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BU PHOTONICS CENTER DEPUTY DIRECTOR DR. GLENN THOREN DEMONSTRATED ACOUSTIC-DRIVEN PLATFORM
30 June 2006 - Boston University
| The new RedOwl “sniper detection and surveillance” robot was recently demonstrated to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, Dr. Delores Etter, by Dr. Glenn Thoren, Deputy Director of the Photonics Center at Boston University. |
The RedOwl is a remote, deployable sensor suite designed to provide early warning information, gunshot detection, intelligence, surveillance and targeting capabilities to military forces and government agencies. Dr. Etter was sworn in as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition on November 7, 2005. As the Navy's Senior Acquisition Executive, Dr. Etter is responsible for research, development, and acquisition within the Department of the Navy. Dr. Etter was a member of the Electrical Engineering faculty at the United States Naval Academy. She was also the first recipient of the Office of Naval Research Distinguished Chair in Science and Technology. “Dr. Etter watched the RedOwl pirouette and look directly at a simulated gunshot,” said Thoren. “She was particularly interested in the unique acoustic direction finding system because it is very similar to her research background in biometric signal processing and iris recognition.” The system was developed by Boston University’s Dr. Socrates Deligeorges with Professors Allyn Hubbard and David Mountain at the Hearing Research Center at BU. “The RedOwl Program embodies the mission of the Photonics Center to work collaboratively on the development of technology that makes a positive contribution to our society,” said Dr. Thomas Bifano, Interim Director of the Photonics Center. “Seeing laboratory research transitioned into a device that saves the lives of our soldiers is enormously gratifying.” RedOwl is an ongoing rapid development program led by The Photonics Center at Boston University with iRobot, Insight Technology and BioMimetic Systems, a Boston University spinout company. The RedOwl equipped PackBot has been field-tested for the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force at a rifle and trapshooting range. The RedOwl robot also employs a suite of advanced optics including a thermal camera, 300X zoom daylight/infrared camera, infrared laser illuminators, a rangefinder, high intensity white driving light, and voice communication microphones and speakers, all in a package that weighs less than 5 pounds. The Boston University Photonics Center is dedicated to academic scholarship, entrepreneurial technology development, and innovative educational enrichment in the field of photonics. The Photonics Center houses shared state-of-the-art facilities, including an optical fiber draw tower, an optical processing facility, a sophisticated optical metrology laboratory, and an integrated optoelectronics packaging laboratory.
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About: Boston University
Boston University has a well-deserved reputation for excellence in research in a wide range of disciplines and a demonstrated commitment to fostering innovative interdisciplinary research. The Office of the Associate Provost for Research and Graduate Education supports the University in facilitating research at the both the student and faculty levels.Our mission is to enhance and encourage research at Boston University and to provide a climate conducive to maintaining the University at the cutting edge of research and scholarly activities. We work with the Boston University community to plan and coordinate interdisciplinary research and represent the University in research matters related to Inter-University consortia. To encourage new, innovative, and cross-disciplinary efforts, this office administers the Special Program for Research Initiation Grants (SPRInG). We showcase graduate research at Science & Technology Day. This annual event features nearly 200 research posters by graduate students from both the Medical and Charles River Campuses working in a wide range of disciplines. Our annual research magazine, Research at Boston University, informs a wide audience about a selection of our significant research findings and ongoing studies at Boston University. We also maintain a strong presence on the web through this site and through the Science Coalition’s website, which brings our research successes to the attention of Congress and other policy makers in the federal government. To assist Boston University researchers, this office oversees the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and coordinates with the Office of Sponsored Programs on the Charles River Campus , the research administration on the Medical Campus, the Office of Research Compliance, and the various graduate programs. For the development of commercially viable ideas, we administer the Provost's Innovation Fund and work closely with the Office of Technology Transfer. We also coordinate proposals where there are institutional limits to the number of proposals that may be submitted, cost sharing requirements, significant laboratory renovations, or other special circumstances. This office assists departments and centers to achieve a diverse faculty and graduate student body through our membership and activities with the Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate and through our affiliation with the Clare Boothe Luce program of the Henry Luce Foundation. |
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