Electronic Weapons: January 23, 2005

Archives

Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan may soon receive night vision goggles that think. In the last few years there has been a breakthrough in pattern recognition software, which has allowed daylight and night vision cameras to recognize what they see, and alert operators of what is likely out there. The first effective versions of this equipment have entered service in the past few years. This is the SPIDER (Stabilized Automatic Intruder Detection System), from Israeli firm Controp, which has a growing list of satisfied customers. Pattern recognition has long been seen as a technology that would be useful once computers became cheap and powerful enough to take advantage of it. Digital cameras capable of delivering sufficient data for the pattern recognition software to see, with a high degree of certainty, have been arriving on the scene as well. So decades of pattern recognition research is now being put to work. There will be an explosion of applications for this kind of software, especially for military applications. Work is already underway to equip heat imaging devices, commonly used by armored vehicles, individual night vision goggles, combat robots and weapons sights, with this kind of software. Troops equipped with this equipment wont be immune to night attack, but the attackers will have to move as if it was daylight, slowly and from behind whatever cover is available. Moving swiftly under cover of night will no longer be possible if the other side has night vision devices equipped with pattern recognition software.

 


Article Archive

Electronic Weapons: Current 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 


X

ad
0
20

Help Keep Us Soaring

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling. We need your help in reversing that trend. We would like to add 20 new subscribers this month.

Each month we count on your subscriptions or contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage. A contribution is not a donation that you can deduct at tax time, but a form of crowdfunding. We store none of your information when you contribute..
Subscribe   Contribute   Close