http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/news/Nov2000/a20001113digitalmp.html
Soldiers test `Digital MP System'
by Trish Warrick
FORT POLK, La. (Army News Service, Nov. 13, 2000) Military Police could see
around corners, through trees and in the dark as they tested the Army's new
"Digital MP System" this month at Fort Polk, La.
Patrolmen wore eyeglass-mounted miniature cameras providing "streaming
video" to their partners. Viewing screens in the eyeglasses also allowed
the MPs to check the faces of suspects they stopped against digital mug
shots of known offenders.
Fort Polk's 91st Military Police Detachment soldiers became the first MPs
to test the system Oct. 30 to Nov. 3. Representatives of the U.S. Army
Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass., brought the Digital MP System to
Fort Polk. They were joined by members of the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency and a number of contractor teams wanting to see how the
system would work on real soldiers.
The Digital MP is a durable, lightweight, wearable communications and
information management system designed to help carry out reconnaissance,
checkpoint security, anti-terrorism operations and other MP missions, said
program manager Henry Girolamo, Natick Soldiers Center.
The backbone of the Digital MP is a wearable computer developed by ViA
Inc., MicroOptical Corp and Honeywell Inc. and tailored to the mission
requirements of the MP soldier, Girolamo said. The Digital MP's support
features include a hands-free, voice-operated interface and a battery that
provides day-long power on a single charge. It features peripherals such as:
* An audiovisual system with built-in miniature camera for face
recognition and image display plus a noise-cancelling microphone and
bone-conduction microphone/earphone for voice recognition, all incorporated
in a pair of normal-size eyeglass frames
* A BDU-pocket-sized "military e-book" readable even in strong sunlight or
pale starlight (with night vision goggles) that emits no light to give away
a soldier's position
* An electronic glove that can function like a computer mouse with the
e-book and translate hand signals into words on other soldiers'
eyeglass-mounted viewers
The Digital MP system can connect a military police team wirelessly and in
ways never before possible, officials said.
The eyeglass-mounted camera provides streaming video, which means "it can
transmit to me what another MP is looking at even though I can't see him,"
said Sgt. Michael Sauer, Special Reaction Team noncommissioned officer in
charge, 91st MP Det.
An MP making a traffic stop or manning a checkpoint can take live videos
which are checked against digital mug shots stored in the National Crime
Interdiction Center database, Sauer said, so he's quickly alerted if the
person stopped has a criminal record. On deployment, the system can warn
him that he's dealing with a suspected terrorist or war criminal.
An MP on patrol can use the e-book to quickly help others locate what he
sees. "Say he's on recon, looking at the terrain," said Sauer. "He sees
enemy tanks." Using traditional methods, the soldier plots coordinates on a
paper map, calls the TOC on the radio and another soldier plots the
coordinates on another map. With Digital MP, "He puts the icon on the map
and sends it to the operations center," Sauer said.
With the electronic glove, MPs separated by thick woods, buildings or
darkness can still communicate silently with the familiar hand signals for
"Suspect armed!" and other vital information.
The adapted Nomex flight glove, with bend sensors in each finger and in the
wrist, pressure sensors in the index and middle fingertips and 2-degree
tilt sensors, renders preprogrammed gestures as words in fellow MPs'
eyeglass display monitors. The glove works when the signaler doesn't have
line of sight communication with the others and doesn't want to give away
his position by speaking, said Sauer.
The glove also functions like a mouse with the e-book, guiding the cursor
with the tilt sensor and using the pressure sensors as right and left
clicks. When silence is necessary, as on patrol, the glove can override the
voice-operated system.
The Digital MP can be programmed to continuously translate speech from
English to another language and vice versa with only a five-second lag.
Presently it can handle Spanish, Korean, Arabic, German, French, Italian,
Portuguese, Dutch, Thai and Turkish, and officials said they plan to add
"militarese" -- translating the soldier's "clicks" into the civilian's
"kilometers," for instance.
(Editor's note: Trish Warrick is editor of the Fort Polk Guardian.)
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R. A. Hettinga