BROAD STRATEGIC APPRAISALS: 12/1/09

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Smart CCTV learns to spot suspicious types

Gong is leading an international team of researchers to develop a next-generation CCTV system, called Samurai, which is capable of identifying and tracking individuals that act suspiciously in crowded public spaces. It uses algorithms to profile people's behaviour, learning about how people usually behave in the environments where it is deployed.

Boeing's Plastic Plane Takes Off

he midsize, wide-body 787--whose overall design Boeing finalized just a few months ago--is the first commercial jet to have fuselage and wings made almost entirely of advanced, plasticlike materials known as composites. Composites are mixtures of resins and high-strength fibers of carbon, boron, graphite, or glass.

Caltech scientists film photons with electrons

In electron diffraction, an object is illuminated with a beam of electrons. The electrons bounce off the atoms in the object, then scatter and strike a detector. The patterns produced on the detector provide information about the arrangement of the atoms in the material. However, if the atoms are in motion, the patterns will be blurred, obscuring details about small-scale variations in the material.

The new technique devised by Zewail and Yurtsever addresses the blurring problem by using electron pulses instead of a steady electron beam

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3D camera breaks world record with 158 lenses

Associate Professor Ishino Youzirou and company. The camera that they developed at the Nagoya Institute of Technology sports 158 lenses arranged on an 18.5-inch aluminum arc frame. The school's combustion engineers will use it to study irregular flames.

Sprint's flagship WiMAX desktop modem goes on sale

Simply connect the Sprint 4G Desktop Modem to your computer or router/Wi-Fi device to access blazingly fast speeds for browsing the Web, accessing multimedia-rich information, exploring social networking and lag-free videoconferencing in 4G service areas. Sprint 4G, powered by WiMAX, delivers download speeds up to 10 times faster than 3G.1

Raytheon's iPhone app will track enemy combatants in real time

Raytheon, known more often than not in these parts for its ability to zap people at a distance with microwaves, has just announced a little something called One Force Tracker. Essentially an iPhone app, it leverages recent developments in location awareness and social networking to keep tabs on both friends and enemies in the field, displaying positions on maps in real time -- all the while enabling secure communications between soldiers.

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Gorgon Stare in Afghanistan

The first three Gorgon Stare pods, mounted on Reaper MQ-9s, will make to Afghanistan around March or April, LT. Gen. David Deptula told reporters this morning. Gorgon Stare uses five electro-optical and four infrared cameras to take pictures from different angles. Those are put together to build a larger picture. That provides more detail and more flexibility than the current cameras, but perhaps its biggest advantage will be the ability to provide 10 video images to 10 different operators at the same time.

Taiwan unveils super-tiny microchip

Taiwan has developed tiny microchips that could lead to lighter and cheaper laptops or mobile phones, researchers and observers said Wednesday.

State-backed National Nano Device Laboratories in northern Hsinchu city said it had succeeded in packing more transistors into smaller chip space than anyone else so far.

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Toshiba Launches Highest Density Embedded NAND Flash Memory Modules

Toshiba Corporation today announced the launch of a 64 gigabyte (GB) embedded NAND flash memory module, the highest capacity yet achieved in the industry.

An Advance in Superconducting Magnet Technology Opens the Door for More Powerful Colliders

Preparing for as much as a 10-fold increase in the Large Hadron Collider's luminosity within the next decade, U.S. scientists and engineers have demonstrated a powerful magnet based on an advanced superconducting material, which can produce magnetic fields strong enough to focus intense proton beams in the LHC's upgraded interaction regions.

Radiation From CT Scans May Raise Cancer Risk

Doctors love the detailed pictures created by CT scans. Patients often expect a scan. But now researchers are warning that the radiation patients get each time computerized tomography is used to detect injuries and disease will cause thousands of extra cancers in coming years.

Debate Rises on Whether to Ban Chlorine

Environmentalists -- the most vocal proponents of strong water-treatment rules -- do not like chlorine. They say rail shipping and storage of massive amounts of chlorine gas to water-treatment plants are dangerous. U.S. PIRG and other advocacy groups say gas released in a derailment or terrorist attack can threaten the lives of thousands of people in a single incident. They want water-treatment plants to find safer substitutes.

