Darpa funds invisible, shoot-through shield

In a move seemingly influenced in equal parts by Halo and David Lynch's film Dune, Darpa has announced that it's ponying up $15 million to develop one-way-invisible, self-healing, shoot-through shields for use in urban combat. While the Pentagon's research division acknowledges that there are "significant technical obstacles" in the process, it's fairly gung-ho about developing a technology combining metamaterials, 'coded' obscurant systems, and a bunch of other stuff no one really understands. Trust us, you'll thank them if the Harkonens try and overthrow your spice-mining operation.

[Via Digg]

[derek @ Jun 21st 2007 10:25PM]

woah! kick ass!!!!

[MrGam3r @ Jun 22nd 2007 8:52AM]

Nah sounds cool but as long as long as its not made by that guy who tried to sell the master chief suits to the military.

[MrGam3r @ Jun 22nd 2007 8:53AM]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/15/project-grizzly-inventor-crafts-real-world-halo-suit-for-militar/

[aldous @ Jun 21st 2007 10:27PM]

I'm glad to see tax money at work funding someone's fantasy of halo

[BigD @ Jun 21st 2007 11:04PM]

I'd rather our tax dollars than someone else's.

I want Master Chief on our side when sh*t goes down.

[feffreyfeffers @ Jun 21st 2007 10:30PM]

Hope this shield does not have the same properties as they do in Dune. Shoot a laser at a shield and it is a instant nuclear explosion!

[aeo @ Jun 21st 2007 10:31PM]

DARPA isn't some head-in-the-blue-sky organization of dreamers. They deal in technologies that are just almost feasible at the time of the conception of the idea and work it through to the end over years and years. If DARPA is backing this, it's not impossible. I'm excited to see what this produces.

[DorianGray @ Jun 22nd 2007 11:47AM]

Thank you for adding a bit of reason to this forum. Engadget writer Josh Topolsky may liken this research endeavor to video game and literary science fiction; in itself that comparison does not trivialize the science and technology involved. As you stated, DARPA takes ideas that are at the edge of technical feasibility and, for the most part, makes them real. And develops great technology along the way.

This area of research was bound to receive an earnest look and funding at some point. Just so happens that it's happening now. Can't wait to see what they discover and develop over the next 10 years.

[Swu @ Jun 21st 2007 10:45PM]

If they can drop these shields in the private sector and tweek them to absorb shock and hold the user in the center, I might be tempted to give a fourth motorcycle a go.

[Steven Dunbar @ Jun 21st 2007 10:51PM]

@aldous

That's exactly what I was thinking.

[Matt @ Jun 21st 2007 11:00PM]

This is better than the Halo(3) shields, though. You can't shoot out of those IIRC.

[Alex Padilla @ Jun 21st 2007 11:01PM]

next in the queue: spartan laser

[MarkZ @ Jun 21st 2007 11:03PM]

A "one-way-invisible, self-healing, shoot-through shield" ...

I don't know, but it sounds to me like this might take a bit more than 15 bills.

lol, it's just a bit outlandish a suggestion. Unless they already have a solid lead on some antimatter to play with, it's like saying, "Hey, having a unicorn would be sweet! Let's make one."

[Big @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:12AM]

"One way invisible" is RIDICULOUS.

There is absolutely NO POSSIBLE WAY with current technology to create an invisible shield large enough to hide a man without having tremendous, obvious imperfections in it. Especially the part about making it shoot-through - able.

Sounds like someone is just handing out a large amount of money without realistic goals.

The best possible way to accomplish a feat like this is with NANOPARTICLES. No you wouldn't be invisible, but you'd be damn near invincible to any caliber smaller than .50.

Nanoparticles have a tensile strength much higher than steel - able to reflect bullets like pebbles.

Invisibility would require you changing gravity around you to disperse light waves like the Predator. There really is no other possible way to do it. That kind of technology is gonna be WAY MORE THAN $15 Million. Try $1500 Million and about 50 - 100 years of development.

[wellingj @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:51AM]

@big

I don't think the government would start on this if
it didn't think it would get any thing out of it.
You ever think that by shooting for Pluto we might
get to Mars? Nay-sayers never go any where...

