|
|
Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
 Mon Apr 01, 2002 8:23 am
|
 |
|
Now that I think about the above article, I do remember that someone told me that one of their relatives had actually seen similar aerial devices being tested at Sikorsky Airport right here in Connecticut. And I was actually told about them before I even read the article so the technology does exist. |
| |
|
|
Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
|
Mon Apr 01, 2002 8:25 pm
|
|
|
Here's what could be on board those mysterious trucks.
Nowhere to Hide?
FCC okays technology capable of "seeing" through walls
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has opened the regulatory doors for the development of a new generation of wireless technology capable of feats as noble as saving lives and as potentially threatening as watching us inside our homes.
On Feb. 14, 2002, the FCC unanimously approved a First Report and Order that permits the marketing and operation of certain types of new products incorporating ultrawideband (“UWB”) technology. UWB is basically an advanced form of radar that operates by producing billions of short duration, low-powered radio frequency pulses. An operating example of a UWB device is this ground penetrating radar system for landmine detection.
An FCC press release touts UWB as paving the way for, "a vast array of new applications that have the potential to provide significant benefits for public safety, businesses and consumers in a variety of applications such as radar imaging of objects buried under the ground or behind walls and short-range, high-speed data transmissions."
The FCC approval process of ultrawideband took more than three years, during which developers were required to satisfy fears that the high-speed transmissions would interfere with the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS), now critical to the safe navigation of everything from hikers, to airliners, to B-2 bombers and cruise missiles.
Good Genie
Some clearly beneficial applications of UWB include:
*devices to help rescue workers locate victims trapped in collapsed buildings
medical imaging systems capable of "seeing" inside the body in real time
*systems for finding structural problems in buildings, bridges, dams and other structures
*collision-detection and avoidance radar systems for cars, trucks and busses
extremely high-speed, short-range wireless data and voice transmission
Not So Good Genie?
Probably viewed as not so clearly beneficial by civil liberties and personal privacy groups is a developing application of UWB dubbed "through-wall imaging systems."
According to the FCC, through-wall imaging systems can "detect the location or movement of persons or objects that are located on the other side of a structure such as a wall."
Since conventional concealed cameras would no longer be needed, officials using through-wall imaging devices could monitor the movement of persons inside buildings without ever having to physically enter the building.
While federal regulators are quick to emphasize that operation of through-wall imaging systems will be limited to law enforcement and emergency services, the potential threat to personal privacy posed by a device capable of remotely monitoring the movement of individuals inside their homes should not, and probably will not, be overlooked. http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa021802a.htm
|
| |
|
|
KrissaTMC2
Joined: 05 Feb 2002
Posts: 472
Location: Greenwich, CT, USA |
|
Tue Apr 02, 2002 1:15 am
|
|
|
This is some pretty serious technology and by the looks of it, it is all very real and probably being used in the field already. The release of the information through whatever means seems to indicate that they are letting us know that they are keeping an eye on us and don't care if we know about it.
|
| |
|
|
Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
|
Thu Jul 11, 2002 7:35 am
|
|
|
Laser-armed Humvee to blast mines
19:00 10 July 02
Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition
An armoured car fitted with powerful laser beam designed to blast landmines and cluster bomblets from the battlefield will shortly begin testing at an army proving ground near Waynesville, Missouri.
The US Army is developing the laser-based de-mining method, dubbed Zeus, as a way of clearing mines left on airfields and roads during battles or by retreating enemy forces. The trials will be the first chance for the Army's de-mining experts to see if the technique works as planned.
The idea is to clear the numerous devices that modern warfare leaves strewn around on the ground. Small mines are often scattered from helicopters and trucks, and cluster bombs spray out hundreds of smaller bomblets, many of which fail to explode on impact.
"When dropped on soft ground, you can get dud rates of 30 per cent," says Owen Hofer of Sparta, the firm based in Huntsville, Alabama, that is developing Zeus for the Army.
Green beam
The laser is mounted in a turret on top of one of the Army's all-purpose armoured "Humvees". A soldier sitting at a console inside the jeep uses a joystick to point a low-power green laser beam at the target.
They then switch on a more powerful solid-state infrared laser of the type used for industrial cutting and welding, which delivers between 500 and 2000 watts through the same optical system as the green targeting beam.
When the beam strikes a mine, the heat burns off the explosive or detonates it. Sparta says its own tests on dummy munitions show Zeus should work on mines with metal or plastic cases, as well as unexploded artillery shells and bombs.
It reckons the laser will be able to destroy landmines and bomblets from between 25 and 250 metres away. Laser beams cannot penetrate soil, so it won't work against buried mines.
Total clearance
One of the challenges of building Zeus is preventing it from overheating. Industrial lasers are usually cooled by a continuous flow of water, but that luxury is not available on the battlefield, so Sparta has had to develop a closed-cycle cooling system.
But however well Zeus serves the military, it is unlikely to meet the needs of civilian de-mining organisations, says Harry Thomas of the humanitarian de-mining programme at Warwick University. De-mining during military action is a very different business from clearing up after a conflict, he says.
The laser would doubtless miss some mines, and while armies expect casualties, civilian farmers do not. They want their land cleared completely. And even if it cleared all surface mines, that would still leave buried mines or others that had become covered by dust, sand or vegetation.
Jeff Hecht, Boston
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992528
|
| |
|
|
 
|
|
 Goto page Previous
1, 2
All times are GMT. The time now is Sat May 26, 2012 5:46 am
|
|
|
|
|
Login
