US Air Force getting Matrix-style camera to see bullets in slo-mo

Apparently, the US military forces have hired some seriously good R&D help, as we've seen the Navy's 8-Megajoule railgun, the Army's war-tested iRobots, and now the Air Force has something of their own to boast about. Nova Sensors of Solvang, California has designed the Variable Acuity Superpixel Technology (VAST) system, which is reportedly capable of tracking "anything slower than a bullet," but the shifty part is that this camera can home in on speeding shells as well, hopefully lending a hand in protecting soldiers in the years to come. The machine focuses on heat bursts emitted in the infrared range by moving bullets in order to detect an incoming projectile; ideally, it would be connected to "active armor" that could move, expand, or otherwise protect an individual or a entire platoon if a stray (or purposeful) bullet was headed their way. The system includes software that "mimics the fovea in human and animal eyes," and essentially provides high-resolution focal points of the incoming shells while making everything else low-resolution in order to showcase what's really important life-threatening. While we're fairly certain these guys won't be coming out with a commercial rendition suitable to block those laser-guided office missiles that nail you in the kneecap every morning, be sure to click on through for a short demonstration of VAST in action.

[netposer @ Feb 9th 2007 9:26AM]

Sweet. Marines now can lean back like Neo and dodge bullets.

[KYDS3K @ Feb 9th 2007 10:49AM]

Now I'm envisioning a whole platoon of soldiers all dodging every bullet while charging in . . . crazy!

[Steven Braun @ Feb 9th 2007 11:12AM]

Let's hope the other sides soldiers can dodge their bullets too.

[Ottergoose @ Feb 9th 2007 11:10PM]

I'd say the USAF has always had the best toys. The MQ-1 Predator, RQ-4 Global Hawk, B-2 Spirit, B-1B Lancer, F-22 Raptor, and F-117A Nighthawk come to mind. Imagine what they're working on that we don't know about yet.

[Lee @ Feb 9th 2007 4:42PM]

lets hope they give it to us english so we can doge their shots