NEW TECHNOLOGIES
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www.oxleygroup.com
05 Oct 05. Zinc Cadmium Sulphide (ZCS): Public Reassurance. The MoD issued assurances that ZCS tests conducted during the 1960s in Norwich posed no threat to the public. ZCS was used as an air movement tracer in order to simulate the airborne dissemination of biological warfare agents. Comment: The official reassurances were issued following media reports about possible risks associated with ZCS. Following earlier concerns, a review of the trials was commissioned in 1999. The review (‘Penetration of built up areas by aerosols at night, 28th March 1963’) reported in February 2000 and concluded that there was no danger to public health or any evidence of diseases associated with cadmium toxicity. (Source: DNA DEFENCE NEWS ANALYSIS, Issue 05/38, 07 Oct 05)
04 Oct 05. Plextek, the UK-based electronics specialist showed its new BlightER Asset Management system during AUSA. This is a low-cost high performance accurate asset tracking system for accurate short and medium range asset/personnel location and ID. The system comprises of many lightweight, low power tags that can transmit their ID and location to a central base station. The tag utilises a sensitive GPS receiver to give an accurate position and proprietary low power ultra narrow-band telemetry technology that can transmit this location and the ID of the tag to a digital receiver module. Each tag ID and location is overlaid on a map of the area displayed on a PC or laptop, or the BlightER radar screen. Each receiver is capable of handling up to 1000 tags and the system is designed to operate on sites of up to 10km radius. “We see this as an added capability to or BlightER radar system,” David Taylor told BATTLESPACE, the system will give the BlightER radar user an added capability for Border and building surveillance capabilities. We hope to announce the first customer for our BlightER in due course.”
06 Oct 05. Iridium is providing critical satellite links for a new mobile system that uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to track the movement of critical military supplies in forward operating areas. The Portable Deployment Kit (PDK), developed by Savi Technology, Inc., and NAL Research Ltd., is a lightweight mobile RFID solution that addresses the challenge of extending supply-chain visibility directly into the Area of Operations, where there is no infrastructure of fixed RFID readers. The U.S. Marine Corps plans to deploy 100 initial units in Southwest Asia in coming months. The PDK is a mobile checkpoint solution that integrates several automatic identification and data collection (AIDC) technologies, including bar codes, 2D bar codes, active RFID, GPS positioning and Iridium satellite data modem, all in a single carrying case that can easily be transported by a single person and powered by a vehicle’s battery. The system collects and processes data from active RFID tags on equipment pallets and containers, then transmits it along with GPS position information through the Iridium satellite network to the Department of Defense In-Transit Visibility (ITV) network server. ITV is the world’s largest active RFID cargo tracking system, which Savi Technology helped to build. It extends across more than 1,500 locations.
04 Oct 05. Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing has announced Advantage-Zeta, a new radar scan converter that combines radar signal acquisition and scan conversion on a single PCI card. The new PCI card uniquely offers radar display designers the highest performance while maintaining a minimal slot count. “Advantage-Zeta combines Curtiss-Wright’s scan conversion and radar acquisition technology onto a single board solution that frees the PCI bus and host computer while simplifying system architectures,” said Darwin Beckel, president, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, Subsystems Solutions. “This new PCI card complements our existing radar ac