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SRI unveils Taurus, DaVinci's bomb-defusing little brother
This is SRI International's Taurus. Brought to you by the minds behind the DaVinci robo-surgeon, the diminutive (14 x 5-inch) bad boy is used to detect and defuse IEDs. Piggy-backing on existing devices such as Talon or PackBot, the device delivers hi-def 3D images and haptic feedback (via gloves) to a bomb disposal tech operating from a safe distance. According to IEEE Spectrum, it works so well that users forget they're working remotely. Right now it's a prototype, but with any luck the system could be in the field as early as this summer.
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.
Blizzard responds to feral druid Savage Defense concerns
Savage Defense, the tanking feral druid's absorption mechanic, is undergoing some changes in patch 4.1 to ramp up its effectiveness to be on par with the mitigation mechanics of other tanks. Forum blue Daxxarri responded to one player's concern that the new implementation of Savage Defense isn't working out so hot. The response discusses client latency, the appearance of shields working or not, and how the combat log displays certain types of information.
US satellites successfully track ballistic missile from cradle to grave, don't pay for the flowers
Lasers destroy missiles, missiles shoot down satellites, and soon, satellites may tell both where to aim, as the United States successfully managed to track an entire ballistic missile launch from "birth-to-death" with its prototype Space Tracking and Surveillance System. After a year and a half in orbit, two Northrop Grumman-built satellites managed the feat last week, in what the company's calling "the Holy Grail for missile defense." While we're not reading about any plans to mount any lasers on the satellite's... ahem... heads, Space News reports that the US Navy will attempt to relay the satellite tracking data to its Aegis ships with interceptor missiles on board, and hopefully obliterate incoming projectiles with the extra range and reaction time that satellite coordinates afford. The Navy has reportedly scheduled its first game of space-based Missile Command for next month.
DARPA M3 program to make cheaper, more mobile robots for the US war machine
DARPA, that governmental black magic factory that gave us the flying Humvee and Hummingbird spybot, has unveiled its new Maximum Mobility and Manipulation Program (M3) program that plans to put us on the fast track to our robotic future. M3 aims to improve robotic research through four specialized development programs -- design tools, fabrication, control, and prototype demonstration -- that divvy up the work between commercial labs and universities. The program will not replace existing bionic projects, but some, like the Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program, will be folded into the new scheme. DARPA anticipates that the plan will result in cheaper bots superior to those we have today, but not superior to man... we hope.
Boston Dynamics Cheetah and Atlas robots get DARPA funding, getting ready to find you
Okay, so it may not look quite as impressive as some other mechanical cheetahs we've seen in the past, but this new one from Boston Dynamics certainly has a lot of potential. That robot, plus a new humanoid called Atlas, have won DARPA contracts and so will be put into at least limited production, much like the company's earlier BigDog. Cheetah is said to run "faster than any existing legged robot and faster than the fastest human runners," while Atlas can "move through difficult terrain using human-like behavior," meaning neither running nor hiding will work. That leaves only fighting, so get ready to buck up. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Behind the Mask: The numbers are coming
Last week threw a bit of a wrench in my plans. I intended to interview a very prominent member of the Champions Online community for this column, but I was sidelined by the flu and some dental work. This delay means that things must be pushed back and shuffled around while some old ideas will come to the fore. This week, I decided to cover a controversial topic: Inertial Dampening Field. However, IDF affects player survivability in a very particular way, and in my 40-plus weeks of writing about Champions, I've neglected to cover one basic thing: how defense actually works. If you don't know how defense, dodge, and linear damage reduction work in tandem, it's hard to understand just how powerful IDF can be. I think this week's column would be very valuable to a lot of players, but it is pretty complicated, and the math involved will throw a lot of people off. I'll cover the nitty-gritty math and the rules of thumb, but if you're casual, this is going to be hard to swallow. Like my guide on gear (and the more recent forum post), this is one of those things most people will have to read a few times. As a side advantage, much of this information can be transferred to Star Trek Online, since it uses similar defense mechanics. If you don't want to worry too much about the specifics, hit the jump and scroll to the bottom, where I'll sum up all the essentials.
