http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/03/17/financial1536EST0185.DTL
It was 1971 and Charles Stancil was driving back to the U.S. base
in Khe Sahn, Vietnam, when "all hell broke loose."
Pinned down in the crossfire between North Vietnamese and U.S.
troops, Stancil thought he could survive if only he could see what
was waiting for him about 100 yards away -- from the overhead
perspective the young helicopter pilot was used to.
Stancil did survive, but the idea continued to rattle around in his
head -- until, three decades later, technology finally caught up
with him. After seeing how easily photos could be transferred
between digital cameras and laptop computers, Stancil came up with
a way for soldiers to get a quick bird's eye view of the
battlefield.
His invention, which he calls a reconnaissance round, is
essentially a digital camera packed into a mortar shell that is
fired 1,800 to 2,000 feet into the air. The shell then deploys a
parachute, and the camera is rigged to transmit photos to a
soldier's laptop on the ground as it floats back to earth.
Overhead images of battlefields shot by high-altitude spy planes,
satellites and unmanned drones have become essential tools for
modern military planners.
But those are the tools of generals, Stancil says, and usually
require too much time and logistics to offer real-time images to
soldiers in the middle of a fight.
"For instance in Iraq," he said, "If you're in a village and you're
about to move through the village, you want to know who is on top
of the buildings." With the reconnaissance round, he said, "you can
get an answer to that in 90 seconds or less."
Stancil developed the reconnaissance round with the help of a $1.7
million grant from the Navy as part of his work as a researcher at
the Georgia Tech Research Institute. He has shown the device to
Army and Marines officials and hopes it will be approved for
development by the fall.
He faces stiff competition, however. Developers of unmanned aerial
vehicles now offer personal UAVs small enough to fit in a soldier's
backpack.
Stancil notes that his device is a fraction of the cost -- a
production model has an estimated $700 price tag -- and is easier
to use than UAVs.
"If you're going to fly a UAV, I got to tell you that's a special
skill," Stancil said. "Not everybody's going to be capable of
flying a UAV."
One supporter of Stancil's brainchild is retired Gen. Edward
O'Connor. He's a member of the State Department's Defense Trade
Advisory Group, which investigates emerging military
technology.
"We don't have anything right now you could put in the hands of a
young sergeant so he can see what's on the other side of a hill or
above a built-up area without exposing himself," O'Connor said.
"Chuck's device, I think, is probably one of the closest ones that
we'd be able to field in a short time."
Stancil has been testing the device at farms in Georgia, firing it
skyward with a compressed gas launcher. He and his team of eight
started launching the device in 2001 and had to clear several
hurdles before it would release its parachute and transmit the
photos properly.
"The batteries got a little bit angry at about 7,000 Gs," Stancil
said, referring to the high rate of acceleration at which mortar
rounds hurtle through the air. "Batteries tend to lose their charge
based upon their tolerance of Gs."
To send the pictures, Stancil used off-the-shelf radio transmitters
and receivers that zap the shots to the ground at 1 megabyte per
second.
Surprisingly, the off-the-shelf camera components he used performed
well at the high speeds -- even when the device's parachute failed
in an early test, and the reconnaissance round plummeted to Earth.
When Stancil and his team finally found the mortar round and dug it
out of the ground, it had taken 149 pictures -- a shot every 17
seconds, just as it was programmed to do.
A production model would self-destruct after hitting the ground, so
the enemy could not learn how the device works.
Now that the parachute problems and other bugs are worked out,
Stancil says the device is ready for action.
"I'm really dedicated to this because I think it can save lives,"
he said. "It literally has the capability to shift the paradigm, so
you don't walk into an ambush."
