Latest in our series of “when games turn real ,” here’s the U.S. Army’s newest addition to the wargadget arsenal. The person Gunshot Detector, produced by QinetiQ , is an acoustic monitor attuned to tracking down the source of gunshots simply by their sound. It has four sensors to pick out up the noise of incoming fire, and its analysis of these supersonic sound waves produces a readout on a small display that lets the soldier know where the deadly projectiles originated from. The complete system weighs slightly below two pounds, and while it could actually not be much assist in a precise firefight — there’s no approach to distinguish between friendly and hostile fire — we imagine it’ll be an attractive great tool to have if assaulted by well hidden enemies. 13,000 IGD units are being shipped out to Afghanistan later this month, so they can deploying 1,500 every month going forward and an ultimate ambition of networking their data in order that when one soldier’s detector picks up a gunfire source, his nearby colleagues may be informed besides.
Army deploying ‘Individual Gunshot Detector’
Mar 15, 2011ARLINGTON, Va. (Army News Service, March 14, 2011) — U.S. Army forces in Afghanistan will begin receiving the 1st of greater than 13,000 gunshot detection systems for the person dismounted Soldier later this month, service officials said.
“We’re really looking to be sure that every Soldier is protected,” said Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, Program Executive Officer Soldier.
The person Gunshot Detector, or IGD – made by QinetiQ North America – involves four small acoustic sensors worn by the person Soldier and a small screen attached to body armor that shows the gap and direction of incoming fire.
The small sensor, concerning the size of a deck of cards, detects the supersonic sound waves generated by enemy gunfire and instantaneously alerts Soldiers to the site and distance toward the hostile fire, said Lt. Col. Chris Schneider, product manager for Soldier Maneuver Sensors.
“After you get fired on, rather than looking to figure everything out, you need technology to help you in knowing what happened and where the shot was coming from,” Fuller said.
The whole IGD system, procured by PEO Soldier and the military’s Rapid Equipping Force, weighs below two pounds, Schneider said.
The basis is to strategically disperse the systems throughout small, dismounted units to get maximum protective coverage for platoons, squads and other units at the move, Schneider explained.
Over the subsequent year, the military plans to field as much as 1,500 IGDs per 30 days, he said.
At some point, the military plans to integrate this technology with its Land Warrior and Nett Warrior systems. These are network-situational-awareness systems for dismounted units, complete with a helmet-mounted computer screen that uses GPS digital-mapping-display technology, Fuller said.
“The subsequent thing we wish to do is try and integrate this capability with other capabilities; as an instance, we’ve Land Warrior deployed in Afghanistan and we’re going to have Nett Warrior getting into the force. How about, in the event you get shot at, not just do i do know where that came from, but others know where it came from because i will network that capability,” said Fuller.
“It’s about tips on how to leverage technology to enhance your survivability and situational awareness.”
Insert Coin: Node helps your smartphone monitor just about everything
NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra 3 chips get LTE support, radio makers GCT and Renesas on board
