FGadgets » Military Gadgets

MiniKitchen By Adriano Conti

admin — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:14:10 +0000

In the future, there’s a possibility that small living space becomes the normal living space. MiniKitchen project has been designed with the thought of providing the needs of people who live in limited house-space. It radically changes the classic layout of a kitchen by merging several elements into a single “multi-functions” object. Basically, MiniKitchen features 2 cooking systems, vegetable washer, oven, fridge, a little pantry, and dishwasher. This innovative kitchen design reduces significantly the use of time and energy consumption of each of kitchen appliances. Take a look at the cleaning system; it uses compressed air to clean, steam to degrease, and UV ray to sterilize. This project has been presented at the final exam of the Product Design class at “La Sapienza” University of Rome by three Italian designers, Adriano Conti, Corrado Galzio and Alex Innamorati.

Designer: Adriano Conti, Corrado Galzio, and Alex Innamorati
Source: TUVIE.com

High Resolution Night Vision System

admin — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 05:19:29 +0000

If you’re extremely comfortable with passers-by pointing and staring or if you brim with self-esteem, this new digital night vision system developed by SA Photonics might just be the next toy you could brag about! Not that you really need to brag about it, by the looks of it, it’s attention-grabbing enough to make a little kid point out and say “Look Mommy! Robocop”! Called the High Resolution Night Vision System (HRNVS), this digital night vision system uses a head mounted display. With a 82.5 degree field of view, we’re pretty sure those snipers you’ve been weary off won’t go unnoticed in the night time. The four optics mounted on the helmet provide this view.That’s not all. The HRNVS also boasts reduced peripheral obscuration, reduced forward projection and swept volume, zero-halo, and the capabilities for digital image enhancement too! A great chance to spy on your neighbor!

Source: DesignLaunches.com

4D Walk-In Flight Simulator (Video)

admin — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 17:38:37 +0000

Raytheon, the world leader in defense technology and innovation, has recently unveiled the first of its kind 4D walk-in simulator at the 2011 Paris Air Show. The best bit about this new technology is that it can be fitted in and customized for both rotary and fixed wing aircrafts.

Moreover, the 4D walk-in simulator can be simply added or removed without the hassle of “operational flight program or mission computer impact”. What this essentially translates into is that this technology can allow aging or old instruments to be easily upgraded or replaced economically on various platforms such as the F-16s.

As Todd Lovell, chief engineer at the Customized Engineering and Depot Services of Raytheon explains,

“What you are going to see in the evolution of technology is bringing more sensory experience into the cockpit. There is so much information coming into the cockpit that you cannot take it in with just your eyes anymore; now it is going to be eyes, ears and maybe even touch as we go forward.”

The Raytheon Company that started in 1922 as an American Appliance Company is today the uncontested world leader in state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and a broad range of mission support services, turning over sales of $25 billion in 2010.

Source: GizmoWatch.com

Sprint In-wall Radar Imaging System

admin — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:56:39 +0000

From Cambridge Consultants, the folks who brought you the portable in-wall radar bag, here comes a new device called Sprint to make fights against the unseen more in your favor. And when I say unseen I don’t mean sprits or ghosts, but possible traps, explosives, and weapons that could be hidden in walls. In addition to spotting dangerous items, the Sprint in-wall radar can also be used to look for contraband or even holes or weak sections in walls. What’s more impressive is that the device is not just limited to walls and can also be used on floors and ceilings, if such a need ever arises. What makes Sprint different from other methods of detection is that it doesn’t need to have access to both sides of a wall structure in order to work, and the fact that it uses very little power and is easily portable makes it even better. The Sprint in-wall radar is currently undergoing extensive performance to make the leap from prototype stage into a commercial product.

Source: UberGizmo.com

Darpa’s Hologram Goggles

admin — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:22:06 +0000

DARPA’s looking for a way to give soldiers on the ground more direct access to air support, and the solution that they’ve come up with involves a nifty-looking set of holographic sunglasses.

Generally, when soldiers request air support, that request has to wind its way through patchy radio links, complicated computer systems, intelligence analysts, commanders, lawyers, air traffic controllers, and ultimately aircraft pilots before anything actually happens. DARPA wants to bypass all that with a set of augmented reality holographic goggles that would give troops a direct link to their support aircraft.

Funding has gone to consumer video goggle manufacturer Vuzix, along with traditional defense-tech heavyweights Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, to develop a system that would visually allow troops to “request and control near-instantaneous airborne fire support.” The concept calls for a set of hologoggles slaved to a head tracking sensor along with a data link that can provide real-time information on what resources are available:

“The head tracker knows where the user is looking, so the information the user is seeing changes as he moves or turns his head. Theoretically you could look up in the sky and a little green triangle would appear telling you, you have an F-16 30 miles out at 21,000 feet. It could also tell you what type of ordnance the plane was carrying, so you could make a quick decision if that plane would be appropriate for the mission.”

The goggles would also be able to provide all kinds of additional information from the aircraft, which DARPA hopes would help to minimize things like friendly-fire accidents. If Vuzix can get these things to work, they’d only be about 3mm thick, and entirely transparent when turned off, which sounds pretty slick to me. Tech like this may be great for the military, but it would be great for consumers as well, so let’s hope that’s a little extra incentive for Vuzix to make it happen and bring some hologoggles to market for the rest of us at the same time.
Source: DVICE.com

Fingerprint Recognition System For Guns By Sun Xiaotian

admin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 21:31:29 +0000

Tracking a murder weapon to its owner won’t probably be too difficult now, with fingerprints. Designer Sun Xiaotian came up with a novel way to tracking murderers to their weapons, regardless of wearing gloves. With illegal gun use turning into a menace these days, the designer came up with a fingerprint identification system for guns using an embedded memory chip that ensures the weapon is used by its legal owner. The gun’s front sight attachment turns green when the gun recognizes its user. If the wrong fingerprint is used, the indicator turns red and the gun locks up.