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Underwater Glider Arrives in Spain

Rutgers University's RU-27 becomes the first remote-controlled object ever to cross an ocean underwater.

Russia Navy to continue work with Bulava missile

Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky believes it is impossible to refuse from the submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missile Bulava, despite its recent unsuccessful tests, and impossible to replace it with another missile.

Organic molecules found on the moon

Indian researchers say they have found organic matter on the moon, a discovery that may be seconded by U.S. teams analyzing a plume of debris kicked up by the deliberate crash of a rocket body into a lunar crater.

Fighting IED Attacks With SCARE Technology

University of Maryland researchers have developed and successfully tested new computer software and computational techniques to analyze patterns of improvised explosive device (IED) attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan or other locations and predict the locations of weapons caches that are used by insurgents to support those attacks.

US to probe 'revelation' of Iran nuclear trigger work

The United States said Tuesday it will investigate a British newspaper report that Iran is working on a trigger for a nuclear bomb, adding the "revelation" fueled concerns about Iranian intentions.

Raytheon’s ALE-50 “Little Buddy” Decoys

The entire ALE-50 system consists of a launcher and launch controller attached to one of the aircraft’s weapon pylons, containing one or more expendable towed decoys. These trail behind the aircraft when deployed, attracting radar-guided missiles to themselves instead. Each decoy and payout reel is delivered in a sealed canister, and has a 10-year shelf life.

Monday, December 14, 2009

NVIDIA-Powered Supercomputer to Elucidate Universal Mysteries

The GPU-powered cluster based in Taiwan is about to start its first big assignment at the hands of a research team from the National Taiwan University (NTU). The team will attempt to more closely analyze the behavior of subatomic particles.

University of Toronto physicists lay the groundwork for cooler, faster computing

University of Toronto quantum optics researchers Sajeev John and Xun Ma have discovered new behaviours of light within photonic crystals that could lead to faster optical information processing and compact computers that don't overheat.

"We discovered that by sculpting a unique artificial vacuum inside a photonic crystal, we can completely control the electronic state of artificial atoms within the vacuum," says Ma, a PhD student under John's supervision and lead author of a study published in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters.

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RFID Helps Naval Ships Defend Themselves From Missile Attacks

Lockheed Martin offers RFID functionality with its decoy-launching system, to help international navies ensure they fire the proper rounds.

The RFID technology offers ship's personnel real-time visibility into which types of decoys are deployed, as well as which barrels they are installed in, and helps ensure that the proper round is fired off, potentially in a split-second decision, while the vessel is under attack.

Scientists isolate new antifreeze molecule in Alaska beetle

Scientists have identified a novel antifreeze molecule in a freeze-tolerant Alaska beetle able to survive temperatures below minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Unlike all previously described biological antifreezes that contain protein, this new molecule, called xylomannan, has little or no protein. It is composed of a sugar and a fatty acid and may exist in new places within the cells of organisms.

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Computer Models How Brain Cells Reach a Decision

In a study published online December 13 in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Xiao-Jing Wang, professor of neurobiology at Yale School of Medicine and at the Kavli Institute of Neuroscience, proposes that synapses—the connections between neurons—are capable of computing probabilities from observed cues in order to make a statistical inference.

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Strong Authentication Not Strong Enough

Two-factor authentication -- used to protect online bank accounts with both a password and a computer-generated one-time passcode -- is supposed to be more secure than relying on a single password.

But Gartner Research VP Avivah Litan warns that cyber criminals have had success defeating two-factor authentication systems in Web browsing sessions using Trojan-based man-in-the-middle attacks.

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A Breakthrough for Hydrogen Storage?

On Nov. 25, Germany’s Federal Institute for Materials Research & Testing (known by its German acronym, BAM) released results of nearly two years of tests on C.En’s technology, which involves the storage of compressed hydrogen inside bundles of thin, strong tubes of glass, known as capillary arrays. “The lightweight storage and safety factors give the technology a huge commercial potential for a whole range of industries.

