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Energy

Energy Storage for Hybrid Military Vehicles

The benefits of hybrid electric vehicles have been recognized by the U.S. Army and other military services. As a consequence, hybrid vehicles are being considered as future combat and tactical...

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Articles
Unmanned Systems

Update on NASA’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

In the August issue of Defense Tech Briefs, we highlighted NASA’s Altair/Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for Earth science missions. A lot has happened in the past two months, so we’re...

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Articles
Communications

SpaceWire: The Standard for Aerospace Communications

Developed in 1999 under the auspices of the European Space Agency, SpaceWire answered a longstanding spaceflight problem: no standard, high-speed communications protocol existed for flight...

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Tech Transfer Reports
Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Piezoelectric Actuator Amplifies Small Motions

Engineers at Dynamic Structures and Materials, LLC (DSM, Franklin, TN) have used funding from a Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant to squeeze...

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Briefs
Information Technology

Error-Free Data Acquisition and Archival for High-Bandwidth Military Applications

Acquiring data from sensors, transporting the data, and then archiving it for future reference has changed dramatically over the last few years. The...

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Briefs
Information Technology

The Dataflow Interchange Format for Designing DSPs

The dataflow interchange format (DIF) is a conceptual framework for helping designers of digital signal-processing (DSP) systems to integrate diverse dataflow models, dataflow techniques, DSP-design software tools, DSP software libraries, and embedded processing platforms. Somewhat more...

Briefs
Physical Sciences

System for Imaging Turbulent Combustion Flows

Asystem of scientific instrumentation and data-processing equipment has been assembled for research and education in turbulence, mixing, and chemical reactions (especially combustion) in...

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Briefs
Electronics & Computers

Variable-Data-Rate Speech Encoder

Avariable-data-rate (VDR) speech encoder has been designed to be interoperable with, and eventually to supplant, the many different voice encoders now used in military communication systems. Because these...

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Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Apparatus Generates CE-Phase-Stable Two-Cycle Optical Pulses

A n apparatus that includes two optical parametric chirped pulse amplification stages has been built as a means of generating few-cycle, common-envelope (CE)-phase-stable,...

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Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Terahertz Fiber-Optic Lasers for Detection of Explosives

Fiber-optic lasers of a proposed type would serve as sources of coherent radiation at frequencies between 0.5 and 4.0 THz and output power levels ≥100 mW. In the original application...

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Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Research on Quantum Communication Repeaters

A program of research during the years 2001 through 2006 was devoted to building theoretical and practical foundations for the development of quantum repeaters as means of overcoming losses of photons in long-distance quantum communication systems. The idea underlying this research was to investigate...

Briefs
Materials

Alloys for Nozzles of Hypersonic Wind Tunnels

Alloys are being developed for nozzles of hypersonic wind tunnels to be used in testing components of future hypersonic missiles, aircraft, and space transportation systems. The nozzle components...

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Briefs
Materials

Improved Dielectric-Breakdown Property of POSS-Filled Epoxy

A n experimental study has shown that the AC short-term dielectric breakdown potential of material specimens consisting of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) nanoparticles...

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Briefs
Materials

Low-Water-Permeability Encapsulants for Acoustic Sensors

Afamily of improved encapsulating materials for protecting underwater acoustic sensors has been invented. These materials could also be used for encapsulation or protective coating of...

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Briefs
Materials

Castable, Relatively Stiff Acoustic-Damping Materials

A recently invented family of acoustic-damping materials offers advantages over prior acoustic-damping materials:

Briefs
Physical Sciences

Novel Methods of Detecting Buried Explosive Devices

Several novel methods of detecting landmines and other buried explosive devices have been proposed and are subjects of continuing research. The use of trained dogs has been shown to be an...

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Briefs
Physical Sciences

All-Dielectric, Non-Electronic Radio-Receiver Front Ends

All-dielectric, non-electronic, photonicassisted front ends are being developed as alternatives to traditional metal antennas and the associated metal connections and input electronic...

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Briefs
Physical Sciences

Liquid-Crystal-Particle Thermometry and Velocimetry System

A three-dimensional (3D) defocusing liquid-crystal-particle thermometry and velocimetry (3DDLCPTV) system has been designed and constructed (but not yet operated) for use in...

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Briefs
Information Technology

Thwarting Code-Injection Attacks Using SDT-Based ISR

An improved method has been devised for defending a server or other computer against a code-injection attack, in which an attacker exploits a hardware or software vulnerability to inject...

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Briefs
Information Technology

Some Advances in Digital-Image Forensics

A program of research in the forensic analysis of digital images has yielded several proposed techniques for automated image-data processing to answer questions concerning the source, authenticity, and integrity of a given image or set of images. The need for such techniques arises because the ease with...

Briefs
Information Technology

Parametric Design of Three-Dimensional Hydrodynamic Shapes

A method of parametric design of bodies having arbitrary three- dimensional shapes has been invented. The method is intended mainly for use in the design, analysis, and manufacture...

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Briefs
Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Establishment of a Center for Defense Robotics

A document presents an overview of the recently established Joint Center for Unmanned Ground Vehicles (JC-UGV), located at the Army's Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Michigan. The JC-UGV is intended to become the central facility for managing all phases of the life cycles of military robotic ground...

Briefs
Information Technology

Development of Adaptive and Reflective Middleware

A report describes Phase II of the Adaptive and Reflective Middleware Systems (ARMS) program, which was focused on developing an adaptive and reflective network Quality-of-Service (QoS) infrastructure for the Total Ship Computing Environment (TSCE). Conceived for the next generation of Navy...

Products

Object Detection and Screening

Brijot Imaging Systems, Orlando, FL, has introduced the BIS-WDS® GEN 2 object detection and people screening system that provides security officials with an effective method of detecting and locating...

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Products

Night Vision Systems

The Owl® and Prowler® night vision systems from B.E. Meyers & Co., Redmond, WA, can couple to 35-mm, CCD, and digital cameras along with C-Mount and 35-mm objective lenses, telescopes, microscopes, and...

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Products

Military Training Simulation Software

Aptima, Inc., Woburn, MA, has announced the DDD 4.0 desktop simulation software for training military and civilian teams. DDD can model a range of environments, including AWACS air battle management,...

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Products

Privacy Filters

3M, St. Paul, MN, has introduced an expanded line of the 3M™ Privacy Filters for laptop computers and LCD monitors to make data visible only to persons directly in front of the screen. The microlouver technology works...

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Products

Notebook/Tablet PC

GETAC, Lake Forest, CA, has announced the V100 convertible PC featuring an LCD screen that instantly transforms from a notebook into a tablet PC. The portable V100 features ultra-quiet fanless design and includes a range of standard features, including a 10.4" screen, power-saving 1.2 GHz Intel® Core™ Duo...

Products

Mobile Communications Systems

NEC Unified Solutions, Irving, TX, has announced its Mobile Voice and Data Unit, a mobile communications system that enables secure communications during disaster recovery. The system provides wireless voice, data, and video communications to government agencies and first responders during emergency situations. The...