LIHU‘E — A high-tech solution to a low-tech threat, internationally, was born on Kaua‘i. The Hostile Fire Detection System being worked on by a Kaua‘i team of Oceanit recently returned from its presentation at the 10th Annual Hawai‘i Military Partnership
LIHU‘E — A high-tech solution to a low-tech threat, internationally, was born on Kaua‘i.
The Hostile Fire Detection System being worked on by a Kaua‘i team of Oceanit recently returned from its presentation at the 10th Annual Hawai‘i Military Partnership Conference, where some of the top leaders in the military were guests of the new program.
“It was like show-and-tell,” said Fred Cowell, the Assistant Program Manager at Oceanit. “We followed the president of Oceanit who spoke on ‘Do We Use Technology?’ before bringing out the gunfire detector.”
Basil Scott, the Oceanit Technical Director, said the program was started four years ago in the Fall of 2006, and with the help of several community groups, has evolved to where a prototype — much smaller than the existing one — is already on the drawing board for deployment to Afghanistan, where it will be further tested.
During the development period, Scott said the program was the recipient of two grants, which are now bearing fruit; Oceanit’s Hostile Fire Detection program was the recipient of the 2010 Small Business Innovative Research award from the U.S. Army.
“This is a really big award,” said Mary Lu Kelley of Oceanit. “Oceanit is one of 10 companies out of 600 that receive this award, and Basil had to fly to Washington, D.C. to accept it.”
Cowell said the program was developed for military applications, but there are uses for it outside of the military.
“In Afghanistan, there are helicopters returning from missions only to have its crew discover bullet holes in the aircraft,” Cowell said. “They were shot at, and because of the noise of the rotors and the headsets, the crew wasn’t even aware they were shot at.”
The Hostile Fire Detection System, working under the acronym of FLASH, changes all of that. The camera, measuring smaller than the size of an overnight suitcase, can be fitted to the aircraft and will detect the gun muzzle flashes with its infrared camera.
“This allows the crew warning on the first shot fired, and evasive action can be initiated,” Cowell said. “Additionally, it pinpoints locations from where the shots were fired.”
On a non-military usage, Scott said it could be used to “keep an eye” on the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference that will take place in Honolulu.
Alluding to the assasination of John F. Kennedy, the Hostile Fire Detection System would have picked up the first shot, helping the security personnel pinpoint the location, and possibly preventing the subsequent shots.
Because of its infrared technology and the alogrithms developed for the program, the camera is able to differentiate between a gunshot and a flash from a passing car’s reflection. In use, the camera did not detect a flash from an electronic flashgun.
Scott said that looking ahead, Oceanit is already talking with people in the airbag industry about linking airbags with the hostile fire program.
If this takes place, a Kevlar shield would be triggered upon first detection of gunfire. This reaction is faster than a human’s reaction to a situation and is almost instantaneous.
During a news conference on O‘ahu, Cowell said, “This (hostile fire detection) is able to see the flash of a gun before the bullet even arrives, before the sound even arrives.”
Cowell said the system is very accommodating to a wide variety of weapons, noting Oceanit’s appreciation to local shooting organizations which helped during the development of the program.
“Oceanit crews would be tweaking the software and commanding when people should fire their weapons,” Kelley said. “Dave Ayabe and the Kaua‘i shooting club was very accommodating.”
During a test on Maui, Cowell said Oceanit had crews fire as fast as they could, and in one situation, shoot and hide.
“The system worked on every shot, and in the case of a supposed sniper trying to hide after getting a shot off, the camera detected the fire before the shooter could even stoop,” Cowell said. “That led the Maui shooter to comment, ‘You can’t hide anywhere.’”
Scott said the goal of Oceanit is to build high technology jobs in Hawai‘i, noting these jobs are non-polluting, independent of tourism, and pay well.
“I just want to encourage the kids,” Scott said. “High-tech jobs allow people to express their natural curiosity.”
Kelley said Oceanit on Kaua‘i currently has a staff of 24 people, including young people who went to school here. Its offices are located in Lihu‘e after it “outgrew” its original office in Waimea.
“We’re just so proud of all our people,” Kelley said. “To think that a program like this that is drawing attention from a lot of the top leaders in the country was born on Kaua‘i.”
