that matter, and then proceed to track it with no one the wiser. Whatever it is, it’s going to be discussed at an event in Virginia later this month, though we’re not exactly expecting any first-hand reports to come out of that.
[Via Danger Room]
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Posted in tracking, DARPA, gandalf | No Comments »
September 27th, 2008 by
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
DARPA’s Super-Resolution Vision System (SRVS) may not be as cool as the threat-sensing binoculars we saw a while back, but it may prove a little more practical. The prototype scope takes advantage of something called “atmospheric turbulence-generated micro-lensing” to provide three times the resolution of current diffraction-based scopes. In other words, if soldiers can see you more clearly, they can make an informed decision on whether or not to shoot you.
[Via The Future of Things]
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Posted in military, DARPA, defense, Binoculars, scope, srvs, Super-Resolution Vision System, Super-resolutionVisionSystem | No Comments »
September 16th, 2008 by
Filed under: Desktops
C’mon, who here doesn’t want their very own supercomputer to do, um, whatever they want with? In an effort to make sure every man, woman and child has an absurdly powerful number cruncher in their home (let’s go with OSPP, or One Supercomputer Per Person), Microsoft has tag-teamed with the fabled Cray in order to “drive high productivity computing into the mainstream.” The Cray CX1 Supercomputer comes loaded with Windows HPC Server 2008 and incorporates up to 8 nodes and 16 Intel Xeon CPUs (dual- or quad-core); additionally, it boasts up to 4TB of internal storage, 64GB of memory per node and interoperates nicely with Linux. The CX1 is said to be the most affordable supercomputer offered by Cray (not to mention the “world’s highest-performing computer that uses standard office power”), but it’ll still run you anywhere between $25,000 to well over $60,000. Chump change, right?
[Via NetworkWorld]
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Posted in Microsoft, Intel, supercomputer, server, DARPA, xeon, cluster, cray, Windows HPC, WindowsHpc, Cray CX1, CrayCx1, CX1 | No Comments »
August 12th, 2008 by
Filed under: Digital Cameras, Misc. Gadgets
As the military industrial complex surges forward, so do advances in technology for the public sector. At least that’s how the cold-war wisdom goes. Case in point: QinetiQ is developing a lens-less, mirror-less, battlefield imaging system with some help from your DARPA’s deep pockets. The LACOSTE project (Large Area Coverage Optical Search while Track and Engage) aims to set aloft high-altitude (about 20km) drones and air-ships fitted with a special, thousand-strong microscopic sensor array (a “first of their kind,” according to QinetiQ), a “mask,” and image processor to decode the scene and extract an image of the quickly changing conditions on the battlefield or, you guessed it, city streets. The resulting lightweight and highly-durable system should feature a “super resolution” mode with the ability to “detect and simultaneously track large numbers of moving vehicles in dense urban areas with a high degree of accuracy, 24-hours a day.” And here you thought CCTV was intrusive.
[Via BBC]
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Posted in surveillance, research, military, DARPA, drone, QinetiQ, camera, airship, lacoste | No Comments »
July 18th, 2008 by
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
It may not be going so far as to chip every soldier with an implant, but it it looks like DARPA is now moving ahead with plans to give soldiers a slightly less invasive electronic tag. Apparently, the so-called Individual Force Protection System (or IFPS) will measure about three inches long, and it’ll communicate with an array of vehicle-borne and portable receivers, which DARPA says will be able to pick up the tag’s signal and pinpoint the soldier’s location even in the most electronically-crowded battlefield. That’s apparently also all done without GPS, which has the added side benefit of greatly increasing the tag’s battery life. Of course, there’s no word as to when the tags might actually be deployed, but the system itself is apparently already pretty far along in development, and the agency has now tapped Science Applications International Corporation to bring it to fruition.
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Posted in DARPA, IFPS, science applications internation corporation, ScienceApplicationsInternationCorporation | No Comments »
June 24th, 2008 by
Filed under: Transportation
When you’re building a jet that exponentially accelerates past Mach 6 — as one does — you need to come up with a way to get it off the ground. Scramjets, or Constant Volume Combustion (CVC) engines, use compressed air and a reduced nozzle to accelerate planes, and they’re a hot technology in aviation. Problem is, you have to get them to Mach 4 before the magic happens. Traditionally, scramjet tests have involved strapping the craft to supersonic jets to get the jet up to speed — not a very cost-effective solution. DARPA has come up with a hybrid engine design called Vulcan that can power a craft like the Falcon HTV-3X to the magical point with a turbo jet and then switch to the CVC to get the craft to the promised land. They expect to have a working prototype by 2012. Check the concept video after the break.
