Gizmodo Australia » radar

Mini Radar Will Give Soldiers Eyes In The Back Of Their Helmets

Sean Fallon — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:20:00 +0000

The military is developing a miniature helmet-mounted radar system (HMRS) that will alert soldiers to any threats that might be sneaking up on them within a 25-metre radius. Although, brain tumours are sneakier than ninjas flying in stealth bombers.

Supposedly, the radar will be able to see through fog and dust — even walls. It’s also compact enough to be practical — no more than 1kg with less than 0.5kg of hardware actually mounted to the helmet. Sounds like an awesome tool to keep our soldiers safe, but there are a few problems that would need to be addressed. Outside of possible health issues, the radar helmet would need to be able to distinguish enemies from friends and woodland creatures. Plus, the power supply feeding the device would need to be compact and powerful. That’s easier said than done of course, so I wouldn’t expect this technology to see action anytime soon. [Danger Room Image via Flickr]

How Does ESPN’s Magic Baseball Ball Tracking Work?

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:20:00 +0000

Holy balls! Did you watch the Home Run derby the other night? I didn’t. But if I did, I would have wondered about the same thing: How did they manage to show those cool balls’ trails in real time?

The mechanism involves a complicated mathematic algorithm that tracks and predicts the ball’s trajectory in real time, only 400 milliseconds after being hit. To get the data needed for the calculation, ESPN uses a 2000Hz Doppler radar which follows the ball’s speed, location and spin, giving precise data of distance travelled – something that before took precious seconds or even minutes to calculate. The path is calculated and shown overlaid on screen in real time, precisely chasing the ball.

The results are quite cool, even though they fail (again) to make baseball exciting to anyone outside the US. [Popular Science]

And yes, I hereby declare today Gizmodo’s Official Ball Celebration Day.

Abandoned Duga-3 ‘Woodpecker’ Radio Antenna Looks Menacing

Nick Broughall — Mon, 18 May 2009 02:30:15 +0000

Back in the 70s, amateur radio enthusiasts around the world began hearing a sharp, repetitive tapping noise at the 10Hz frequency, which disrupted communications and could occasionally be heard over telephone circuits. It was dubbed the “woodpecker” signal, and this was the cause of it: a Russian over-the-horizon anti-ballistic missile system called Duga-3, which could give early warning of missile launches.The antenna was switched off back in 1989, but still stands, abandoned near Prypiat, just outside Chernobyl in Russia.

Artificial Owl has a whole heap of amazing photos taken both of and from the tower, and is well worth checking out to get a proper perspective of just how large and impressive this radio antenna actually is.

[Artificial Owl - Thanks Kaan! Originally passed on to me by "crisis and da shewz massive". - Kaan]

Seattle-Tacoma Airport Using Radar and Pyrotechnics to Keep Birds off the Runway

Adrian Covert — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:00:00 +0000

In the wake of the aeroplane crash landing in NYC’s Hudson River, CNN has an interesting article about the Seattle-Tacoma Airport spending $US250,000 yearly to prevent the same bird strikes that caused last month’s incident.

Seattle-Tacoma airport has a wildlife biologist on staff (and has for the last 30 years) and a team of 20 assistants who take every measure to prevent birds from occupying the airspace around the runway.

At the centre of their arsenal is the radar, made by Accipital, which is used to detect any flocks of birds that may be on a collision course with the airport. Using this technology, they can detect the altitude the birds are flying at, and by analysing behavioural flight patterns, what kind of birds they’re dealing with.

If they do detect any birds, the wildlife team will shine lasers (pew pew!) in the eyes of birds to mimic a predator, hopefully causing the bird to fly away.If that isn’t enough, the team will ramp up their strategy with a more disruptive solution: explosive shells. What they refer to as “pyrotechnics,” the shells are shot into the air and cause a considerable amount noise when they explode (one goes 1200 feet into the air and creates a thunderclap). This generally does the trick in scaring birds away.

And before you get all worked up and start emailing PETA in a panic, none of this does any harm to the birds. [CNN]

Rocket Grenade Smashed to Bits In Flight By Quick Kill Defence System

Kit Eaton — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:37:25 +0000

We’ve written about the sci-fi sounding Army’s Future Combat System before, but the Army’s just demonstrated a successful test of one of its components: the Quick Kill vehicle defence system. Check it out: the Raytheon system uses an electronically-scanned radar array to detect an incoming anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade, then vertically launches a countermeasure missile that blows the round to smithereens in mid-flight, saving the RPG’s intended target. It’s a very simple test setup, and, of course the real system will have to deal with complications like vehicles in motion, but it’s an important first step. And it goes boom. [Danger Room]

EA-18G Growls Enemy Networks Into Oblivion

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:30:00 +0000

When I first came across this photo I thought it was a new classified starfighter being tested by the Navy and Boeing Phantom Works in a secret underground anechoic chamber in the Moon. Then I realised it had the shape of something closer to Earth: It looked like an F-18 but it is not. It’s an EA-18G Growler, a variant of the F/A-18F Super Hornet Block II that is not designed to kill kill faster faster, but for airborne electronic attacks.

