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Snakes, Robots, and the War on Terrorism

It's mighty daunting to be called a " brilliant young innovator" whose " work and ideas are apt to change the world…a visitor from the future, living among us here and now." Talk about pressure. But that's exactly what MIT's Technology Review Magazine called Howie Choset, mechanical engineer and...

November 01, 2002

Advanced Sonar Makes Quick Transition into Mine Reconnaissance System

Arlington, VA -- The Unmanned Undersea Vehicle office at the Naval Sea Systems Command has announced the rapid transition of synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) into the Long Term Mine Reconnaissance System (LMRS). The Office of Naval Research's Commercial Technology Transition Office made possible the...

October 28, 2002

Visceral Reality

The stuff of Army and Marine Corps boot camp is legendary - mud, grueling marches, hours of, climbing and crawling with the requisite 100-lb pack, through smoke, barbed wire, gun and missile fire, with sweat, little sleep, scanty rations, and punishing, in-your-face "trainers." The culminating final...

October 03, 2002

Robots Powered by the Ocean Itself

They call them "gliders," but these move through water instead of air. Two new robotic gliders—autonomous underwater vehicles—powered by changes in their own buoyancy or by different temperature layers in the ocean—will be tested opera-tionally off Southern California this winter. Both gliders were...

October 02, 2002

Detecting Breast Cancer with a New Algorithm

What does remote sensing for camouflaged enemy ground vehicles have to do with breast cancer diagnosis? By next year, perhaps plenty. A smart sensor fusion algorithm modeled on the human visual/brain "unsupervised" learning system and a 200 channel hyperspectral remote sensing capability have been...

September 04, 2002

From Tanks to Tumors

What does remote sensing for camouflaged enemy ground vehicles have to do with breast cancer diagnosis? By next year, perhaps plenty. Both find threats in hidden in innocent clutter. The Office of Naval Research's newly developed 200 channel hyperspectral remote sensing capability — modeled on the...

August 22, 2002

Tagging the Great White Shark…and a Few of His Friends

What will some 4,000 of the smartest dressed elephant seals, tuna fish, albatrosses, leatherback sea turtles, great white sharks, and other pelagic megafauna in the Pacific all be wearing in the coming seasons? How about the latest in microprocessor-based electronic tags, some no bigger than...

August 22, 2002

Reversing the Sounds of Silence

Hearing Loss Pill Coming on Market For the last several years, the Office of Naval Research has funded the research of Colonel Richard D. Kopke, MD, and Commander Michael E. Hoffer, MD, at Naval Medical Center San Diego on the prevention and restoration of hearing loss — loss that is due to...

July 25, 2002

Better Than Bar Codes, Bar None

That bar code on your cereal box holds information read by a laser scanner. It's not much information, but it's enough to let the supermarket take your money, keep track of inventory, follow trends in customer preference, and restock its shelves. Scanners and bar codes speed up checkout, but they've...

July 25, 2002

Navy and Marines Enlist Industry for Transformation

Arlington, VA -- The Office of Naval Research is sponsoring the 3rd Annual Naval-Industry Research and Development Partnership Conference in Washington, DC, August 13-14, 2002. Dedicated to industry's role in transforming the Navy and Marine Corps to meet the challenges of the new century, these...

July 22, 2002