Slashdot Mirror
IBM Files Patent For Bullet-Dodging Bionic Armor
An anonymous reader writes with news that IBM has filed a patent for "Bionic body armor" that would protect a wearer from long-range gunfire by detecting the incoming bullets and administering small shocks to the appropriate muscles required for moving out of the way. Quoting the patent: "When a marksman (such as a sniper) is attempting to fire a projectile from a firearm, the marksman typically prefers to be as far away from the target as possible, thus giving him or her a head start for the escape after the firing. As an example, the longest reported sniper hit was from a distance of about 2500 meters, resulting in a time of flight of about 4 seconds for the projectile/bullet. Had the target been aware of the inbound projectile, avoiding it by simply walking away would have been possible." After detecting the projectile, the armor would calculate the trajectory and "stimulate the target to move in a predefined manner ... sufficient to avoid any contact with the approaching projectile."
Probably the lamest idea ever. Long range sniper kills of this type represent an insignificant minority of deaths, they really think people are going to wear this crap?
The detection method sounds flaky and lame. What I would pay to see though is the other side create an 'electromagnetic' interference device that causes this armor to 'stimulate' the wearer to dive into a brick wall or something.
I agree. The whole idea seems like something somebody thought up after getting really, really drunk and watching "The Tuxedo."
Makes great book/movie material, but actually making it functional is a pipe dream at best.
sound would not give any warning. very few modern rifles, especially sniper rifles, and most certainly those in the class that will fire past the 1km mark are subsonic.
Right into the path of another bullet. Or a truck. Or an electric fence. etc.
You've obviously never been hit with a 5.56 round while wearing ceramic body armour. That little 8 gram bullet is like getting punched. You don't really feel the point of impact, but you are knocked sideways anyway. And the ceramic body armour breaks after only one bullet. After that you are on your own.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
The physics of a small projectile moving at high speed aren't particularly complicated. If you have two or three data points, you can plot the path. Better if you plug in the wind vector, but probably not necessary.
Actually, the plates generally in use by NATO nations are designed to stop up to 3 hits from 7.62 rounds. Now, granted "designed to" doesn't mean they will, but if you're suggesting that the plate is useless after only one hit from a 5.56 round, then you're just plain wrong.
You're talking about the NIJ testing requirement for level 3 plates. They are required to stop 3 .308 rounds. NIJ certified level 4 plates are required to only stop 1 30-06 Armor Piercing round. This ends up having very strange effects on plate design. It is correct that a level 4 ceramic plate can shatter and become ineffective after stopping only one round.
Other weirdness of the design of plates is the things they will and won't stop. Some level 3 plates will stop the required 3 .308 rounds, but will be penetrated by M193 5.56MM rounds. Others will stop M193 all day long but be penetrated by M855 5.56MM. Some will stop M193 but not M855, and vice versa.
It's strange, but that's how the NIJ testing standards for level 3 and level 4 work currently. There are more than a couple of websites around that do other ad-hoc testing on armor plates and vests to try to do more extensive testing.
As you can see, it's not made of small discs. The reason for this is easy to see, IMO: having one big plate allows for the kynetic energy of the bullet to be spread over a large surface. I.e., instead of getting hit a lot of force in a tiny area as the bullet would do, the victim will get hit with the same force spread across a big area, which will make the pressure per square centimetre much smaller. Using small discs (I guess you mean like chainmail) would probably turn a smallish entry hole into a big one due to the kynetic energy not being spread enough. At least, it would mean having bones breaking and inner tissue rupturing.
Well it all depends how you lay out and support the discs: Dragon Skin Body Armor
--
join my mafia family
He was probably thinking of Dragon Skin which IIRC the military decided was too expensive for our soldiers to wear but kicked the current armor in tests quite badly. Damned shame we can't get rid of the kickbacks and really stupid programs like trying to catch a missile with a missile then maybe we wouldn't have so many of our soldiers coming back in body bags.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
At these ranges wind modeling is mandatory. Even silly Coriolis effects matter. Remember a small perturbation is not so small after 4 seconds of flight (or even 1 second for that matter). Then there is the spin on the bullet which can affect its angle of attack that has even more effect at 3 times the speed of sound. This is not a fist order approximation problem.