Now finishing its testing phase as it gets ready to enter action next action, the EA-18G will replace the current and aging EA-6B Prowler. With its two 44,000-pound F414-GE-400 engines, it’s a much powerful beast than the 4-seater Prowler.

The EA-18G’s mission is to jam the enemy networks from the air, using a variety of systems installed on a pallet in the gun bay and in two wingtip pods. The remaining nine weapons stations are available for other pods containing the electronics necessary for standoff jamming, escort jamming, time critical strike, and communications countermeasures.

In the cockpit, it has an active electronically scanned array radar, which is capable of pinpointing the targets that need to be jammed (or destroyed using specialised radio-bound missiles) with greater accuracy than ever before. In other words, to give mess with the Wi-Fi network of all those terrorist living in their desert caves.

Long Overdue GPS Upgrade Could Save Airlines $US10 Billion a Year

Sean Fallon — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:10:00 +0000

Technically speaking, you have better navigational capability in your car than the entire airline industry. Why? Because they are still relying on an antiquated WWII era traffic network that often takes aircraft on zigzagging routes towards radar beacons—costing carriers billions of dollars in wasted fuel each year. To make matters worse, the plan to upgrade the system has been stuck in the planning stages for more than a decade thanks to funding issues an the complexity of such a switchover.

A switch to GPS could save carriers $US10 billion a year in fuel and it would also increase efficiency—allowing more planes to fly on more routes at the same time. In other words, it could be a financial windfall that would help the airline industry get back on its feet. Yes, making the switch would be extremely complex, but this is really a question about priorities. We simply cannot continue to bail out the airlines every time things go south. Unfortunately, the government does not believe they can get planes flying in a straight line until at least 2020. [USA Today via Digg]

Gaydar Keychain Answers That Question Once And For All

Jason Chen — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:30:00 +0000

You know how you have that friend–for simplicity’s sake, we’ll call him Aaron Froucho–that you’re never quite sure is gay or straight? What better way to answer the question for all eternity than with a US$14 keychain? The thing has three readouts, “gay,” “straight” and “maybe,” so if you get “maybe,” keep asking until it decides one way or the other. Or, if you’re feeling lonely, just go with it. Aaron will. [Play via Nerd Approved]

Laser Star Allegedly Turns Your Clunker Into Invisible Asphalt Phantom

Jack Loftus — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:00:00 +0000

The Laser Star is new to the States, but it’s already made a name for itself in Europe as a cheap, effective way to jam police speed trap lasers. These demonstrations from Laser Jammer Tests show why. No fewer than four police-issue laser detectors were foiled by the Laser Star without so much as a hiccup. Regardless of your views on this kind of tech, it’s still amazingly cool how the Audi S4 in the videos is effectively invisible to the laser detectors. And when you aren’t fighting the man, Laser Star’s sensors help park the car too. Personally, I can’t wait to get one and recreate my favourite Vin Diesel scenes from The Fast and the Furious.

Top Speed tested out the parking sensors that come with Laser Star, and in a word they worked perfectly. The tester was able to detect cars and other objects at roughly 6 metres, and after some tweaking got the system tracking objects within a few inches. Good to know if you’re evading the police and have to park in an alley in a hurry.

Lastly, some wise words from the testers themselves:

Laser jammers are built to jam police laser guns, but they’re not built for you to be stupid about it. If you’re targeted by a police officer the buzzer inside the car will alert. Slow down, drop to the posted speed limit, and then shut off jammer. Once you turn off the jammer the officer will instantly get a reading. He will then see you’re driving at the posted speed limit. No suspicion will arise if you use a laser jammer correctly. Never jam a police officer all the way to the gun. Slow down to the speed limit, then turn off the jammer.

[Laser Jammer Tests]

GPS Vs. Radar Gun Battle Appealed: GPS Wins!

Matt Hickey — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:30:00 +0000

We’ve been following the story of Shaun Malone, the California teen who was clocked by an officer doing 62MPH (100KPH) in a 45MPH (72KPH) zone, and was issued a ticket for US$190. He took the ticket to trial and lost, as the state brought in a GPS expert via affidavit who said that the units weren’t that accurate. The teen appealed, however, and the same expert revised his testimony on the stand, saying the device was accurate to within 1MPH (1.6KPH). The device in question had the capability of emailing the teen’s parents if he ever went above 70MPH (112KPH), and also logged all other speeds. These logs were used and the judge found enough reason to throw out the original conviction, and will rule in October on the matter that may have far-reaching effects. The real question now is why did the trooper’s radar gun think the speed was 33% faster than it actually was? [Ars]