Be forewarned Al Qaeda - JEDI is coming!

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992005">http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992005</a><br /><br />In order to facilitate better intelligence and targeting on the battlefield, the Pentagon has commissioned a new breed of palmtops, and it will be using the Pocket PC OS. Given the description in the article, I have a feeling this will look like something from Symbol Technologies. Waaaay cool!<br /><br />"To address the problem [of targeting], the Pentagon has commissioned a new battlefield targeting system based on a raft of sensing and communications technologies, controlled by a hand-held Pocket PC. It will go into service with US Special Forces in 2003.<br /><br />The super-palmtop will combine laser rangefinding, GPS satellite positioning, a satellite phone and text messaging. Called JEDI, or Joint Expeditionary Digital Information, the system will be controlled by Microsoft's Windows-CE operating system."<br /><br />Thanks to Todd Thacker for using his laser rangefinder to target this article.

[nirav28]

All I can say is sweetttt!. I wonder how big its going to be?, taking into consideration that it will have a built in sat-phone, gps and range finder. Thats a lot of harder to fit in a small profile enclosure.


I think the JEDI acroynom is cool to.

If they had something like that for civilian use...(minus the range finder and sat-phone. Subst that with a gsm/gprs phone. ). That would rock!

Now..
Can your palm do that?
:P

[Ed Hansberry]

I thought the fact they played a football game substutiing a JEDI for the football (probably sans kicking) was really cool and gives you an idea of its contruction. I am sure it is a larger than normal PPC device.

[innersky]

Eh, I want one :wink:

[RobertCF]

Does this mean that the special forces teams assigned to use these devices will be called "JEDI Knights"....... :lol:

[Will T Smith]

I'm very surprised the military would actually DEPLOY (as opposed to prototype) a device that works off such a "closed" OS. Furthermore a device from Microsoft, a company whose OS systems have been consistently unstable AND insecure.

Perhaps this is just a "temporary fix" until something more stable, reliable, and OPEN to military hardware designers. My suggestion would be the linux PPC systems floating around.

BTW, I saw a documentary on "Military of the Future". That is they looked over some of the new technologies and concepts in the pipeline. The Land-Warrior prototype was interesting. However, the host for the system was running DESKTOP WINDOWS!!!!! The soldier's literally had a trackball mounted on the weapon which they would use to open menus and click buttons. We've all been kicked around by windows from time to time. Just imagine if someone was actually SHOOTING at you.

The other thing that puzzled me was their choice of "USB-on-the-GO" for interconnect between the helmet/headset/viewer, rifle, host, and a few other gizmos on the soldiers body "gps". USB-on-the-Go" isn't even ready commercially yet. It's not "advanced" technology. It's unproven, unreliable technology. I would hate to plug in my rifle after cleaning and find out that they have to be uninstalled :-)

I AM interested in the possible use of Bluetooth in these new military systems. It's much more secure than 802.11b, and I assume it's also less "visible" to potential sniffers.

[nirav28]

I'm very surprised the military would actually DEPLOY (as opposed to prototype) a device that works off such a "closed" OS. Furthermore a device from Microsoft, a company whose OS systems have been consistently unstable AND insecure.


Man, that would suck if a Spec Forces guy had to a hard-reset his PPC while he's got a target lined up with his range finder and a laser guided smart bomb is already on the way...

"Ahh..control can you please release another one..i had to reset my jedi unit..." 8O

[Ed Hansberry]

I'm very surprised the military would actually DEPLOY (as opposed to prototype) a device that works off such a "closed" OS. Furthermore a device from Microsoft, a company whose OS systems have been consistently unstable AND insecure.

Perhaps this is just a "temporary fix" until something more stable, reliable, and OPEN to military hardware designers. My suggestion would be the linux PPC systems floating around.
You have GOT to be kidding. First, there are still no reliable Linux devices on the market with a track record - this despite the Linux cadre touting a Linux iPAQ from day one of the iPAQ's release.

Second, I am so sick of people talking about desktop windows stability. I've had about 6 system crashes in past 6 years and 4 of those were tracked down to a recently added system driver by a third party. Of course, that is using NT4, Win2K and now WinXP. WinCE is very very stable. Sure I've had programs lock the device up, but that is largely due to crap programming, not CE.