Synthetic Vision 257
oniony writes "Ars Technica has a link to a story on new goggles being developed for/by the military. The new device uses satellite imaging and land profiling to build a 3D representation of the world in a soldier's goggles in real-time. This would enable troops to see through sand storms and oil smoke of the kind currently hampering operations in the Gulf. I imagine one could also remove mountains to allow remote viewing of approaching territory."
Unproven = untrustworthy (Score:4, Insightful)
Even the FAA sees this, as they do not allow it to be the primary navigation system on planes in the US.
Re:Unproven = untrustworthy (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Unproven = untrustworthy (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Unproven = untrustworthy (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Unproven = untrustworthy (Score:3)
The idea of new structures is more of an issue, though it is also an issue with the current system of radio beams. Strict controls are in effect with regards to the building of such structures.
Testing of approach systems is largely done in clear blue air until further
Re:Unproven = untrustworthy (Score:3, Interesting)
These shuttle maps could then be checked against public satellite images; double-checked against data in the Global Positioning System or Internal Navigation System; and triple-checked by radar, infrared or millimeter wave sensors.
But then again, it might bring good old barrage balloons back into fashion.
Re:Unproven = untrustworthy = low SAT scores! (Score:2, Offtopic)
The Apple iPod is a good example.
Untested waters for Apple, Apple not "well received" by entire PC population, different, semi-unpopular connection scheme, new type of hard drive never released on mass consumer scale- low profit margin market - what else could have been more unproven about the iPod? It has become one of the most critically acclaimed gadgets of the past two years and is made to a very high quality (typical Apple, but always exceptions) s
Re:Unproven = untrustworthy = low SAT scores! (Score:2)
The Apple iPod is a good example.
A procurement officer for active military troops should have completely different standards of trustworthiness than civilians needing an MP3 player.
An unexpected failure of untested hardware can have drastically different costs depending on what you were trying to do when it conked out...
Additionally, the "innovations" of the IPod were in the areas of reliability and portability- the actual task of "playing MP3s from
Re:Unproven = untrustworthy = low SAT scores! (Score:2)
You do raise a good point, but the military also doesn't have to reinvent the wheel everytime they want to do something. Like Apple, even more so, Sony, the military has this weird desire to make everything from scratch or make it proprietary. While understanding that helps security and reliability, it also adds immensely to cost and "adoption through practicality"
Also, I think a good measure of durability and reliability IS the consume
Re:Unproven = untrustworthy (Score:2)
Re:Unproven = untrustworthy (Score:2)
Remove mountains? Good start. The real question: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Remove mountains? Good start. The real question (Score:4, Interesting)
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/GoodMorningAme
Also.. this technology seems very far away since the FAA won't allow planes with synthetic vision to get into worse weather than they currently can... FAA are movers and shakers... when they move on the product then you will see some action.
Re:Remove mountains? Good start. The real question (Score:2)
Well, this means.... (Score:2, Funny)
Wait a second. (Score:5, Interesting)
A guide to the war's talking heads [lostbrain.com]
tcd004
Re:Wait a second. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Wait a second. (Score:2)
Tcd004
You're overlooking: (Score:2, Insightful)
That's even better than moving and attacking with impunity under the cover of darkness (== nightvision).
Re:You're overlooking: (Score:2)
Hmmm..
Tcd004
Re:Wait a second. (Score:2)
Exactly. When our choppers flew in Gulf War I:The Prequel, more than one operator got the opportunity to open an engine and see the miracle of how glass is made.
Re:Wait a second. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Wait a second. (Score:2, Insightful)
Sure, but when you're spending other people's money, you've got nothing to lose. It's not the end product that matters to those in power -- it's the ability to take and spend the people's money at will. It's the ability to make those decisions. Power is addictive like a drug.
Re:Wait a second. (Score:2)
Actually, didn't the Japanese car in Cannonball Run have this?
Re:Wait a second. (Score:3, Insightful)
Not by forcing the people to fund it whether they want to or not.
Powerlines (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Powerlines (Score:2)
Re:Wait a second. (Score:2)
Re:Wait a second. (Score:2)
Re:Wait a second. (Score:2)
If that data included the location of power lines, they should show up just fine.
When SomethingAwful is right... (Score:5, Funny)
from the wireframe-world dept:
(taken from a January 2002 SA.com article entitled, How you Know You're in the Future or something...)
