Heart Beat Sensors
Last update : July 2002 : T143
NEWSGROUP EXTRACT RAVEN
SHIELD
RAVEN
SHIELD
The release of Raven Shield will see
a dramatic change in the way that players will see the
data gathered by the Heartbeat sensor. Previously where
data has been displayed on the map allowing the player
to see the location of enemies or hostages, the new HBS
(Heart Beat Sensor) will provide
"more realisic" (my quote not Ubi's) data to the player
The HBS device will change from the
hand held scanner device to a visual device similar to
a set of goggles, requiring the player too "look" through
it and around their environment acquiring data. The visual
representation of a Heart Beat will comprise of a pulsating
circle. At the E3 show an in game demonstration of this,
showed the player using the HBS much the same as a set
of binoculars, and looking at the other members of his
team seeing the pulsating circles eminating from their
chests.
When the HBS is used through a wall
all the player will see is the pulsating Circles, and
the direction from the player. No distance, or readily
visible indication of good guy/bad guy/hostages, so it
should be a little more intense entering a room. During
the demo, the demonstator did say that it was possible
to "deduce" who the bad guys and the hostages were, but
his reasoning behind this could bring additional problems
for players who don't know the location of the other team
members.
Bascially, if there are two heartbeats
in a room, and one is slightly faster than the other then,
it is logical to assume, that the faster heartbeat belongs
to a person not trained, or comfortable with their situation
i.e. a hostage/civilian. This obviously doesn't apply
if there is only one heartbeat, and if there are lots,
then good luck or patience will be required, and considering
that we can assume that the players other team members
will be as well trained then their Heart Beats may be
harder to distingush from the bad guys
NEWSGROUP EXTRACT
(affidari)
I don't expect anybody to have hard evidence, but is it possible
that certain agencies use real heartbeat sensors??? (or similar
recon devices)?
(Brian
Upton of RedStorm) We _thought_ they were real
when we were originally designing the game with Tom ... . Unfortunately
the claims of the companies selling these devices have so far
not been bourne out in independent tests. R6 was already out by
the time this information got out and the HB sensors were too
popular to cut from RS. In reality, HR teams do have a lot of
intelligence about where their targets are in the building, but
it's through combining inputs from a variety of sources: listening
devices, motion sensors, small cameras, direct observation --
they just don't have a little hand-held device like the HB sensor.
(Chris L)
There is a little device out on the market, that will detect
thermal signatures of game (animal or human) being tracked for
hunters. I seriously doubt, it'd work through concrete walls though.
It's called the GF-Pro Game Finder and retails for $300 US. Closest
thing I could find to a HBS, 1000 yards in open terrain, 150 yards
in heavy brush.
(rufus)
my local fire department was testing a device a while ago that
allowed them to find people in buildings using thermal imagery
(Chris
L) How would that work in a burning house?
Body heat is quite a bit lower than flames, so?
(Day)
Heh heh, very good point, Chris! ;)
(Sam)
I am not an expert in thermal imaging devices but have used one
that we refer to as a TIC (Themal Imaging Camera). The device
is optimized for use in fires and to be used with breathing apparatus.
In my experience, the TIC is extremely useful in a smoke filled
environment to identify "hot spots." Within a reasonable range
(I can't remember exactly what range but somewhere less than 20'),
the shapes of people can be distinguished from other "hot spots."
The TIC's display is a simple monochrome screen set to "white
hot" (hot items appear white and cool items appear dark, with
gradations of course).
(Brain Upton of Redstorm)
When I was in grad school we were doing a lot of virtual reality
and augmented reality experiments for the DOD. One of the techs
they wanted to explore was a HUD for Navy firefighters. Apparently
shipboard fires can be really nasty because the smoke in the confined
compartments reduces visibility to absolute zero. The Navy wanted
to project VR data on the inside of a fireman's breathing apparatus
faceplate. The idea was that the fireman would see a wireframe
of the compartment he was in superimposed over his view of the
real world so he wouldn't get lost. Tracking data gathered from
other sailors would be integrated so he could find them if they
needed to be rescued. (The biggest problem with the system turned
out to be position tracking. Ships are big hunks of metal which
hoses GPS and traditional magnetic tracking. And optical and infrared
schemes are screwed up by all the smoke and hot spots.)
(Sam)
This is very interesting stuff. I have had the great "pleasure"
of attending several Navy damage control courses and I can tell
you from experience that when you enter a smoke filled compartment
the visibility drops to exactly 2.3 cm (the distance from your
eyeball to the visor of the BA). Getting around depends on : luck,
feel, and a knowledge of the compartment. Finding your way out
often depends on following the hose back out of the compartment.
The visibility is so bad that determining the source of the fire
is often difficult and this is why the Thermal Cameras are used
to locate hot spots. The technology that you describe would be
great for all the reasons that you have mentioned but the positional
accuracy would have to be exceptionally good and the database
of objects exceptionally large to generat a synthetic environment
that would be useful (ever seen how cluttered the inside of a
warship is?). Did you consider instead a synthetic imaging system
based on some sort of echo ranging to generate the imagery required?
(Undertaker) The
commercial name is the XLT lifeguard in the US i beleive the one
Tom Clancy modelled it off anyways
further Reading
http://www.dklabs.com/products.html
http://www.ensco.com/MicroSearch/
July 2000
