The portable system, which is being developed at Vanderbilde University for the US defense agency DARPA, is conceptually nothing new. It is a so-called passive acoustic system, which, by the difference in the sound of a shot reaching its microphones, reveals its position in space.
The RedOwl system works on this principle, which we talked about in the article "Before the first shot". However, the developers intend for the first time to make such a system portable, individual for each soldier, and to combine an array of such field systems into a single network that exchanges information and is associated with GPS navigators. And this is a completely different level of modern weapons.
It is reported that each such system will use 4 microphones attached to the helmet, and for communication via radio waves will be combined into a network built on the basis of ZigBee technology. The network will allow the detection system to rely on data from not just one sensor, but the whole mass, which will not only expand the search area, but also make the result of the work much more accurate.
“If you just attach the microphones to the helmet, they will be close to each other, and the detection accuracy will not be high enough,” explains the head of the development team Akos Ledeczi. taking into account the data coming from different soldiers, taking into account their relative position and orientation in space. There is enough data from two soldiers to find out the direction of the shot with an accuracy of more than a degree, which means (for normal conditions) to localize the sniper with an accuracy of several meters."
Through a Bluetooth connection, the system communicates with the soldier's pocket computer, into which satellite images and maps of the combat area are loaded in advance, so that the place where the sniper took refuge will be immediately displayed on the screen. Of course, the system has signal analysis algorithms that allow you to distinguish the sound characteristic of a shot from a powerful sniper rifle, among the mass of other noises inevitable on the battlefield - first of all, to distinguish them from automatic shots.
The main problem that the developers are still facing is the need to clearly track the position of all soldiers, whose systems are integrated into a single network. The accuracy that is available via GPS is not enough, and in some conditions - for example, in the city - it also becomes less reliable. The engineers also had to equip each soldier with a tiny radio receiver with an analyzer, which, by evaluating the interfering signals coming from radio beacons on the battlefield, allows a much more accurate understanding of the soldier's position.
This principle is the implementation of a new concept of the Pentagon, aimed at creating sensor systems for the battlefield, organized according to the principle of "smart dust" (smart-dust). That is, many cheap and tiny "nodes" self-organizing into a single network, on the whole much more efficient and reliable than separate complex systems.
Indeed, modern sniper detection systems cost between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000, while the developers estimate that each node in their proposed network system will cost about $ 1,000.
However, any acoustic systems suffer from one major drawback: they can detect the sniper only after he has fired. Meanwhile, there is another approach, which sometimes can even make it possible to disarm the shooter even before he strikes - by the reflected light of his optics. Read about it: Hunting the Hunter.