Think of this as the Christopher Columbus of physics.

[chris @ Jun 22nd 2007 5:22PM]

as you use a very successful ARPA funded project right now, that probably was bat shit crazy back when they were fundin shit back then.

[Big @ Jun 21st 2007 11:05PM]

This is stupid - too early for this type of technology.

I'd rather see our money going for NANOPARTICLE BULLET PROOF ARMOR for our SOLDIERS.

Nanoparticles can be made harder than steel when a bullet impact releases an electrical impulse rendering the troop impervious to small arms.

I'd like to see the faces on the insurgents and terrorists when one of our troops runs through a hail of AK-47 fire and CHAINSAWS THEM IN HALF.

[Murc @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:51AM]

lolololol

[Jake @ Jun 22nd 2007 4:37PM]

While nanoparticles is a promising area of research, you have to consider that 5-10 years ago when someone suggested it, people thought it was ridiculous just like what you're thinking about the one-way shield. You'd be amazed at how fast technologies like this develop in a country structured like the United States (the economics alone create competition and make the research very speedy - relatively speaking).

I remember reading an interview with the former head of the CIA in Popular Science a couple years back where he said, "If you've seen it on Star Trek, we're 20 years past it." That's a pretty bold statement, and pretty exciting/scary to think about.

[Blah @ Jun 21st 2007 11:11PM]

Let's hope they've countered the Holtzman Effect.

/obscure?
//probably not.
///FARK slashies FTW!

[Sam Daniel @ Jun 21st 2007 11:23PM]

Must it be called "David Lynch's Dune"? For starters, the movie, from the standpoint of a movie critic, is total crap. Secondly, it's "Frank Herbert's Dune." The books came before the movie, and Herbert wrote the books.


Figured I'd enhance the article a bit.

[muaddib420 @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:26AM]

i, and legions of engadget nerds, take offense to that. the movie "Dune" rocked! (note my name lol).

[Tiago @ Jun 22nd 2007 5:35AM]

No dude, the movie sucked ass!!
Dune books = Good.
Dune movie = Bad.

[Sam Daniel @ Jun 22nd 2007 9:10AM]

Thank you Tiago. Even the prequels by his son and Mr. Anderson are better than the movie.

The movie just sucks. Period. I love Dune (I've read each book, including Hunters of Dune and the prequels, at least 3 times) but in the middle of the movie, I stood up and shut it off. Bad bad bad.

Besides, it got a 6.4 on IMDB. IMDB is normally right-on with it's ratings.

[Dahk @ Jun 21st 2007 11:26PM]

Haha thanks Sam =) Glad someone else stepped in for that one.

And yeah, shields were HAZARDOUS IN DUNE! Lol if you had a shield on while you were on the sands its HELLO MAD WORM, BYE BYE YOU =). That one-way invisibility wouldn't have done anything for a sand worm =D.

Too bad we don't have sand worms here =/.

[tekdroid @ Jun 21st 2007 11:38PM]

99% of US-based tech stories = military-related.

[Big @ Jun 21st 2007 11:47PM]

We need M-4 Carbines with CHAINSAWS for BAYONETS.

[Jake @ Jun 22nd 2007 4:26PM]

I would dare say that 95% of the new technologies developed in the history of the world were initially developed for military desires. That's not just the United States. War drives a lot more than just violence and hate whether we'd like to admit it or not.

[rdavis @ Jun 21st 2007 11:42PM]

aeo isn't just blowing smoke.

DARPA only tackles problems that are "DARPA hard", meaning on the edge of impossibility. They're the ones responsible for the backbone of the Internet (not Al Gore and not the WWW, that was Sir Tim) and, most recently, of planes that are going to be able to criss-cross the globe in fractions of the time currently available. The last two technologies, at the time of their inception, seemed as ludicrous as this now, but if they're investing in it...there's a good chance it'll be made.

Although our tax dollars are important, given the key factors (a government agency with an absolutely astounding record for development, a relatively small budget and the possibility for thousands of American's lives saved), I'd be happy to know my money was headed here.

[Mr. B @ Jun 21st 2007 11:47PM]

"significant technical obstacles" ...LOL, no kidding.