The Devil is in the details. *But* it is well understood details. And if you know the details you can predict the trajectory quite accurately. Modern tanks do this, but then they have wind, temperature and humidity sensors in order to do this. In fact they also have a bunch of sensors monitoring the barrels temperature etc too.
The Grey Goo disaster happened 3 billion years ago. This rock is covered in self replicating machines!
Both are true. Also true, however, is the "pushback" from the IP review board, which results in most submitted disclosures being closed (not pursued further) or send back to be refined/rewritten. Typical questions in such review board meetings include importance of the concept, if it's likely to be used in an IBM product, if the concept has been prototyped or validated in some other way (careful analysis, simulation), similarity to prior art, etc.
Actually, your trajectory isn't flat out to 700m. It's just that the range setting on your sight/scope make it look that way.
Assume a spherical horse of uniform density... I mean, assume the bullet has a constant velocity for the entire flight time. For easy math, we'll use a muzzle velocity of 1400m/s, a range of 700m, and call gravity at 10m/s^2. It will take the bullet 0.5 seconds to travel to the target, which means it will fall: (1/2)*(10)*(0.5)^2 or 1.25 meters. Which, if you were going for a center mass shot, would put the bullet into the ground at their feet. Unless they were really tall, and then you might hit their ankle.
However, what the proper range setting does is raise the back side of the sight/scope, which requires the shooter to lower the back end of the weapon to get proper sight alignment and sight picture. This means the weapon is now at an angle, and the bullet will arc through the air so it rises, (in this case), 0.6 meters and then falls 0.6 meters to put it on the line-of-sight just as it arrives at the target. Since most sights/scopes don't have very long range settings, after a certain point they are no longer compensating for the large drop by having it arc higher, and all of the drop due to gravity "shows up".
The bullet also continues to accelerate downwards as it flies so the angle of the weapon changes more dramatically at longer ranges to compensate for the overall drop. That's why it takes more "clicks" of elevation to go from 400 to 500 meters than from 100 to 200 meters.
Reading code is like reading the dictionary - you have to read half of it before you can go back and understand it.
Electronic reflexes are faster than yours. Electronic senses are faster than yours. I would absolutely beg for this kind of armor if I was in a situation where I might take a sniper bullet. There's absolutely no way I could see the muzzle flash, recognize it, judge the bullet, and move out of the path fast enough.
And if you take your idea of an audio/visual cue, you merely add the human reflex time to the machine's..."wtf is that beeping noise?" *arghI'mdead*
Just another "DOJ fascist authoritarian totalitarian bootlicker" -- Zeio
Dragon skin FAILED the testing: http://www.militarytimes.com/static/projects/pages/dragon_skin_release_000121may07.pdf
The adhesive used to hold the little discs on doesn't respond to desert like temps very well; being good armor is about more than performing in pristine lab conditions. The shit has to work when you're in the shit.
I would think it better to use visual HUD and/or audio cues to let the wearer know they are in the path of fire. This whole idea of the suit controlling your movements involuntarily seems like a poor idea created by someone who's probably never actually been shot at before. (note: neither have I)
Actually, it sounds like the creators have been shot at before, or had access to people who have. When you first notice incoming fire, your brain has an almost comical "WTF?" moment that lasts at least a half second. If you're well trained and/or have been shot at before, your "lizard brain" is already screaming at your muscles to get moving. If not, you might stand there for as long as 3 or 4 seconds before you can get your thinker running and get moving. A flashing red light on a HUD indicating "incoming fire" would probably be just enough warning for you to realize you've been hit by enemy fire, so it's not a complete surprise. I'd have loved something like this suit when I was in Afghanistan.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Sorry about that. We'll try to get those US taxpayer dollars to you on the first of the month from now on.
US taxpayer dollars do not pay for locally-developed and produced technology, only technology imported from the US. If I'm not mistaken, the US _imports_ personnel-protection technology from my nation. In fact, it's the fact that _I_ test it in Lebanon that US soldiers can wear it and feel [relatively] safe.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
OK, let's go down the list of possible sources of information, shall we?
Light? No good, the optical field is very confusing, with dust, buildings, etc. There's too much optical noise.
Radar? Oh, yes, that works well to track a small, high velocity object in a similarly cluttered field. Moreover, the radars have to be so scattered that they are also expensive to deploy.
Sound? Several of us have already mentioned the problems with that.