'Smart' appliances need variable electricity rates

Smart grid technology, including so-called smart appliances, have the ability to help consumers cut their electricity use and shave their utility bills--but only if three pieces fall into place, according to AHAM. Those include time-of-use electricity rates, open communications standards, and products that let consumers retain full control of their home appliances.

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X-51A WaveRider Gets First Ride Aboard B-52

The X-51A Waverider was carried aloft for the first time Dec. 9 by an Air Force Flight Test Center B-52 Stratofortress over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.The test was a key milestone in preparation for the X-51 to light its supersonic combustion ramjet engine and propel the WaverRider at hypersonic speed for about five minutes, before plunging into the Pacific Ocean.

Nanocrystals Create an Insulator Better Than Pure Vacuum

Vacuum's emptiness doesn't just pose a problem for space travelers -- a vacuum lining is also one of the best known insulators on Earth, and may help keep those holiday drinks and soups warm in your thermos. Now scientists have found that layering photonic crystals within the vacuum lining can even prevent heat loss from invisible infrared radiation.

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Nuclear-Powered Transponder for Cyborg Insect

Engineers develop radioisotope MEMS power source for insect spy program.

Cornell University engineers presented research that shows progress in powering cybernetic organisms with a radioactive fuel source.

Electrical engineering associate professor Amit Lal and graduate student Steven Tin presented a prototype microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transmitter—an RF-emitting device powered by a radioactive source with a half-life of 12 years, meaning that it could operate autonomously for decades.

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Weaponized RipSaw-MS2 UGV Evaluated for Convoy Security & Support

Most UGV programs are utilizing vehicles that move rather slowly and require relatively complex control, lacking effective 360 degrees situational awareness. Consequently, they can be easily outmaneuvered and disabled by an enemy that could get close or out run the robot. The U.S. Army is evaluating a much larger, powerful, agile and lethal robot developed by the Hawe & Hawe (H&H) company, known as 'RipSaw Military Specification 2', that offers many advantages that minimize such vulnerabilities.

Can the 'silver bullet' of printing revolutionize electronics?

Scientists are claiming to have found the "silver bullet" that will enable the cheap, easy printing of electronic components and transform the way we use computers.

Researchers at Xerox say that a new silver ink technology will allow them to add computer power to a wide range of plastics and fabrics, and pave the way for a remarkable range of new products.

Bye-Bye Bomber - End to B2, B52

A study just published by the Air Force's main lobbying organization, the Air Force Association, concludes that the nation "should gradually shift to a dyad" of submarines and missiles, phasing out bombers. The reasoning: the nation's bomber fleet is largely antiquated, and the latest-generation plane, the bat-winged B-2 (also known as the stealth bomber), costs about $2 billion apiece. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other Pentagon officials have indicated that such expensive piloted bombers may no longer be affordable.

China flies air-launched cruise missile

The US has the AGM-86, Russia has the KH-55 and China now has the CJ-10K.

The Chinese Military Aviation blog (.cn domain) on Saturday posted the above photo of the CJ-10K aloft under the wing of an H-6 bomber. The blog says the missile's range is between 1,500km and 2,500km.

Lockheed Test-Fires Proposed Warrior Cannon

Lockheed Martin UK has test-fired the new CT40 cannon in the turret it is proposing for a 1 billion pound upgrade of British Army Warrior infantry fighting vehicles.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Battery lithium could come from geothermal waste water

A GEOTHERMAL power plant in California will soon be producing more than just electricity. The valuable metal lithium could be extracted from its hot waste water.

The technique, developed by California-based Simbol Mining, could bolster lithium supplies at a time when they are being squeezed by our growing reliance on high-density batteries.

New software targets Air Force bombers' accuracy

Boeing Co. has won a $23 million contract to upgrade software on Air Force bombers that will improve their targeting capabilities.

Phase 2 of the B-1 Laptop Controlled Targeting Pod software upgrade will add additional capability to the aircraft’s targeting system by allowing it to more accurately identify both stationary and moving targets.

Army inspects new signals intelligence system

The Prophet Enhanced system will improve the way commanders at the tactical level respond to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information through battlespace networks, the officials said.

