"Shimmer Vision" Scopes See Better Using Heat

holy_calamity writes "New Scientist reports on a neat DARPA idea that uses the shimmer of heat haze to allow binoculars to see further. It works by exploiting the fact that some distortions from heat haze actually magnify objects behind them. The binoculars collect a series of frames when that is occurring to boost magnification by 3 times. The design goal is to be able to present one image a second, and to enable facial recognition at 90% accuracy at a distance of 1 km. The scopes could be on the battlefield inside of 3 years."

Comments

3 years

[narcberry]

Seems like everything will be on the battlefield inside of 3 years. Read as project will be dropped inside of 3 years after soaking up 3 years worth of government investing.

Re:3 years

[Inominate]

Depends on the battlefield. If there is no battlefield it means 5 years. If there is an active war it often means 6 months or a year.

There is little that can kick technological advancement into high-gear like an active war.

Re:3 years

[KGIII]

This is *my* opinion.

War has resulted in more technological breakthroughs and advances than any other single cause in the history of man. From stones to nukes.

It kind of sucks that we don't seem to bond with our fellow man until we're at risk.

Re:3 years

[Hozza]

And this is *my* opinion.

Many, if not most, of the worlds greatest inventions were developed in peacetime, for peaceful purposes.

A short list:
Writing
Vaccinations
Steam power
Industrial revolution
Internal combustion engine
Light bulb
Aeroplanes
Transistors
World Wide Web

etc etc etc

This "war is good for technology" meme is complete hogwash. And has been throughout recorded history.

Re:3 years

[Leonard Fedorov]

Yes, but the Second World War greatly accelerated the development of jet aircraft.
The World Wide Web is descended from APRANET which was a military network designed by the American Goverment to resist a nuclear war.
And Florence Nightengale developed most of the theory while out in the Crimean war and her experiances there led her to conduct further research.

Complete hogwash you say?

Re:3 years

[Ihlosi]

A short list:

Don't forget the printing press.

Re:3 years

[timeOday]

Aside from the battlefield, it has obvious applications for photography as well. I don't think any special hardware would be required. Take a second or two of shots at 8fps (which modern DSLRs can do at full resolution), then stitch together a composite image using whichever frame is sharpest for each image region. You would have to warp the swatches to fit together to undo the atmospheric distortion as well.

This is somewhat similar to the existing HDR (high dynamic range) filter in photoshop, except you use the image providing the sharpest detail instead of the most correctly exposed image for each pixel of output.

Re:3 years

[syousef]

Dubious list of peacetime inventions

Writing

Difficult to say. There's a lot of military motivation for writing to develop. Comms is critical to warfare.

Vaccinations

True enough, but the other side of the coin is biological warfare. Hurling diseased bodies into your enemies fort is a time honoured tradition.

Steam power and Industrial revolution

True. However think about what the motivation was for inventing steam power. Conquest was certainly on the agenda.

Internal combustion engine

Improved significantly through warfare.

Light bulb

True enough.

Aeroplanes

The Wright brothers were involved in designing warplanes. Without war, and the plane's ability to allow dominance over ground via the air, the technology would have taken much longer to mature. We've come so far in just 100 years because people wanted to blow each other up ground and air targets more effectively.

Transistors

True enough.

World Wide Web

You mean the one built on DARPANet?

Re:Freezer Burn!

[Anonymous Coward]

Y'know, I think you'll find that a basic cost/benefit analysis is what rules out a sneak invasion of Antarctica, not funky optics.

Travel to interesting places...

[txoof]

Travel to interesting hot deserts, meet interesting people and kill them from a great distance.

Be all you can be with technology!

I know the military has provided us with all kinds of great tech, but it's a shame that we have to kill people.

Re:1 FPS scope?

[Anonymous Coward]

My guess is that after you identify the target with the 1 fps images, you turn this feature off. You could still see the shape with a good scope, according to other posters.

Re:On the Battlefield

[PopeRatzo]

The advantage military technology has is that it is results oriented.

Yes, but the results are generally pretty fucked up.

You know, this makes me wonder, if DARPA is developing ways of using surface heat to extend their view, do you think somebody thinks we're going to be spending a lot of time in a hot part of the world? Like maybe...IRAQ?

Re:3 years...till blast-off.

[fotbr]

The space program itself was a result of WWII and Cold War missile programs.

There are other applications

[Wills]

Nothin' like sniping a long-range moving target with a full second of lag!

A scope capable of facial recognition at 1km is useful for much more than just targeting to kill, because it helps you work out who a person is, an activity commonly associated with performing surveillance. There are some other military applications too, which I'll leave to your imagination.