Posted on 05/28/2004 11:53:51 PM PDT by pt17
A "smart bullet" that can be fired at a target and then wirelessly transmit back useful information has been developed by US researchers.
The projectile, created at the University of Florida in Gainesville, US, is 1.7 centimetres in diameter can be fired at from an ordinary paint-ball gun. The front is coated in an adhesive polymer that sticks it to the target.
Inside, the elongated projectile holds a sensor, a tiny wireless transmitter and a battery. This enables it to report back its findings to a laptop or handheld computer up to 70 metres away. It can also reusable, because compressed gas within the gun provides the propulsion.
The prototype developed by the researchers was fitted with an accelerometer. To test it, the students fired it at a target which was then shaken to activate the accelerometer and produce data for transmission.
But the US firm Lockheed Martin, which provided funding for the project, is interested in developing a version containing a miniature sensor capable of detecting traces of the explosive TNT.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
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for your book!
Or do I smell a certain Brit working for her Majesty's secret service? Hmmmm!
What would they use it for?
check your FReep mail
Well, it has been in Hollywood use for decades. Ever noticed how the positive character always hits the target without even aiming at it, and (it comes with a smart gun, which must be still classified) never has to reload?
Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons starred in a movie about this.
Know how we have a problem with our troops getting fired at by disruptors shielded from within raging mobs? How we have a problem, because once you counter-attack, the bad guys run away, or we end up hitting civilians?
Shoot one of these into one of them, with the thing constantly relaying updated GPS coordinates. When the bad guys rally after the ambush for an after-action report, well, there's where you bring the action to THEM!
Or, just sit back for several hours, and study their habits --your choice.
Why would it need to be electronic, necessarily. Why not just tag with a chemical which is easily traced by sensor and/or K9, using a soft BB size pellet so it doesn't actually damage anything and draw attention to its strike.
Talk about psy-ops!
Gee, I wonder why....
Interesting application, reminscent of what the authorities were trying to come up with in the riot-prone 60s.
I remember Smith & Wesson had a revolver that used .22 blanks to propel a dye-loaded slug to identify mob ringleaders. (Maybe the precursor of today's paintball guns.) They dropped the project as it was liable to kill if the wrong part of the anatomy was hit. Not a loss in my eyes if it was the right guy - I think that was the real problem, you might hit a second-rater.
Even notice that if the POV is the bad guy sighting using a sniper rifle and cross-hairs he always hits the glass/coffee cup while the potential victim walks from the kitchen to the living room?
You'd think a professional would be able to hit the much larger target of a human body.
That is not a bullet. That is artillery.
Perhaps there has been work done on this area...and we just don't know it. :)
Actually, it is much simpler: use a flamethrower over their heads to create a burning obstacle BEHIND the hostile crowd. The crowd starts dissipating immediately even before it is "well done". This way they are channeled, gunmen and civilians, into, should we say, a "checkpoint", where bad guys can be picked "still warm". Besides, the psychological effect (breaking the will to fight) is highly desirable.
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