SubscribeLooking back to the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq it is most evident that the vast majority of the casualties suffered by American and European forces have been amongst ground troops and specifically in situations of urban guerrilla or, more in general, entry in areas in which intelligence is scarce if not absent.
In modern warfare it is now possible, through several systems such as satellite imaging and UAVs, to gain extensive knowledge of the battlefield and surroundings without risking human lives to gather such information.
The only environment in which technology has not yet granted risk-free retrieval of visual information is that of close quarter ground operations in closed areas such as buildings, caves and similar structures that make satellite imaging useless.
Given the higher and higher degree of media coverage and general public concern over military operations and the risks they carry we believe that there is an ever increasing need of solving in a effective, simple and economic way the issue of extending the soldier’s perception of the environment he is about to face. At Macroswiss we have dedicated much time and effort in the analysis possible scenarios and risks and we have managed to generate several ideas and prototypes which, grouped together, make up our Extended Combat Capabilities (ECC) concept.
The idea behind the ECC concept is that of getting visual and audio information on a short range distance from areas in which the risk of entering without a detailed knowledge of the contents would be significant. The Extended Combat Capabilities concept integrates several systems to extend the soldier’s perception of the surrounding environment through the use of spying, observation and listening systems that can be deployed from a distance and combat robots, the situation evaluation and intervention possibilities are potentiated, thus reducing the risks of loss and wounding of human personnel in high-risk scenarios.
The heart of the ECC concept that was first presented to the public at the recent DSEi 2003 exhibition in London is represented by the ECC controller which is a prototype of a wearable interface for the ECC system which can receive video information from all the products of the ECC line. In order not to hinder mobility and backpack carrying capacity the ECC controller has been designed as a front wearable unit as exemplified in the artist rendering and the first generation prototype computer designs showed.
The system can be built both in Nylon or Kevlar™ and therefore can grant different levels of extra bullet protection to the wearer in vital areas. In case high levels of protection are needed external ballisitic ceramic plates can be added to the structure. The ECC Controller has a video input selector which allows the choice of the incoming images to be displayed thus granting the possibility to an entire squad to have visual information on the scenario they are facing and to switch easily from video input from one system to another.
The prototype units shown at DSEi are characterized by their light weight (1.5 Kg in 20 mm thick Nylon) granted by the use of composite materials such as carbon fibre and ultra lightweight Lithium Polymer batteries. We believe that every gram that is saved in a body wearable object will give extra carrying capacity to the soldier and reduce the amount of discomfort generated by it’s use thus granting extra ease of field utilization.
The basic ECC controller is just a simple receiver with a 4 inch colour LCD monitor (optional versions can have bigger videos) but more advanced versions can be made to control bidirectional systems such as the Macroswiss Spybot, Crawler and Tankbot systems. The first active component of the ECC line is the Spyeye which has been developed as a prototype to rapidly install a video security perimeter system.
The Spyeye is based on standard commercial radio transmitting technology (2.4 GHz, 300 mt. Line Of Sight range) and gives several hours (indicatively 12 hours) of performance before needing a battery change. On specific request special frequencies, ranges and cameras (B/W, thermal, IR, etc…) can be custom fitted in the system in order to fulfill customer requirements.
An outstanding characteristic of the units shown at DSEi is their reduced size (the central sphere is smaller than a ping-pong ball) and weight (under 50 grams) that make them ideal to carry in small pockets without hindering the user in any way. The spyeye demo versions are in shock-resistant Nylon and use Litium non-rechargable batteries. Units for clients can be made with rechargeable batteries if necessary.
The Spyeye can stick to any flat surface through an adhesive pad or on ferrous materials using an internal magnet or can be nailed on irregular materials using the specifically built features. Once the Spyeye is fixed to the substrate the camera can be aimed precisely at the area which needs to be monitored thanks to the universal joints that are part of the design.
Typical uses of a Spyeye can be the preparation of a rapid video surveillance perimeter composed of several cameras around a temporary campsite or in substitution of a rearguard sentinel to check if enemies at short range are stalking ground forces. Another interesting possibility is to mount the units on the soldiers helmets facing backwards so to have a monitoring of potential threats coming from the rear.
Another important feature of the Spyeye is that it has been designed in order to be a potentially disposable unit (projected costs of a commercial standard trim unit make it viable to abandon them if necessary, once they have been used) thus making it more economical and incentivating its use in every circumstance in which it might be helpful to have such a system in operation.
As for every Macroswiss product customization can be total both for the ECC controller and the Spyeye and extra features and capabilities can be engineered in the product (since all the plastic parts in our units are Laser Sintered Nylon we have no need of metal dies to produce our units therefore virtually every single unit could be made to a different geometry if necessary). The other products in the ECC line (Short Range Throwing Camera, Spybot, Crawler and Tankbot) will be featured in the next article on the ECC concept that will be published shortly.
