Locating a shooter from the first shot via cellphone

Phys.org   May 13, 2019
Tactical Communication and Protective Systems (TCAPS), earmuffs or earplugs with built-in microphones allowing active hearing protection, have four microphones: two outside the ear canal and two inside it, underneath the hearing protection. Researchers in France have developed a proof of concept shooter location device because most modern combat weapons fire bullets at supersonic speeds, creating two acoustic wave – supersonic shock wave and the second one is a muzzle wave. The device uses the microphone underneath the hearing protection to detect the shock and muzzle waves generated by supersonic shots and record the time difference of arrival of the Mach wave between the left and right ear. By combining the information sent by all the TCAPS deployed on the field, this gives the direction of arrival of the waves and thus the direction in which the shooter is. This information is sent via Bluetooth or USB to a soldier’s smartphone which uses a data fusion algorithm developed by the researchers to calculate the shooter’s position. Research will be presented at the Acoustical Society of America, in May 2019…read more.

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

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