The certificate at Kabul ’s Intercontinental Hotel was n’t well-nigh enoughto stop nine suicide bombersfrom setting the spot reddened and killing 12 people last month . But the U.S. military thinks it can do better – by blob treacherous individuals before they get close enough to have serious injury . Meet the CounterBomber .
TheArmy just awardedScience , Engineering and Technology Corporation ( SET ) an up to $ 48.2 million declaration for a motorcar that could spot bomb - tote up someone from afar . The Virginia - base company , owe by SAIC , has already transport the CounterBomber to over 40 locations in Iraq and Afghanistan .
So just how does this $ 300,000 machine collar would - be human explosions at a distance ? Two video cameras mechanically detect and track individuals walk anywhere near the system , within the range of a soccer field . depressed - level radiolocation beams are aimed at them and then reflected back to a computer , which take apart the signal in a series of algorithms .
“ We call it our ‘ privy sauce , ' ” says Rick Thornton , the director of business sector development at SAIC . That sauce is apparently so potent it can recognize signs of bombs or weapon hidden under someone ’s clothing .
It does this by compare the radar proceeds signaling ( which emits less than a cell phone ) to an wide library of “ normal response . ” Those response are modeled after masses of all different SHAPE and sizes ( SETgot around to summate females in 2009 ) . It then compares the signal to another exercise set of “ anomalous responses ” – any anomalousness , and horn go off . Literally .
When the data processor notice a threat , it shows a red symbol and go a car horn . No threat and the symbol turns green , recognize the operator with a pleasant piano riff . Seem pretty ego - explanatory ? It ’s meant to be .
“ We build a system so anyone come out of chow manor hall can operate it . ” Thornton say . “ As long as you ’re not color blind , you’re able to do it . ”
For those worried that those pierce radar eyes might be seeing a little too much , the organization does n’t produce any quasi - au naturel images , à la TSA ( privacy is apparently more of a precedence for SET ) . And while Thornton wo n’t give away any numbers , he claims the accuracy is much higher than the 40 % false alarm rates of airport scanners . The organization also detects more than just metal – which is dependable , since the insurgent bomb of choice is mostly fertiliser .
Even so , this is one of themany , many attemptsthe U.S. military has made to counter the burgeon use of improvised explosive devices ( IED ) , a major cause of soldier casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan . They do n’t just come up strapped onto a self-destruction bomber ’s chest of drawers , either – these make - chemise weapon system turn up in vehicle , buried underground , or on the roadside . notice a mortal - borne IED is just a small part of a much wider picture , one the Pentagon haspoured zillion of dollarsinto with only mixed issue .
A human turkey - discover radar contraption is a starting signal , but this is one sturdy problem to puzzle out . Secret sauce just might not cut it .
photograph : SET Corp
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