Wireframe models. Everything in the future is represented by wireframe models on computers. Everything. If you're looking for a particular person, their face will appear as a wireframe model accompanied by 500-point flashing text displaying their name. If you're looking for a file, it will appear as a wireframe model of a folder. If you're looking for a wireframe model, it will appear as a wireframe model composed of really tiny wireframe models that make up each wire.
I imagine. . . (Score:5, Funny)
I imagine nerds removing walls to allow remote viewing of the girls locker-room.
Re:I imagine. . . (Score:2, Insightful)
The Real Question (Score:2)
If not, then I believe this would only be of a limited usage.
Re:The Real Question (Score:2)
Heinlein? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Heinlein? (Score:2, Funny)
When a general sends a letter to a soldier, who had changed his name to Optimus Prime, to thank the leader of the Autobots for being part of the team, it kind of convinces you that they're not all a bunch of squares. http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_fullstory.asp?id=38
Re:Heinlein? (Score:2)
Re:Heinlein? (Score:4, Funny)
I think you may be thinking of Joe Haldeman The Forever War, similar tech rather different tone :-)
That's cheating (Score:5, Funny)
How is this different from adding a cheat mod to your FPS client? Transparent textures is one of the oldest tricks in the book. I think that the Geneva conventions need to be updated to prohibit this kind of thing. It just encourages campers.
Re:That's cheating (Score:3, Funny)
Re:That's cheating (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:That's cheating (Score:3, Funny)
Re:That's cheating (Score:3, Funny)
Hrmmm... (Score:5, Interesting)
Otherwise, why not just use a map and a laptop?
Re:Hrmmm... my thoughts too (Score:3, Interesting)
I also don't see much of the devlopment phase for this. Aren't real time Satellite images already availible? Isn't an iPaq [hp.com] strong enough to decode/decipher/function for this purpose? And aren't the Olympus EyeTrek Glasses [eye-trek.com]small enough for such a purpose?
Re:Hrmmm... (Score:2)
They certainly could. The challange is getting up to the minute data to the headset.
Otherwise, why not just use a map and a laptop?
You have to actually hold a laptop. If the laptop is out in the field, then it has to be ruggedized. So now you have a soldier with this 40lb armour plated laptop. If you can integrate the guts into the visor, it leaves the hands free to do more important things, like shoot or say drive that t
Re:Hrmmm... (Score:2)
Removable mountains... (Score:2)
Hey, that would be cheating! [slashdot.org]
Wait a minute... (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't want that kind of realism in Counterstrike. Now all of the l4m3r5 will consider it justified since real soldiers now have wireframe mountains and buildings.
That's great. (Score:5, Insightful)
There's a time for tech. But, there are always going to be times when nothing will take the place of simple brute force.
Where's my sledge hammer?
Re:That's great. (Score:3, Insightful)
Then we got the tech called gun powder, precision rifled barrels....
Tech always gives you an advantage, but you have to know how to cope if it doesn't work as well as you hope, jams and misfires have been a 'feature' of firearms from day one. They still happen, just not as frequently. Night vision gear isn't a 100% but it is getting better. Don't knock tech - when you're st
Re:That's great. (Score:2)
this fancy schmancy stuff isn't terribly helpful when you are burried in a sand storm
Tell that to the gunners with thermal imaging sights who just fought their way through a sandstorm. See this account [cnn.com]. A quote:
The desert winds had kicked up a sandstorm, but the result was the same as the night before. "We could see through thermal sites," he said. "You could see what was shooting at you. With our gun tube orientation, everybody kept their sector and we kept rolling and we engaged all the way throu
Cheating... (Score:3, Funny)
Great, first we get wallhackers in Counterstrike, now the military...what's next?
Civilian uses (Score:5, Interesting)
Examples:
Driving through a snow storm at night in the middle of nowhere? Overlay location info, along with roadside markings in the goggles so you KNOW where the road is and not drive into a ditch.
Driving from New York to SF for the first time? Can't read a map? Have the goggles map it all out for you connections to GPS for real time roadside updates.
Part of this technology can be used in conjunction with speech-to-text software/hardware to overlay real-time closed captioning so that I know what the damn radio DJ's are saying on my morning commute. At least Satellite radio provides the song info.
These are just some of the possibilities that I can think off the top of my head.
-Cyc
Re:Civilian uses (Score:5, Interesting)
Driving through a snow storm at night in the middle of nowhere? Overlay location info, along with roadside markings in the goggles so you KNOW where the road is and not drive into a ditch.
Driving from New York to SF for the first time? Can't read a map? Have the goggles map it all out for you connections to GPS for real time roadside updates.
