• Stab-proof vests for soccer fans going to South Africa for the World Cup

    This summer’s soccer World Cup in South Africa is going to be poorly attended because many soccer fans have decided not to make the trip: they are not convinced they will be safe in the crime-ridden country; a London-based company hopes to capitalize on this fear by offering soccer fans stab-proof vests; the South African authorities condemn the venture

  • NOAA produces images of Haiti for first responders

    The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) is using its geographic surveillance UAVs to help provide first responders on the ground in Haiti with high resolution images of disaster sites

  • Police camera use puts focus on privacy in public

    South Portland, Maine, police is using automated license plate recognition CCTV which targets traffic scofflaws — but it is connected to a centralized databank which helps the policy pick up people who are wanted on warrants and other potential offenders; supporters say new license-plate recognition technology will improve the safety

  • Fire-fighting robots developed

    Sheffield-Hallam University develop fire-fighting robots; these robots carry individualized laser-range, radio-signal and ultrasound sensors that are designed for specific tasks such as warning of toxic materials, providing and maintaining mobile communication links, or inferring localization information

  • Israeli ducted-fan sky-jeep in flight trials

    Fancraft technology is different from hovercraft technology, because hovercrafts cannot actually fly; fancraft technology involves the use of a basic idea: ducted fans, which are essentially enclosed helicopter rotor discs; until now, the technology faced two problems: small thrust discs mean very low efficiency, leading to aircraft with unacceptably poor fuel endurance and payload even in the context of helicopters; secondly, in the past, the ducted-fan machines were almost impossible to control; an Israeli company says it has solved at least the second problem

  • China and India pursue anti-satellite kill technology

    The space arms race accelerates, as China and India announced the development of hit-to-kill anti-satellite weapons; the United States has been developing this technology for years – but since the U.S. military and economy are much more dependent on satellites, the United States becomes more vulnerable as more countries acquire anti-satellite capabilities

  • Councils use CCTV to collect £3 million in “ghost” parking tickets every year

    More and more councils in the United Kingdom use CCTVs to issue automatic tickets for parking violations; throughout England, 265 local authorities collected £328 million in parking fines last year — more than three times as much as speed cameras raked in; motoring groups argue these “ghost tickets” are unfair because motorists do not know they had been fined until afterward, it is more difficult to check signs and mount an appeal

  • Court finds Taser use by police officer during traffic stop was “excessive force”

    In what legal scholars describe as a landmark ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit could set the first broad judicial standards for the use of Tasers; the case involves a California police officer who tased a passive driver during a routine traffic stop in 2005; the court found that the facts of the case clearly show that the driver was never a threat to the officer

  • Collecting – and interpreting -- sensor data

    The U.S. military is relying an ever-greater number of cameras and sensors to collect information; there is a need to turn this mountain of data feeds into usable information for soldiers; Virginia-based Samoff offers its TerraSight product as a solution

  • Robotic cockroaches to help military, law enforcement

    Cockroaches can run fast, turn on a dime, move easily over rough terrain, and react to perturbations faster than a nerve impulse can travel; running cockroach robots could serve valuable roles in difficult jobs, such as military operations, law enforcement, or space exploration. Related technology might also be applied to improve the function of prosthetic limbs for amputees, or serve other needs

  • U.S. Army emphasizes new body armor

    The U.S. Army wants better armor for its soldiers; weight has long been an issue with the body armor the Pentagon issues to troops, and the Pentagon has signed an $18.6-million contract with KDH Defense Systems to send 57,000 new, lighter plate carriers to Afghanistan to decrease the load soldiers carry

  • Israel's military avatar: Robots on the battlefield, II

    With self-detonating grenades, thinking bullets and robot warriors, humans on the frontline could soon be a thing of the past; Israel’s military industries develop robotic systems to aid soldiers in the field, but also to ward off threats from afar

  • Israel's military avatar: Robots on the battlefield, I

    With self-detonating grenades, thinking bullets and robot warriors, humans on the frontline could soon be a thing of the past When armies clash in the not-too-distant future, remotely operated robotic weapons will fight the enemy on land, in the air, and at sea, without a human soldier anywhere on the battlefield. The first robotic systems are already being used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and other armies across the world, and only budgetary constraints seem to be keeping science fiction from becoming reality.

  • Delays in delivery of bunker-busting weapons to U.S. Air Force

    The 14-ton steel pencil – aka God’s Rods — is the ideal weapon for destroying Iran’s underground nuclear weapons facilities; marrying the bunker-busting ordnance to the bat-winged B-2 Spirit Stealth bomber would mean a smaller strike force and fewer casualties in the event of a military action against Iran; it is reported that there are delays in delivering the bombs

  • New radio system is working “flawlessly”

    When the switch was flipped Tuesday morning on Kandiyohi County’s, Minnesota, new 800-megahertz radio system, emergency personnel had no idea the unique technology would be put to such quick use.