Continue reading DARPA’s Vulcan engine combines turbo jet with scramjet, faces will melt
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Posted in DARPA, vulcan, jets, scramjet | No Comments »
June 17th, 2008 by
Filed under: Robots
Hide your kids, iRobot just got that ChemBot contract DARPA was shopping around last year, which means that before we know it, sentient bots will be oozing through keyholes and making really bad movies without regard for human life or decency. Probably. The project is a “multi-year, multi-million” R&D effort to build robots that are soft and flexible, and can squeeze through openings smaller than their actual “structural” dimensions. And of course the bots can’t be stupid piles of ooze, either, they’ll need to identify obstacles and report back findings. iRobot is teaming up with Harvard and MIT for the project, and expects to be working in research from fields as diverse as chemistry and “actuator technologies” to build the bots.
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Posted in irobot, DARPA, chembot | No Comments »
June 11th, 2008 by
Filed under: Transportation
One of the problems — outside of the obvious — with a significantly damaged aircraft is that pilots often over-react and add to the situation. In other words, when a plane gets nailed by something like a missile, the person at the wheel panics. DARPA and Athena’s Damage Tolerance and Autonomous Landing Solution adds a full flight automation and backup system that uses a plane’s internal inertial navigation system and GPS systems to land safely by automatically adjusting to the new configuration — a physics computation that a human is in no condition to deal with during such a crisis. In a recent unmanned flight test, Rockwell Collins showed off the tech with a scaled-model F-18 in which nearly half a wing is blown off and then landing the plane safely. Hit the read link to watch the strangely calming video.
[Thanks, jr]
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Posted in DARPA, planes, RockwellCollins, athena | No Comments »
June 11th, 2008 by
Filed under: Transportation
For sale:
One brand new autonomous Ford Escape Hybrid. Low miles, driven only to the showroom. Prototype version created by Virginia Tech researchers finished in third place at the DARPA Urban Grand Challenge. Utilizes Torc’s ByWire XGV drive-by-wire system; to be made available as a research platform in the field of robotic vehicles. Let it drive you off the lot today, $89,000 OBO.
[Image courtesy of CNET]
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Posted in DARPA, DARPA urban challenge, DarpaUrbanChallenge, virginia tech, VirginiaTech, bywire xgv, BywireXgv, drive by wire, DriveByWire, torc, urban grand challenge, UrbanGrandChallenge | No Comments »
June 10th, 2008 by
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wearables
DARPA has been talking up the idea of threat-sensing binoculars for some time now, but it looks like it’s now putting up a good chunk of cash to make ‘em a reality, with Northrop Grumman today announcing that it’s snagged a $6.7 million contract to further develop its Human-aided Optical Recognition/Notification of Elusive Threats (or HORNET) system. That’ll use electro-encephalogram electrodes placed on a soldier’s scalp to monitor their neural responses to the presence or absence of potential threats, which helps to train the system’s algorithms and ultimately alert them to threats before their mind is actually able to process the information (in theory, at least). Of course, there’s no indication as to when such a system might actually be put to use, and DARPA itself is still leaving itself a bit of wiggle room, with it only committing to the first 12-month phase of the project at the moment.
[Via Danger Room]
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Posted in military, DARPA, northrop grumman, NorthropGrumman, bionoculars, hornet | No Comments »
June 5th, 2008 by
Filed under: Robots
It’s not like DARPA hasn’t been trying to miniaturize unmanned aerial vehicles already, but its Nano Air Vehicle program is yet another attempt to find tiny, ultra-lightweight devices that could theoretically “perform indoor and outdoor military missions.” More specifically, it’s looking for something less than 7.5-centimeters and under 10-grams, and the overriding goal is to “explore novel, bio-inspired, conventional and unconventional configurations to provide the warfighter with unprecedented capability for urban mission operations.” Reportedly, AeroVironment already has an idea in mind for such a drone (pictured), but as these type things always go, we’ve no idea how soon we’ll see critters like these take to the skies with a thumb-sized American flag plastered on the side.
[Via BoingBoing]
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Posted in nav, military, DARPA, uav, AeroVironment, nano air vehicle, NanoAirVehicle | No Comments »
May 9th, 2008 by
Filed under: Networking
Considering that mechanical beings will be fighting our real wars here in just a few years, it’s no shock to see more focus placed on the areas where actual humans will still be the ones waging. DARPA is looking to create what it calls a National Cyber Range, which would essentially act as a training ground for cyber warriors. The setup would enable defense gurus to simulate battle against attacks our on nation’s most highly prized data, and of course, give victors over virtual phishing scams immense bragging rights. Come to think of it, Estonia could have totally benefited from something like this last year.