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Motorola Announces Handheld RFID Reader for Non-Industrial Uses

The MC3090-Z is lighter than the company's other handheld interrogators, has an omnidirectional antenna and supports the ability to determine the locations of specific RFID tags.

3-D microchips for more powerful and environmentally friendly computers

A new technology for stacking several layers of microprocesssors, which is being developed at EPFL in collaboration with ETHZ and IBM Research, could boost the performance of computer chips by a factor 10.

Light-generating transistors to power labs on chips

What started out as 'blue-sky' thinking by a group of European researchers could ultimately lead to the commercial mass production of a new generation of optoelectronic components for devices ranging from mobile laboratories to mobile phones.

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Tiny Nuclear Batteries to Power Micro Devices

Typical chemical batteries just don't cut it when a device needs to run for years without fail. Enter the betavoltaics, or tiny nuclear batteries that harvest energy from radioactive sources such as tritium.

New Russian missile fails again in testing:

Russia's new nuclear-capable Bulava missile has suffered a new failure in testing which was the likely source of a mysterious light that appeared over Norway, Russian newspaper reports said Thursday.

MIT Plans to Rebuild Artificial Intelligence from the Ground Up

After 50 years and countless dead ends, incremental progress, and modest breakthroughs, artificial intelligence researchers are asking for a do-over. The $5 million Mind Machine Project (MMP), a patchwork team of two dozen academics, students and researchers, intends to go back to the discipline's beginnings, rebuilding the field from the ground up.

Americans Consume 34 Gigabytes Daily Per Person

Info-delivery gadgets in U.S. homes helped Americans collectively consume 3.6 zettabytes of data in 2008. Just one zettabyte would fill 1,000 datacenters, or, as the report suggests, 3.6 zettabytes of text in books stacked tightly across the continental U.S. and Alaska would create a massive pile 7 feet high.

Google Demonstrates Quantum Algorithm Promising Superfast Search

Google has spent the past three years developing a quantum algorithm that can automatically recognize and sort objects from still images or video.

Ultrafast graphene photodetector

We demonstrate ultrafast transistor-based photodetectors made from single- and few-layer graphene. The photoresponse does not degrade for optical intensity modulations up to 40 GHz, and further analysis suggests that the intrinsic bandwidth may exceed 500 GHz.

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Scientists create atom transistor to speed up computers

An international team of scientists has created a tiny transistor that could one day help quantum computers process impossibly large amounts of information.
The researchers are the first to make a transistor's electrical current pass through a single atom in a controllable way, another step towards the quantum computer chip.

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Surge will break Taliban momentum in a year

The NATO commander in Afghanistan on Tuesday predicted a surge of US troops will reverse the momentum of Taliban insurgents within a year and ensure their ultimate defeat.

Up to $318M to Lockheed Martin to Support Counter-IED Teams

The counter-IED teams examine explosive signatures, chemical traces, and blast patterns to provide an overview of how an IED attack unfolded. The data are analyzed at the team-level and sent to the relevant agencies and military components for external analysis.

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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Nvidia announces 3D Blu-ray for 2010

Nvidia has announced that 3D Blu-ray movies will begin appearing in the Summer of 2010.

Nvidia will support the standard through its 3D Vision technology, with Berraondo noting that the new films will use bit rates of around 60Mbits/second – twice that of a standard movie.

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Paper Batteries Could Power Almost Anything

Take ordinary office paper, a little carbon and a dash of nanomaterials, and you have a perfectly functional battery.

Wireless Brain-to-Computer Connection Synthesizes Speech

A system that turns brain waves into FM radio signals and decodes them as sound is the first totally wireless brain-computer interface.

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New species evolve in bursts

New species might arise as a result of single rare events, rather than through the gradual accumulation of many small changes over time, according to a study of thousands of species and their evolutionary family trees.

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NASA Drops A Helicopter From Midair to Test New Anti-Crash Tech

No stranger to rough landings, NASA just engineered a crash of its own design to test a new crash countermeasure for helicopters. NASA dropped a donated Army MD-500 carrying four crash test dummies from 35 feet, to determine whether a new honeycomb cushion made of Kevlar strapped to the bottom of the copter could absorb the brunt of the impact.

