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."
I think that's pretty cool. Wouldn't want to do the implementation, though.
9 comments:
Pointless would be a better word for it.
Anyone that stands still in a firefight gets everything he deserves.
I think it's probably more likely to be used by politicians who feel themselves at risk from a sniper. ;o)
Are you thinking of anybody in particular?
This is also a way of clearing policemen from your path.
Consider; does the armour know the difference between a bullet from afar, or a bean-bag from near by? Can it tell the difference between a punch you want to move out of the way from or a push you want to respond to? If the armour converts all incoming objects in to a running-away instruction, then even a midget like me can flail about (watch out for tasers) and see the armour animate the officer in the other direction. It would be like a version of Wii fit.
I can't even see how they would get in to their own police cars. As soon as they open the door towards themselves, the armour goes 'incoming object' and makes them run away to the other side of the car park. If several officers were trying to get in to get in to their cars in the car park at the same time, the armour would keep reading each approaching officer, and the place would end up looking like a multi-ball pinball table. Eventually, they'd all have to reach a point of rest and stand very, very still until somebody figured a way to turn off the armour.
@WOAR: I'm loving all these ideas. :o)
Give me a 0.50 Barrett and a mile and I'll happily let politicians test it out.
Oh, and a big big box of ammo.
http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.4930
The Penguin
The only problem is the "earth" its a big copper anal probe.
If it could be hacked into and fooled into thinking many projectiles were on the way you could control motion of the wearer.
I wonder if it would continue to work if the wearer were dead...
Now the Barrett takes a mag of 5 bloody huge 0.5 calibre 'bullets' (look more like cannon shells). A good sniper fires twice, once to get you moving forwards and the second to be where you are moving to. If the armour moves you back you get hit by bullet number 1. Otherwise it's number 2. These bullets blow a body in half! Bang bang, you're dead!
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