X-47B unmanned stealth bomber completes its first flight (video)
The evil geniuses at Northrop Grumman successfully completed the first flight of its X-47B unmanned stealth bomber a few days ago at Edwards Air Force Base in Edwards, California. In the air for a full twenty-nine minutes, the tailless, fighter-sized UAV flew to 5,000 feet and completed several racetrack-type patterns, before landing safely at 2:38 pm PST. The aircraft will continue to undergo tests at Edwards AFB before heading to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, later this year. The ultimate goal is to get this bad boy taking off and landing on US Navy carriers. Carrier trials are currently slated for sometime in 2013. Video, PR after the break.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Questionable freshness
We've been on a bit of a kick for new players lately, and that's not by coincidence. Sure, City of Heroes has a well-established playerbase by this point, but it's not like the game is exactly hostile to new players. And while I wanted to do another session of questions and answers, I wanted to wait until I had a good crop of questions that pertain to the newer crowd -- players less familiar with the game or with a given archetype, players who are interested in learning more but unable to find a cogent resource amidst scattered threads on the forums and one-off references in posts. Let's face it, after nearly seven years, a lot of us don't need or want references to these things any longer. We don't need someone explaining to us about Enhancement Diversification or why someone other than the healer asks what you need for a wakie when you die. A newer player might have no idea about these things, though, and so we're mixing up the format a bit here. Let's get back to basics and look at some questions that might seem simple if you know the answer -- but don't tend to get answered if you don't.
BAE Systems develops e-ink camo for tanks and war zone e-readers
BAE Systems, long known for its wargadgets that blind and obfuscate, has recently announced that it is developing an e-ink camouflage system that displays images on the side of a vehicle which reflect the environment -- and which change in real time. This is well-suited for areas such as those found in Afghanistan, where terrain can vary from plain ol' desert beige to a lively and vibrant green, and -- provided it doesn't break down in the desert sand -- probably seems a lot more convincing than paint on metal. (We also wonder if this technology will work on cocktail dresses.) The company hopes to have a prototype within four years, while for our part we hope to have our troops out of the region in much less time than that.
BAE's lasers blind high seas pirates, have no effect on Ice Pirates
BAE Systems has had its hands in some pretty crazy research in the past, from Bug Bots to invisibility cloak development and more. But as this next item has implications for our planned dystopian gadget community on the high seas (think Waterworld-meets-The Engadget Show), we took notice tout de suite. Being marketed as a non-lethal deterrent to pirates, the heart of the ship-based system is a Nd:YAG laser that can be used to warn off attackers over half a mile away -- and disorient them at closer ranges. "The effect is similar to when a fighter pilot attacks from the direction of the sun," said BAE's Roy Evans. "The glare from the laser is intense enough to make it impossible to aim weapons like AK47s or RPGs, but doesn't have a permanent effect." Wild, huh? Check out the PR after the break for the complete low-down.
Secret Soviet-era laser tank pops up in the Ivanovo Oblast
If we've learned anything from the former Soviet Union, it's that collapsed empires have lots of awesome tech just layin' around. We've recently heard tale of someone who found the remnants of the USSR's lunar program under a tarp somewhere, and now a Russian website has uncovered some pretty bad-ass pics of the 1K17 Self-Propelled Laser Complex. First deployed in 1992, the vehicle features a laser system that could be used, as the machine translated document says, to "provide anti-opto-electronic surveillance systems" in even "the harshest climatic and operating conditions imposed on the armor." (In other words, the lasers would disrupt the enemy's electronics and optics, even in the bleak Russian winter.) It seems that the program was discontinued pretty quickly due to expense, with the hardware eventually being consigned to the Military Technical Museum in the Ivanovo Oblast.
El Paso resident finds Mexican Orbiter Mini drone in his front yard
When discussing drones, we usually think of the Af-Pak theater (or perhaps joy ridin' UK teens), so it was with some amusement that we heard about a little border excursion that a Mexican UAV made into American airspace a few days ago. According to reports, the device -- believed to be an Israeli-made Orbiter Mini -- was being operated by the Mexican government (on its side of the border) when it experienced some sort of "mechanical malfunction" and crossed over to El Paso, Texas, where it was discovered on a resident's front lawn last Tuesday. The Orbiter Mini, manufactured by Aeronautics Defense Systems, has a six foot wingspan and will stay in the air up to four hours.
USAF to receive the last of its Predator drones in early 2011
While the controversial (and deadly) use of combat drones certainly shows no signs of abatement, the Air Force has announced that a recent purchase of 268 Predators will be its last. The vehicles, manufactured by General Atomics, should be in the hands of the military by early next year. For its part, the USAF will apparently switch to purchasing Reaper drones -- which can carry a wide variety of armaments, including Sidewinder or Hellfire missiles and laser-guided bombs. We just hope that they aren't using the unencrypted video feeds that made Predators so easy to monitor.