Philips to light Times Square ball and numerals with LEDs

Philips Electronics (Somerset, NJ) has illuminated the world-famous Times Square ball for the past ten years, as the company just announced. The past two years, Philips used its Luxeon LEDs to light the ball (which is actually a geodesic dome, and is also a lot bigger than it used to be). Now, for the 2009-2010 New Year's celebration, Philips will be lighting the Times Square ball numerals (which, unsurprisingly, are 2-0-1-0) as well, meaning that the entire display will be lit by LEDs.

Quantum Dots Enhance LED Lighting

Tiny semiconductor crystals could produce better colors for lighting and computer displays.

Quantum dots are nanometer-size bits of semiconductor material, such as cadmium selenide, that fluoresce when excited by photons or electrons. By choosing a certain material and a certain size, researchers can precisely tune the wavelength of light emitted.

Bomber, Space Surveillance Eye Boost

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz says that the service’s forthcoming budget request, though pinched by the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will likely include money for a new bomber and a new space surveillance system.

First Production F-35 Electro-Optical Targeting System Delivered

Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has marked successful entry into low rate initial production on the F-35 Lightning II Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS). The first production units have been delivered to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth, TX, for integration onto the aircraft.

Airbus A400M military ready for takeoff

After years of delays, the Airbus A400M, designed to replace aging military cargo carriers, is set to take off on its maiden flight this week.

The A400M is one of Europe's most ambitious defense projects, and any flight trial -- the maiden takeoff is expected as early as Wednesday -- would give the company a much-needed boost.

US forces on track to leave Iraq despite attacks: Mullen

US forces remain on track to begin withdrawing from Iraq in large numbers next year despite coordinated suicide attacks on Tuesday that killed 126 people, the top US military officer has said.

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India, Russia settle aircraft carrier deal

Ending a protracted logjam over the pricing of a naval aircraft carrier purchase, Russia and India have reached agreement on a key defense deal.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Air Force-funded research is shattering traditioinal notions of laser limits

Air Force Office of Scientific Research and National Science Foundation-funded professor, Dr. Xiang Zhang has demonstrated at the University of California, Berkeley the world's smallest semiconductor laser, which may have applications to the Air Force in communications, computing and bio-hazard detection.

The semiconductor, called a plasmon, can focus light the size of a single protein in a space that is smaller than half its wavelength while maintaining laser-like qualities that allow it to not dissipate over time.

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IP routing takes one giant leap into space

A joint venture between the Defense Department, Cisco and Intelsat reached a major milestone with the launch of the Intelsat 14 (IS-14) satellite that contains an Internet router designed for the rigors of operation in space. The router onboard IS-14 is intended to demonstrate Internet Routing in Space (IRIS) capabilities to the military.

The Power of Aggregated Broadband

A growing small or medium-sized enterprise will likely need to scale up its facility's bandwidth. However, making the jump from T1 to T3, for example, may be more of a leap than it's ready to take. By aggregating bandwidth from multiple broadband connections, a business might be able to get more bang -- and more reliability -- for the buck.

Air Force extends plug-and-play spacecraft

Looking to build strategic satellites in day if need be, rather than months, the Air Force is pushing forward with what it calls plug-and-play spacecraft.

This week it awarded a $500,000 order to Northrop Grumman to begin designing the plug-and-play spacecraft "bus" which will offer standard interfaces for a variety of payload components, much like a laptop computer that immediately recognizes new hardware when it's plugged in.

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Swipe Your Credit Card on a Cell Phone

With a small card reader that attaches to a cell phone, a new company is making it easier for small businesses and even individuals to accept credit card payments. The San Francisco start-up, called Square, which opened just last week, is headed by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey.

New platinum compound shows promise in tumor cells

MIT chemists have developed a new platinum compound that is as powerful as the commonly used anticancer drug cisplatin but better able to destroy tumor cells.