[Via Information Week, image courtesy of Sandia]
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Posted in security, military, DARPA, hackers, hacker, simulator, cyber threat, CyberThreat, cyberwar, national cyber range, NationalCyberRange, simulation | No Comments »
March 24th, 2008 by
Filed under: Desktops, Misc. Gadgets, Laptops
It’s far from the first time we’ve seen lasers touted as a means of boosting data speeds exponentially, but Sun seems to think it has a better chance than most of making it a reality, thanks in no small part to $44 million in funding from DARPA. As The New York Times reports, that cash haul will be put to use to “explore the high-risk idea of replacing the wires between computer chips with laser beams,” which would not only allow for computers to be smaller, but as much as a thousand times faster as well. Needless to say, however, there’s quite a few significant hurdles to overcome before that happens, and even Sun itself admits that there’s a “50 percent chance of failure.” They also say, of course, that the potential benefits are worth the risks, with them even going so far as to boast that the technology would be a way of “breaking Moore’s Law.”
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Posted in sun, DARPA, laser, lasers | No Comments »
March 20th, 2008 by
Filed under: Robots
Remember those cyborg insects that seemed so much like a pipe dream just two short years ago? Yeah, those frackin’ things have somehow survived into adulthood, and are closing in on being ready to infiltrate enemy camps and extract vital information. According to a recent update on the DARPA project, the insects — which have “modified body structures and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) embedded” within — have lasted into adulthood, and now those behind the endeavor are hoping to enable remote control of the bugs via “mechano-sensor activation” or something similar. Additionally, scientists are hoping to harness the energy emitted during locomotion to actually power the internal MEMS. Sure, as long as these critters can be swatted down with a newspaper, we’re solid, but we aren’t too sure we dig where this could be headed.
[Via Wired]
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Posted in cyborg, military, Pentagon, DARPA, mems, insect, Hi-MEMS | No Comments »
March 14th, 2008 by
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
These chips won’t be blazing through Crysis any time soon, but there’s certainly room in the world for mechanical nanocomputers, and thanks to DARPA we might seem them in the real world sooner rather than later. The chips harken back Babbage’s 13 ton difference engine, but with a whole lot more nano. They’re also more robust, generate less heat and consume less power than their solid-state counterparts. DARPA has plenty of uses for them on the battlefield (like counting bullets, oddly enough), and consumers might seem them showing up car engines and children’s toys.
[Via Crave]
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Posted in DARPA, difference engine, DifferenceEngine, mechanical nanocomputers, MechanicalNanocomputers, nanocomputers, nanomachinery | No Comments »
March 5th, 2008 by
Filed under: Transportation
DARPA’s certainly not lacking for ambitious projects these days, but it looks like it’s about to get another big one underway nonetheless, with it reportedly now close to awarding contracts for its Vulture program, which aims to build an unmanned aircraft capable of a non-stop five-year flight. As if that feat wasn’t enough, the aircraft will also have to be able to carry a 1,000 pound payload, pump out 5kW of onboard power, and keep up enough speed to withstand the winds it’ll encounter at 60,000 to 90,000 feet. Needless to say, that’s a long ways from becoming a reality, although it seems that the first phase of the project could soon be kicking off, with Vulture program manager Daniel Newman saying that they’ve had “at least one successful offeror,” and that they’re now close to doling out the first contracts. That initial phase will run for twelve months, and will require contractors to “define the objective system and design both full-scale and subscale demonstrators.” That’ll then be followed by phase two, which’ll run through 2012 with the goal of testing of a subscale demonstrator capable of flying for three months.
[Via CNET News.com]
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Posted in aircraft, DARPA, five-year flight, Five-yearFlight, unmanned aircraft, UnmannedAircraft, vulture | No Comments »
March 3rd, 2008 by
Filed under: Robots
Get ready, battlefields, as yet another iRobot is gearing up to take you all by storm. Announced today, the aforementioned outfit has received an award under DARPA’s LANdroids program which will enable it to “develop a new portable communications relay robot that is small, inexpensive, intelligent and robust.” The resulting creature will reportedly be used in “dense urban environments to rapidly deploy and maintain a vital communications infrastructure,” and better still, they’ll be tough enough to be thrown into position and intelligent enough to “autonomously detect and avoid obstacles while navigating.” Unfortunately, it seems the conclusion of said project is still a few years out, but we can already envision soldiers getting antsy to never be forced to utter “can you hear me now?” again.
[Via InformationWeek]
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Posted in irobot, contract, War, military, packbot, DARPA, battle, defense, combat, LANdroids | No Comments »
January 20th, 2008 by
Filed under: Transportation
A fancy new miniaturized plasma propulsion system being developed at Oklahoma State University promises some exciting new Unmanned Ariel Vehicle spy plane designs for the folks at DARPA. The engine is about the size of a cigarette, contains no moving parts, and will be build into planes as small as 6-inches long, which soldiers can carry in packs of six or so and deploy as a swarm of inquisitive Daniel Craigs. The planes should be able to manage indoors and urban areas. No word on when these will be spying on a homeland security threat near you, but the project is still in the early stages.
[Via Crave]
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Posted in DARPA, uav, osu, plasma engine, PlasmaEngine | No Comments »
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