UA engineers develop 'invisible,' fiber optic border monitoring system
As if the nation's overexcited and misguided border vigilantes didn't have enough ways to trigger alarms and bedevil the U.S. Border Patrol (whose job is hard enough as it is), University of Arizona researchers have developed Helios, a monitoring system that uses an acoustic sensor to detect movement via fiber optic cables buried beneath the US-Mexico border. The system is evidently able to distinguish between vehicles, animals, and humans -- and it can even differentiate between different types of human activity, including walking, running, and digging. But that ain't all! UA is looking to spin the technology out into the private sector, working with a company called Fotech to automate the system, further refine the database of signals, and maybe even integrate this into a comprehensive border security system complete with mobile surveillance vehicles and an animatronic Jan Brewer that is, according to a guy we overheard at the bar, "only slightly more human than the actual Arizona governor."
US Army Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications program putting smartphones in soldiers' hands this February
Earlier this year, DARPA put out RFIs with an eye on developing military apps and an app store for iOS and Android, and now the US Army's Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications (CSDA) program will put handsets, network equipment, and other equipment including tablets, e-readers, and pico projectors into the hands of the First Army Brigade this February. Additionally, the Army plans to start issuing Common Access Card (the ID cards used to log on to DoD computers and networks) readers for the iPhone in January and for Android in April. According to Rickey Smith of the Army Capabilities Integration Center, "We're not wedded to a specific piece of hardware. We are open to using Palm Trios, the Android, iPhone or whatever else is out there." But we must admit -- we are encouraged that this time around you haven't mentioned Celio's REDFLY.
US Military bans removable media again, this time probably for good
The US military has officially solidified its reputation as a flake, by banning the use of all removable media including thumb drives, CDs and DVDs again on its Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRnet) after relaxing the same policy in February. To prove they meant business this time, senior officers in each branch relayed the orders and reaffirmed personnel would risk of court-martial if they failed to comply. This seems silly to us considering Uncle Sam feels comfortable giving some cell phones access to secure data, and we all know how much damage losing one can cause. But then again, if history and Transformers are any indication, sometimes it's these little things that cause bigger breaches than anything Cyber Command focuses on stopping.
Modified radar gun identifies suicide bombers up to ten meters away
William Fox of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and John Vesecky, his colleague at UC Santa Cruz, are working on a modified radar gun that can identify suicide bombs worn under the clothing. To do this, they cataloged the most common arrangements of looped wires used to construct "suicide vests," and developed software that can identify the radar cross-section of each. So far, results have been pretty good: according to New Scientist, "telltale factors in the polarisation of the reflected signals" allowed them to correctly identify volunteers dressed as bombers up to ten meters away, roughly eighty-five percent of the time. Of course, even with a success rate this high, such a system would be prone to kicking up false positives. In order to minimize this, the devices would have to combined with other technologies, such as smart surveillance camera systems and infrared imaging.
China Telecom re-routes 15% of the world's Internet traffic for a full 18 minutes, hopes no one noticed
On April 8 of this year there was an approximately eighteen minute long period of time where China Telecom advertised erroneous network traffic routes, causing foreign Internet traffic to travel through Chinese servers. According to a congressional panel, about fifteen percent of the world's Internet traffic was diverted -- including that of the US government and military, and a number of commercial websites. As always seems to be the case when we're talking about The People's Republic, there are few things that can be said for certain, while a ton of questions linger: was this really just a mistake, or was someone flexing their muscles? Could this have been a diversion "intended to conceal one targeted attack," as Arbor Networks Chief Security Officer Danny McPherson suggested? We don't know, but this is the country that brought us both iorgane and buses that drive over cars, so we suppose anything's possible.
Mega Hurtz gun-wielding robot has a menacing look, unfortunate name
Sure, we know how this works: cities need to justify their budgets for continued funding from state and national governments, so they buy expensive -- and often unnecessary -- high-tech toys for their police. And when your town's ready to make that transition from Barney Fife to SWAT, why not call Inspector Bots? The paramilitary nature of its Mega Hurtz Tactical Robot isn't softened by the delicious pun in its name, and if you don't believe us ask any nogoodnik who's had to face down its turret-mounted 20RPS Modified Mil-Sim Paintball Gun / Assault Rifle, capable of firing off twenty non-lethal (but extremely painful) pepperball rounds per second. The beast is billed as a "heavy duty 280 lb two-man-portable monster" that can record audio and video, be controlled by a remote operator, and has night vision capability. But that ain't all! Not only does it feature a welded steel chassis designed to demolish doors and concrete walls, it also looks really awesome in the video... even if it doesn't make the streets safer. See for yourself after the break.
