Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"The primary attraction [of writing sf] is the sheer pleasure of creating something from whole cloth."
- Dan Simmons
 |
| Weapon Sound Tracker | ||
| Locate an enemy by the sound of gunfire. |
U.S. soldiers still in Iraq a decade into the future have more advanced weapons systems.
| Sound trackers on the roof could zero in on weapons action and coordinate return fire through UAVs and their only other air support, the Superhawk. |
| From Quantico,
by Greg Bear. Published by Vanguard in 2007 Additional resources -
|
In an interview with Technovelgy.com, Greg Bear had this to say about the weapon sound tracker:
Greg Bear:"Yes, something that could filter through all the echoes and ... work its way back to where the sound originates."
T: So this is an idea, or you've seen it?
GB:" I haven't seen it, but I'm sure they're working on it."
T: You might be interested to know that there is a technology called WeaponWatch which actually looks for infrared signatures of fired weapons.
GB: "Yes, that make sense."
T: I actually saw it demonstrated at NextFest 2006 in New York. Supposedly, this is better than listening for sound, because obviously light travels faster than sound and the company claims that it would be possible in some cases to return fire in some cases before the rounds actually got to you.
GB: "Interesting... but they would have to have direct line-of-sight for the weapon?"
T: That's mostly correct, but apparently they can look at reflected light...
GB: "Very cool..."
T: ...So to some extent, in an urban environment, you could 'see around corners'...
(Read the rest of Greg Bear's interview on Quantico.)
One real-world technology that is similar to a Weapon Sound Tracker is ShotSpotter, a gunshot location system used both by police departments and the military. However, ShotSpotter requires a network of sensors (as opposed to a single unit) to identify, triangulate and then give a visual image of the location of a gunshot event, typically in seconds.
Also, WeaponWatch already uses an automated weapon system as a peripheral device, to coordinate return fire, sometimes before the enemy round has even reached its target.
Technovelgy: You also wrote about a Weapon Sound Tracker.
Take a look at how WeaponWatch Detects, Locates Enemy Fire Infrared Signature.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 2 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Quantico
More Ideas
and Technology by Greg Bear
Tech news articles related to Quantico
Tech news articles related to works by Greg Bear
Weapon Sound Tracker-related
news articles:
- Helmet-Based Sniper Location System
- Smartphone Sensor System Tracks Gunfire
- Cities Detect Gunfire Acoustics With ShotSpotter
- ShotSpotter Gunshot Location Tech Expands Coverage
| ZKZM-500 LASER Assault Rifle |
| Drone Assassin Fails To Kill Venezuelan President |
| Musk's Boring Flamethrower |
| Poland Starts With 1000 Warmate 'Suicide Drones' |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Negligible increase in weight increased material strength by hundreds of times.
'All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.'
The number of different ways to span a thread between a larger number of hooks is astronomical.
'This is all coming to you courtesy of the simstim unit wired into your deck, of course.'
What's it like for autonomous trams when they're turned off at night?
'Merton... placed the electrodes of the sleep-inducer on his forehead.'
'... we can descend and live down there at one of those year-round aquatic resorts.'
'...she would have to be coaxed by another series of pats into a circular orbit.'
'The sleek, tapered space shuttle lay immobile upon the private landing field...'
