Brazilian police live out Robocop fantasies, test glasses that scan for criminals

In advance of the 2016 Olympics 2014 World Cup (and the thousands of visitors it’ll draw), military police in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are testing glasses topped with cameras capable of scanning crowds for criminals. The camera analyzes 46,000 biometric points on up to 400 faces per second — data that then gets compared with a database of up to 13 million people. If a mug happens to match a wanted person or known troublemaker, a red light will appear on a small screen connected to the glasses. And, in a twist particularly befitting Robocop, the glasses can purportedly be calibrated to zoom in from 12 miles away, though they’ll typically be used to manage crowds at a much more personal 50 meters (164 feet). For now, local cops will use them to tame crowds (and likely brawls) at soccer matches and even concerts, but hope to eventually monitor those crowded World Cup stands. As for us, we’re all kinds of curious. Where do those tens of millions of faces come from — Santa’s naughty and nice list? What if people wear masks? Or sunglasses at night?

Brazilian police live out Robocop fantasies, test glasses that scan for criminals originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmodo  |  sourceThe Telegraph  | Email this | Comments

iRobot agrees to provide US Navy with bomb disposal and recon bots in a deal worth up to $230 million

iRobot may still be best known as the creator of the homely Roomba vacuum-cleaning drone, but savvy readers will know the company’s endeavors span a pretty broad range of robot-related activities. One of those has now borne fruit in the shape of a multiyear agreement with the US Navy for the provision of “portable robotic systems” that can identify and dispose of explosives while also performing a bit of reconnaissance work in their spare time. The announcement doesn’t tell us the particular model(s) or number of bots that will be provided, but there is clarification to say that iRobot will be responsible for providing spares, repairs, training, and accessories along with the hardware, with the total revenue for the company potentially swelling to $230 million over the full course of the contract, which lasts through 2015. Our guess is that the “throwable” robot shown off a couple of weeks back would be a good candidate for this task, though we doubt it’ll be thanking us for endorsing it for such perilous work.

iRobot agrees to provide US Navy with bomb disposal and recon bots in a deal worth up to $230 million originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Forbes  |  sourceReuters  | Email this | Comments

DARPA’s next-gen wearable display: augmented-reality, holographic sunglasses

The US military seems to adore the idea of wearable displays, hence its continued efforts to make them a reality. We know it seems like just yesterday that DARPA tapped Lockheed Martin to build low-power, lightweight augmented-reality eyewear, and it was actually four full years ago when the wild and wonderous dream was to craft HMDs as small and light as “high-fashion sunglasses.” Well, that dream lives on, this time with holograms: the lenscrafters at Vuzix just received a cool million to develop goggles that holographically overlay battlefield data on the wearer’s vision. It all sounds very Dead Space (or, you know, like a Top Secret version of Recon-Zeal’s Transcend goggles), promising realtime analysis of anything within sight. The company believes the finished product will be no more than 3mm thick and completely transparent when turned off. If all goes well, expect this to trickle down to consumers in short order; soon you’ll have full “situational awareness” — including relationship status — of that mysterious stranger you’ve been eyeballing from across the room.

DARPA’s next-gen wearable display: augmented-reality, holographic sunglasses originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 23:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink DVICE  |  sourceWired  | Email this | Comments

US Navy’s solid-state laser sets boat ablaze (video)

See that flaming wreckage in the picture above? A laser did that, mounted on board a second vessel similarly bobbing on top of the ocean last week. Yes, even though the United States Navy told us that legitimate seafaring death rays might take another decade to materialize, basic weaponized lasers are ready today, as the 15-kilowatt gun attached to the USS Paul Foster happily demonstrates. Of course, as you’ll see in the video after the break, a beam of such minimal power takes a moment to burn through even an unshielded engine and ignite the fuel therein — once we get some 100+ kilowatt lasers up in there, we shouldn’t have such problems.

Continue reading US Navy’s solid-state laser sets boat ablaze (video)

US Navy’s solid-state laser sets boat ablaze (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 21:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceWired  | Email this | Comments

Download DARPA’s sub-hunting sim, help train its ACTUV automaton

DARPA dabbles in all matter of defense drones, and it’s no stranger to leveraging the wisdom of the masses to help develop tomorrow’s military machinery. The agency’s latest program to go the crowdsourcing route is its Anti-submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV), and it wants you to help develop the software that’ll control the thing. DARPA’s borrowed a bit of the Sonalysts Combat Simulations Dangerous Waters game to create the ACTUV Tactics Simulator, where players complete missions tracking a target sub while navigating through and around commercial ocean traffic. Would-be captains can then choose to submit their strategies and game data to DARPA for use in shoring up the autonomous seabot’s strategic submarine pursuit software. Hit the source link for a free download and dive into the sub-hunting action.