[Ryhan @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:13AM]

To find tax-payer working so well, while citizens undergo so many budget-cuts. tsk tsk.

However, it would be undeniably cool if it could be developed, but rather than dreaming, these people should keep their feet on the ground and play Halo instead..

[Big @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:14AM]

While their at it, might as well make a couple MJOLNIR combat suits and a sentient computer A.I. named Cortana.

IT AINT GONNA HAPPEN NO TIME SOON.

[Blake @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:49AM]

Durandal was way better than Cortana.

[Chuckles McGee @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:49AM]

Haha, Darpa's working on an invisible shoot-through shield? Might as well try to enable God mode while they're at it.

[Henry @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:58AM]

First we must learn the weirding way!

[John Doe @ Jun 22nd 2007 1:34AM]

before everyone goes nuts understand that some of the terminology is in the eye of the beholder. Invisible may simply mean they want the soldier to be able to see through it.

At any rate if we can get this, we'll at least have a fighting chance when the aliens attack. :-P

[goblin10 @ Jun 22nd 2007 2:04AM]

This is not going to be possible with the technology that humans have. The "one-way invisible, self healing, shoot through" part completely undermines our understanding of physics. Laugh if you want but i know that if this works, there will be a lot of alien technology behind it.

[feffreyfeffers @ Jun 22nd 2007 2:13AM]

Dune books by Frank Herbert and others (best books ever) -> Dune (84) by David Lynch (crappy movie version) -> Frank Herbert's Dune miniseries (2000) (awesome) -> Children of Dune miniseries by Greg Yaitanes (super awesome)

I forgot the shields drove the worms mad beside the whole laser + shield = nuke problem.

[Shaylon Clark @ Jun 22nd 2007 2:18AM]

my name is a killing word.

[kostya7 @ Jun 22nd 2007 2:29AM]

ho-ho-ho ...

[John @ Jun 22nd 2007 3:00AM]

I swear I saw a video demonstrating this several years back. The technology is real, in the form of bullet-proof glass that allows bullets to pass through one way, but not the other. The "glass" actually "heals" the holes caused by the return fire too!

Here's a product page:
http://www.labock.com/english/glass.htm

John

[Andrew @ Jun 22nd 2007 3:47PM]

Wow, the site you link has a video of their product in a History Channel 'Guts & Bolts' segment. That's absolutely amazing. If the army isn't already using that, they need to get on it.

[logyk @ Jun 22nd 2007 3:35AM]

this is another reason why Bush shouldn't be president, he saw the comercial on monday night football and was like "that's just what our troops need to win the war" i just hope he hasn't seen the final fantasy comercial otherwise they'd be spending trillions on figuring out how to summon giant mythical beasts.

[Nubaeus @ Jun 22nd 2007 7:50PM]

Gata love illogical "blame Bush because I'm a jackass mindless follower" mentality.

[pika @ Jun 22nd 2007 4:35AM]

sounds like you need to apply a force perpendicular to everywhere in a sphere...it will change the bullet's direction if you turn on the shield and shoot a bullet inside the shield. I cannot think of anything other then magnetic force...but a rifle's bullet travels faster then the speed of sound, and you need a strond magnetic field to do it. Simply speaking...I think it will be a waste of $.

[Luke @ Jun 22nd 2007 7:22AM]

Hopefully these shields will help us when we go Out Of This World...

[monkfishbandana @ Jun 22nd 2007 8:36AM]

$15 million is nothing for this sort of technology! That will pay for approximately one set of researchers' sandwiches.

[Jeff @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:21PM]

*Harkonnen

[mastershake3 @ Jun 22nd 2007 1:09PM]

Impossible, really? how about a magnetic shield? incoming projectiles are slowed to a stop, out going are given extra velocity. or maybe with sound or microwaves. narrow minded trolls need not give thier opinions...besides don't they have to go wait in line for thier iPhones.

[Travis @ Jun 22nd 2007 1:39PM]

Now if only the goverment can get Norma Cenva working on how to make the shields not overheat... I am gald to see a few other Dune geeks around here - thought I was the only one.