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Sunday, October 14, 2012 11:38:32 PM
Army blast sensors measure an explosion's effect on the entire body
By Liat Clark - 27 July 12
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One thousand soldiers are due to start carrying blast sensors in Afghanistan that measure the effects of explosions on a victim's entire body.
The four sensors will be fitted into a one-kilogram Soldier Body Unit (SBU) pack worn by the soldier across their armour plate from August, 2012. Each sensor sends signals to the other and records the data needed to better understand the cause of concussions and traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The plan is to gather as much data as possible about how the whole body is affected and send it to the Joint Trauma Analysis and Prevention of Injury in Combat centre so that medical staff can learn how to better treat soldiers in the aftermath of an explosion.
"We're trying to get the data while we still can," explained Amy O'Brien of the US army's Rapid Equipping Force (REF), which worked with Georgia Tech to develop the sensors. "I don't want this to sound wrong, but the data we collect from these explosions is very important for us to measure how these blasts affect a soldier's head and body."
Unlike the blast gauges that came before, such as the 20,000 Headborne Energy Analysis and Diagnostic Systems .. http://tiny.cc/ara7lw .. in use, SBU does not just record what happens to the soldier's head when a blast hits -- it records the trajectory, however minor, to the soldier's entire body, with two sensors fixed to the back and two to the chest. Previous models also only switched on when there was a pressure change, whereas the SBU constantly runs. Soldiers need to also undergo an Eye-Tracking Rapid Attention Computation .. http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00743821 .. test prior to being given a pack, so medics have a baseline against which to compare the soldier's abilities post-trauma.
The technology is one part of the Integrated Blast Effects Sensor Suite (IBESS) that includes a series of sensors in army vehicles and soldiers' helmets (42 vehicles will soon be installed with floor- and seat-mounted accelerometers). IBESS was launched in November 2011 but field-testing is only just beginning for the new hardware. The sensor packs were ordered on 23 July to initially be carried by 1,000 soldiers before possibly ordering more in bulk, following a committee meeting on the use and practicalities of blast sensors going forward (due to be held in September 2012).
So far, the only argument against the costly £1,590 packs from soldiers that have tested them is their weight, which is down to the batteries and protective plastic packing (so they survive the blast intact). REF believes the pack can eventually be reduced in weight to about 220g, and cost when they are mass-produced.
According to a 2011 report .. http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG720z1.html , around 320,000 US soldiers have experienced a TBI since October 2001 in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a result, the US army has been investing in TBI sensors for several years now, with Darpa developing .. http://darpainfo.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/army-device-will-gauge-blast-hits-on.html .. its own version and the University of Pennsylvania even engineering a nanosensor patch in 2010 .. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-11/30/blast-sensors .. that changes colour according to the strength of a blast. The benefit of technologies such as the colour-changing patch and SBU is that soldiers that refuse to admit or believe they are injured will get the treatment they need when the data reveals the extent of the blast force on their body.
Source: Military.com .. http://www.military.com/daily-news/2012/07/27/army-ships-out-next-gen-blast-sensors.html?ESRC=topstories.RSS
Image: Shutterstock
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/27/army-blast-sensors
.. prompted by a radio report just now that Australian soldiers
in Afghanistan are being fitted with similar?/same? devices ..
By Liat Clark - 27 July 12
Related features
* US to launch supercomputer-equipped blimp in Afghanistan
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/18/us-supercomputer-blimp-in-afghanistan
* US army builds lightning bolt laser weapon
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/28/lightning-bolt-laser
* US army seeking new shooter game featuring suicide bombers, by 2013
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-08/01/us-army-shooter-game
* Teeny-tiny drone fires teeny-tiny missile (gulp)
[ .. the Arcturus .. "it's even painted camouflage, like Stallone in Rambo." .. ]
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-05/23/teeny-tiny-drone-fires-teeny-tiny-missile
One thousand soldiers are due to start carrying blast sensors in Afghanistan that measure the effects of explosions on a victim's entire body.
The four sensors will be fitted into a one-kilogram Soldier Body Unit (SBU) pack worn by the soldier across their armour plate from August, 2012. Each sensor sends signals to the other and records the data needed to better understand the cause of concussions and traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The plan is to gather as much data as possible about how the whole body is affected and send it to the Joint Trauma Analysis and Prevention of Injury in Combat centre so that medical staff can learn how to better treat soldiers in the aftermath of an explosion.
"We're trying to get the data while we still can," explained Amy O'Brien of the US army's Rapid Equipping Force (REF), which worked with Georgia Tech to develop the sensors. "I don't want this to sound wrong, but the data we collect from these explosions is very important for us to measure how these blasts affect a soldier's head and body."
Unlike the blast gauges that came before, such as the 20,000 Headborne Energy Analysis and Diagnostic Systems .. http://tiny.cc/ara7lw .. in use, SBU does not just record what happens to the soldier's head when a blast hits -- it records the trajectory, however minor, to the soldier's entire body, with two sensors fixed to the back and two to the chest. Previous models also only switched on when there was a pressure change, whereas the SBU constantly runs. Soldiers need to also undergo an Eye-Tracking Rapid Attention Computation .. http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00743821 .. test prior to being given a pack, so medics have a baseline against which to compare the soldier's abilities post-trauma.
The technology is one part of the Integrated Blast Effects Sensor Suite (IBESS) that includes a series of sensors in army vehicles and soldiers' helmets (42 vehicles will soon be installed with floor- and seat-mounted accelerometers). IBESS was launched in November 2011 but field-testing is only just beginning for the new hardware. The sensor packs were ordered on 23 July to initially be carried by 1,000 soldiers before possibly ordering more in bulk, following a committee meeting on the use and practicalities of blast sensors going forward (due to be held in September 2012).
So far, the only argument against the costly £1,590 packs from soldiers that have tested them is their weight, which is down to the batteries and protective plastic packing (so they survive the blast intact). REF believes the pack can eventually be reduced in weight to about 220g, and cost when they are mass-produced.
According to a 2011 report .. http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG720z1.html , around 320,000 US soldiers have experienced a TBI since October 2001 in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a result, the US army has been investing in TBI sensors for several years now, with Darpa developing .. http://darpainfo.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/army-device-will-gauge-blast-hits-on.html .. its own version and the University of Pennsylvania even engineering a nanosensor patch in 2010 .. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-11/30/blast-sensors .. that changes colour according to the strength of a blast. The benefit of technologies such as the colour-changing patch and SBU is that soldiers that refuse to admit or believe they are injured will get the treatment they need when the data reveals the extent of the blast force on their body.
Source: Military.com .. http://www.military.com/daily-news/2012/07/27/army-ships-out-next-gen-blast-sensors.html?ESRC=topstories.RSS
Image: Shutterstock
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/27/army-blast-sensors
.. prompted by a radio report just now that Australian soldiers
in Afghanistan are being fitted with similar?/same? devices ..
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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