Download DARPA’s sub-hunting sim, help train its ACTUV automaton originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 23:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Register  |  sourceDARPA  | Email this | Comments

DARPA BOLT initiative wants real-time spoken translation, Douglas Adams’ ghost says it’s about time

DARPA launches BOLT initiative for real-time spoken translation, ghost of Douglas Adams readies spectral patent lawyers

Thanks to online tools like Google Translate we’re now able to communicate with people in nearly any language — maybe not perfectly, but well enough to get the general idea across, and livened up by the occasional humorous mistranslation. Now DARPA wants that done wholesale and with military precision, launching the BOLT initiative. That stands for Boundless Operational Language Translation, and DARPA is giving interested parties until May 19th of this year to submit proposals for how they’ll manage to achieve the department’s lofty goals, which include written and spoken translation into English of “multiple languages.” If you’re thinking of competing you can find all the details at the source link, though curiously you won’t find a single Vorgon dialect mentioned.

DARPA BOLT initiative wants real-time spoken translation, Douglas Adams’ ghost says it’s about time originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Wired  |  sourceDARPA  | Email this | Comments

Future Navy lasers will ‘burn incoming missiles,’ blast through ominous vessels

The United States Navy has been working on next-gen weaponry ever since the last-gen was present-gen, and if the next next-gen ever actually arrives, well… we don’t stand a chance at lasting very long. According to Wired, the Navy’s Office of Naval Research is expecting laser technology (as it relates to weaponry) to mature in the next score, and if all goes well, a free-electron laser could be mounted on a ship during the 2020s. As of now, FELs produce a 14-kilowatt beam, but that figure needs to hit 100+ in order to seriously defend a ship; unfortunately for those who adore peace, it seems we’re well on our way to having just that. When it’s complete, these outrageous pieces of artillery will be capable of “burning incoming missiles out of the sky [and] zapping through an enemy vessel’s hull.” Something tells us that whole “You Sunk My Battleship” meme is just years from reappearing in grand fashion.

Future Navy lasers will ‘burn incoming missiles,’ blast through ominous vessels originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink DVICE  |  sourceWired (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

DARPA’s Urban Photonic Sandtable Display enables 3D battlefield planning without goofy glasses

DARPA's Urban Photonic Sandtable Display enables 3D battlefield planning without goofy glasses

You probably point and laugh at your friends when they have big, bulky 3D glasses perched on their noses in theaters. That kind of tomfoolery just won’t do amongst the military brass, who frown at the slightest hint of snickering in the operations room. This new 3D system, called the Urban Photonic Sandtable Display (UPSD), should help. It’s a DARPA project, a fully holographic table (no glasses required) that can be scaled up to six feet diagonally and allows visual depth of up to 12-inches. The technology comes courtesy of Zebra Imaging, which earlier wowed us with some insane 3D printouts, and the data will come from LIDAR systems like this ROAMS bot. No word on when the system will be deployed to the field, but it should allow grizzled commanders and uppity businessmen to find unobtanium deposits, even if they happen to be located right under a big ‘ol tree.

Continue reading DARPA’s Urban Photonic Sandtable Display enables 3D battlefield planning without goofy glasses

DARPA’s Urban Photonic Sandtable Display enables 3D battlefield planning without goofy glasses originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Information Week  |  sourceDARPA  | Email this | Comments

iRobot debuts ‘throwable’ 110 FirstLook robot

Sure, just about any iRobot bot is technically “throwable,” but the company’s new iRobot 110 FirstLook robot is guaranteed to survive that throw and keep rolling, and even stand up to 15-foot drops onto concrete. As you may be able to tell from appearances, this one’s also primarily a military bot, and iRobot says it’s ideal for “hasty situational awareness,” as well as for investigating tunnels and other confined spaces (it measures just nine inches by twelve inches and weighs only five pounds). What’s more, it also promises to continue operating for more than six hours at a time, and it can be controlled using a nifty wrist-mounted touchscreen controller. Head on past the break for a video.

Continue reading iRobot debuts ‘throwable’ 110 FirstLook robot

iRobot debuts ‘throwable’ 110 FirstLook robot originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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US Army to deploy Individual Gunshot Detector, essentially a radar for bullets

Latest in our series of “when video games turn real,” here’s the US Army’s newest addition to the wargadget arsenal. The Individual Gunshot Detector, produced by QinetiQ, is an acoustic monitor attuned to tracking down the source of gunshots just by their sound. It has four sensors to pick up the noise of incoming fire, and its analysis of those sound waves produces a readout on a small display that lets the soldier know where the deadly projectiles originated from. The entire system weighs just under two pounds, and while it may not be much help in an actual firefight — there’s no way to distinguish between friendly and hostile fire — we imagine it’ll be a pretty handy tool to have if assaulted by well hidden enemies. 13,000 IGD units are being shipped out to Afghanistan later this month, with a view to deploying 1,500 each month going forward and an ultimate ambition of networking their data so that when one soldier’s detector picks up a gunfire source, his nearby colleagues can be informed as well.

Continue reading US Army to deploy Individual Gunshot Detector, essentially a radar for bullets

US Army to deploy Individual Gunshot Detector, essentially a radar for bullets originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 05:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmag  |  sourceUS Army  | Email this | Comments