This sure will keep weapon thefts away, and have the guns kept with their legal owners, improving security.

Designer: Sun Xiaotian
Source: DesignLaunches.com

DARPA’s New Eye-Wear Adds 360-Degree Vision To A Soldier’s Repertoire

admin — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:44:01 +0000

With an intention to see how best they can equip the soldier of tomorrow, Pentagon’s mad science agency DARPA has on December 22 unveiled the Soldier Centric Imaging via Computational Cameras effort or SCENICC – a wearable helmet attached eye-gear that’s a set of cameras capable of capturing a kilometer-wide, 360-degree images viewable in 3D by the soldier laden with the eye wear. Wearing this gadget that scan objects a kilometer away and inform the soldiers of any danger, would allow the soldier to see anything from right behind him to everything in front by zooming in and creating stereoscopic/binocular system providing 10x zoom to both eyes, this, all hands-free by a pre-programming adjustable focus.

Functionality:

Besides capturing a kilometer-wide, 360-degree view, the eye wear provides the user with Full Sphere Awareness that provides battle critical information including muzzle flash detection, projectile tracking and object recognition/labeling to extract information. The Stereoscopic/binocular system further adds 10x zoom to both eyes so that the soldier can pre-program commands, adjust focus and command the integrated weapon to lock the gun on your target when acquired.

What to expect:

In the benefits of the Soldier Centric Imaging via Computational Cameras effort, DARPA vision to add spice with the possibility of providing the soldiers with Terminator vision. Now, this may be a vague term, what DARPA expects is to include the eye wear with hi-res computer enhanced imagery and other task oriented non-image data like mission data overlays, threat warnings/alerts, targeting assistance to make things all the more easy for the soldier on in the core.

What not to expect:

While it will take time before we can see how the eye-wear squares off on the war front when soldiers actually play around with the SCENICC for their advantage, but for now what remains to be known from DARPA is how the system’s networked optics would work in low-bandwidth areas at war. The SCENICC is supposed to be networked; but it caters to no communications requirements for soldiers to talk each other and optics are sharing with each other.

Wrap up:

The advanced in digital imaging eye wear offering 360-degree vision across a kilometer at hands-free 10x zoom besides mapping software, hi-res computer enhanced imagery and weapon control will surely be a great utility for soldiers who would become hawks in the war zone.

Source: gizmowatch.com

XM25 Individual Airburst Weapon System (video)

admin — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 00:52:56 +0000

They can run, they can hide, but they can’t escape the bullet. Yes, this is what the XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System precisely is – a special rifle with a specially designed 25mm bullet, which can be set for a precise destination and distance, reaching where it detonates, killing snipers hiding within buildings, behind walls and in trenches in the open. Designed by Minnesota’s Alliant Techsystems, the early samples of the rifle have been doled out to combat units in Afghanistan.

With a death defying range of roughly 2,300 feet, the 12-pound, 29-inch XM25 system costs up to $35,000 per unit, but that’s worth all the money because of its lone game-changing abilities. The rifle’s bullet with a computer chip inside can be fixed for a distance, allowing for precise detonation behind, ahead or over the target, thus killing from anywhere in a range of about 1 to 3 meters.

Source: Gizmowatch.com

US Army Tests Wristwatch With Flexible OLED Display To Show Maps And Stream Videos

admin — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 05:59:30 +0000

The US Army is testing a prototype wrist watch designed by L-3 Display Systems of Alpharetta, Georgia. The new display model uses efficient OLED materials that are lightweight, flexible and have long enough lifetimes. The watch has been made from newly developed energy efficient phosphorescent material that converts electricity into red, blue, and green light. Although there has been no worn on the power consumption specs it is believes that the device uses just one-fourth the power of a conventional OLED.

The watch’s flexible electronics is encased in a rugged plastic case that can be worn on the wrist. The 4.3 inch display makes for a thinly rough communications device that can display maps, stream video and other information without adding too much weight to the overall load. The US army has been testing these prototypes to stream real-time video from unmanned air vehicles.

Source: Gizmowatch.com

Mega Hurtz Tactical Robot By Chris Rogers

admin — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 02:30:27 +0000

This machine has an AMAZING NAME. It is designed by Chris Rogers and it goes by the name “Mega Hurtz Tactical Robot.” It can turn on a dime, you control it by remote and can use it in tangent with a virtual reality headset, and yes, it can tow a Hummer. This machine can smash through a concrete wall, fire 20 pepperballs per second with its installed turret mounted non-lethal automatic weapon, and weighs around 280 pounds. This machine can totally do anything you want, including running right over your foot!

The weapon you see on top of this machine might be non-lethal now, but once this child of potential death is seen by the US army, military, airforce, navy, secret service, not-so-secret service, and magic devision, you’re going to see some serious flesh ripping.

That weapon installed NOW on the vehicle is a 20RPS Modified Mil-Sim Paintball Gun/Assault Rifle with a Wireless Infra-Red Night Vision Barrel-Mounted Camera, connected to a remotely controlled Pan/Tilt Turret. It rocks. Below that are 14 inch Bar-Lug Trencher tires attached to a fulltime 4-wheel-drive system with rugged high-torque electric motors. It’s a beast. A complete beast.

This project is aimed at Law Enforcement SWAT Teams, Search and Rescue, First Responders, and Security Companies “to take personnel out of the line of fire and out of harms way.” Very neat. Anyone see the cartoon series Gundam Wing? They explore a future (for a while during the series) where war is fought using remotely controlled air-fighters. Turns out humans can beat them, just so long as their bots are faster. How about that?

Designer: Chris Rogers
Source: YankoDesign.com