Lotus leaf solar cells soak up more power

SOLAR cells have an unfortunate habit of reflecting back much of the light that hits them, rather than converting it into electricity. A technique that peppers the cells' surface with nanoscale domes could curb this tendency and improve efficiency by as much as 25 per cent.

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Microsoft To Kill Windows XP SP2 Support

Microsoft is reminding customers that the end date for support for Windows XP Service Pack 2, as well as some other versions of the Windows operating system, is already on the horizon.

The company will officially end support Windows XP SP2, Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Client on July 13, 2010, according to an official company blog post.

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DOE offers $100 million for far-out energy tech

The Department of Energy is making $100 million in government stimulus money available to researchers with ideas for radically different energy technologies.

The DOE on Monday announced the second portion of the ARPA-E program and said that "concept papers" for three research areas--fuels, capturing carbon dioxide from coal plants, and long-range electric vehicle batteries--are due by the middle of next January

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Google offers search by sight

Google's first search engine let people search by typing text onto a Web page. Next came queries spoken over the phone. On Monday, Google announced the ability to perform an Internet search by submitting a photograph.
The experimental search-by-sight feature, called Google Goggles, has a database of billions of images that informs its analysis of what's been uploaded.

Machine allows people to type with their minds

By focusing on images of letters, people with electrodes in their brains can type with just their minds, scientists now reveal.

These findings make up one more step on the road to mind-machine interfaces that may one day help people communicate with just their thoughts.

In the Brain, Seven Is A Magic Number

Countless psychological experiments have shown that, on average, the longest sequence a normal person can recall on the fly contains about seven items. This limit, which psychologists dubbed the "magical number seven" when they discovered it in the 1950s, is the typical capacity of what's called the brain's working memory.

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AIM-9X goes slumming with air-to-surface mode

Raytheon's AIM-9X Sidewinder, the ultimate in high-tech dogfighting weapons, has been adapted to strike moving targets on the ground or water.

Iran builds navy to hold vital strait

As tensions with Iran rise again, the Islamic Republic is reported to be expanding its naval power in the oil-rich Gulf and the Arabian Sea to be able to command the chokepoint Strait of Hormuz, the only way in or out of the Gulf.

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Friday, December 4, 2009

NASA Challenges 350 Rocketeers Nationwide to Aim a Mile High

NASA has invited more than 350 student rocketeers from middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities -- 37 teams nationwide -- to take part in the 2009-2010 NASA Student Launch Projects.

Their challenge is to build powerful rockets of their own design, complete with a working science payload, and launch them to an altitude of 1 mile.

Boeing Unveils New Visual Display for Simulation Applications

The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] demonstrated its Constant Resolution Visual System (CRVS) for potential customers this week at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference in Orlando. CRVS, the company's newest visual display, delivers an immersive environment by providing a high-resolution "out-the-window" view for training systems and for general visualization applications.

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Electromagnetic Pulse Cuts Through Steel In 200 Milliseconds

The Fraunhofer institute thinks electromagnetic pulses may work better than the other white heat. Case in point: their new electromagnetic pulse (EMP) device that cuts through steel faster than a laser, and cheaper than a machine tool.

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Swiss Team Achieves First-Ever Manned Solar Plane Flight

Folks over at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, have been working on a solar-powered plane since 2003. Now, after six years of testing, they have finally managed to get the plane off the ground.

Tunable Terahertz Lasers Could Allow Airport Scanners to Chemically Analyze Substances

An MIT electrical engineer and colleagues have managed to tune a small but powerful laser capable of generating terahertz rays. That could someday lead to airport scanners capable of even better snooping than superheroes.

The laser in question is a quantum cascade laser, which came out of Bell Labs in 1994.

Boeing's Laser Avenger destroys 50 IEDs in Army tests

Boeing and the U.S. Army completed tests in which a laser system on an Avenger combat vehicle destroyed 50 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) similar to those used by adversaries in war zones.

A Single Phosphorus Atom in Silicon Used to Build a Transistor

Researchers from Helsinki University of Technology (Finland), University of New South Wales (Australia), and University of Melbourne (Australia) have succeeded in building a working transistor, whose active region composes only of a single phosphorus atom in silicon.

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