Part of this technology can be used in conjunction with speech-to-text software/hardware to overlay real-time closed captioning so that I know what the damn radio DJ's are saying on my morning commute. At least Satellite radio provides the song info.
No thank you. it would be pure idiocy to put it on goggles.
On the windshield? Yes... In fact go rent a Cadillac that is loaded for a weekend, the Infared vision system works in a snowstorm. I could see the roadway and markers AND the other cars showed up very obviousally that could not be seen visually.
Driving directions? a small map is OK but I much prefer voice prompting.. had both of these cince 1998 in my Kia Sephia with a stereo called the AutoPC.
So for the vehicle, everything you want has been around for years. you just havent taken the time to spend your money to get it.
Re:Civilian uses (Score:3, Interesting)
On the windshield? Yes... In fact go rent a Cadillac that is loaded for a weekend, the Infared vision system works in a snowstorm. I could see the roadway and markers AND the other cars showed up very obviousally that could not be seen visually.
The reason why I suggested goggles (or even miniaturized to sunglasses ala Doc Brown in Back to the future, Part II) is so that you could see the entire environment in that overlay, rather than just the
Re:Civilian uses (Score:2)
The low-visibility info would be great. Snow can obliterate lane markings and even road boundaries in flat areas -- having that appear on my windshield would be a big help, as would some kind of sensor info to help spot frontal obstacles in poor visibility.
Re:Civilian uses (Score:2)
Like most new technology the adult entertainment industry will be the first to adopt this. Simply wear the goggles while you're driving and then everywhere you look you see nothing but naked chicks.
All I want is one thing (Score:2)
"GET OFF THE PHONE YOU FREAKING IDIOT!!"
Downside: Stupid people (Score:2)
"Hey, I kin see jus' fine, so's I'll drive jus' lik it were daytime, and"
WHOOMP - as they plow into the cow the system didn't know about.
There's more to driving than knowing where the road is, there's also knowing whats ON the road.
Re:Downside: Stupid people (Score:2)
Oh, George, not the livestock!
Re:Civilian uses (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, I'm sure you will see this developed for civilians. Lots of military technology eventually ends up in the hands of civilians, albeit a bit stripped down or otherwise modified with consumer preferences and safety in mind. Examples include, of course, GPS, various off-road vehicle technologies, cell phones (yep, originally developed for the military), the Internet itself, spread-spectrum wireless technology, the list just goes on and on...
Bottom line: if someone can make a buck off of military-developed technology, they will.
Re:Civilian uses (Score:2)
For examples: Here, [about.com], and also here [privateline.com]
Re:Civilian uses (Score:2)
Re:Civilian uses (Score:2)
Whats so hard about that? Even if you are a moron that can't read a map, I think you should be able to follow these directions:
1. Get on the George Washington Bridge
2. Continue on I-80 westbound
3. After crossing the Bay Bridge, stop.
2900 miles later, congrats, you are in SanFran. Not that hard.
-molo
This is called enhanced vision (Score:5, Informative)
www.wearcam.org is a good place to start.
He is developing the cyper enhanced reality to specifically remove advertisments from the real world.
Wireframe Mountains (Score:2)
Re:Wireframe Mountains (Score:2)
Explosives destructively force metal and magnetics through specially designed casings, inducing massive currents and a noisy EMP blast.
Add a Tracking System to this as well (Score:2)
Then again, this system could also be a peeping-tom's best friend. No more need to hang from tree's or below window sills. Just act like you are waiting for the bus or cleaning the sidewalk
Subliminal Message (Score:2)
new geek toy? (Score:2)
Re:new geek toy? (Score:2)
hold on.. (Score:2, Interesting)
How realtime would these images be ? Personally Flying low altitude through a world that's 5 hrs old would make me nervous.
Fucking US troops are always cheating! (Score:3, Funny)
Removing mountains? (Score:4, Insightful)
This technology could be used for humanitarian purposes too, like staying oriented while fighting wildfires.
Re:Removing mountains? (Score:2)
Interesting (Score:2)
Commercial Applications (Score:2)
wireframe worlds (Score:3, Funny)
Now if they make it so the soldiers see a wireframe world, will that mean that US troops will get kicked off battelfield servers for cheating?
GF
Why? (Score:2)
my other contact lenses are beer googles
see through mountains? (Score:2)
the problem with tech (Score:5, Insightful)
as soldiers start to depend more and more on their equipment instead of their own skills.. and the less time they spend honing those skills.. the more vulnerable they are to a breakdown in the technology (two words "EMP Bomb")... it is at that point that you have a soldier who up to then has been totally dependent on his technology facing the enemy with what is essentially a high tech club... meanwhile the enemy who has NOT been softened through exposure to excessive technology is coming at him with a not too sympathetic grin on his face..
Suchetha
Re:the problem with tech (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe you should start reading some books about military history. Ever hear of something called a Gatling Gun? How about a musket? Swords? Dynamite? Throughout history, one can argue that military might is derived from a country's technological prowess. Do you think Hitler could have overtaken most of Europe if his forces were honing their horse-riding skills?
Guns jam, dynamite can blow up prematurely, swords br
Re:the problem with tech (Score:2, Insightful)
Its true that older technologies are often more reliable in doing what they are supposed to, but it doesn't matter how reliable they are if you're opponent deploys a technology that renders them ineffective (like smoke grenades, IR goggles, and flash suppresors against said AK wielding terrorists).
Greater technology does need greater inferstrecture to support it, but tha
Why this is stupid (Score:2)
Remove Mountains Now(tm)! (Score:2)
As for viewing distant terrain... well... I can use topo maps to re
Reservations (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember a driver in Germany a couple of years back who drove though a couple of barriers, past several yelling workmen and into a river. All because his in-car GPS navigation was telling him that there was a completed bridge there. And that was a just a teeny little display.
(Side note: "removing" mountains sounds like a truly horrible idea. I have vivid memories of playing the excellent flight sim EF2000 - this was back in the days of software rendering when depth-buffering was still something to be avoided. So the engine just drew the terrain first, and buildings afterward, because, hey, buildings are on top of terrain, right? Unfortunately this didn't cope with occlusion, and I lost count of the number of times I crashed into a bleedin' great hill while on a bee-line for an airfield that was clearly visible right in front of me...)
I can see wartime problems with this (Score:5, Insightful)
First, if you can't see where your fellow soldiers are, you're looking at a wireframe model of a world that you can't shoot into. How do you know where our guys are? This isn't a redundant post, because i need to add
Second, if you add GPS for all our folks into the picture, all the enemy needs to do is take one set of goggles and kaboom! there go our troops.
That said, i agree with the point that these are adding to the trivialisation of wartime 'kills' and the overlap of technology and wargames. But this has been coming for a long time, from way back in the world of 'duckhunt.' (which was pretty advanced itself, all things considered...) Hurt my spine in an accident one year, though, spent hours learnign to shoot those stupid ducks. Do i now look upon animated ducks with a dispassionate urge to blow them away? No. But that's not quite the same as human to human violence on the box. (PETA, leave me alone: it's NOT the same, and doesn't have the same effect. We can argue that one out when the US goes to war against waterfowl.)
So tell me: does anyone else think of the ad for the - what was it, navy seals, is army, that has the war game with the kids being beat to shreds by some mystery troup, and it turns out that it's real US forces playing the war game against them? Frankly, i think that the US forces are using this marketing tool badly- they are smudging that line just as far and as fast as they can. But sooner or later, the kids who sign up get to find out that it's not a game.
Realising that i've digressed from my original point: It's a catch-22. Put nobody else in the picture, all you have is a big sign saying 'you are here' on a digitised map. Good for sandstorms but won't tell you whether the guy hiding behind the wall up ahead is your buddy or your foe, and if you put in stuff that tells you this- you open the door for all those foes to know where your buddies are when they take you and your nifty goggles too. What's an army to do?
Re:I can see wartime problems with this (Score:2)
Similarly, unless the satellites are imaging the area in real time, the data is stale as soon as the soldier puts the goggles on. And if a soldier can't see the brand new building or big gaping hole in front of him, how can a satellite?
This is a GREAT business model. Sell the military a nifty new gadget that requires hourly updated information, then sell them a subscription to the information.
All that
CHEATERS!!!! (Score:2, Funny)
planes in sandstorms? (Score:2, Insightful)
Stephenson references? (Score:2)
But things move... (Score:2)
"Look out for those goats!"
"What goats?"
Blaaaart *splat*
And bang goes any chance of one Iraqi herdsman being happy to see you.
For some reason I seem to recall... (Score:2)
"We are the US army. Do not be afraid. Resistance is futile."
Flying in a sandstorm??? (Score:2)
cheat codes for the real world. (Score:2)
Does it reminds you (Score:2)
They mod the game to see thru walls so to gain an unfair advantage
They won't be allowed (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, but... (Score:3, Funny)