SAIC's Technology Includes iPAQs

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,49068,00.html' target='_blank'>http://www.business2.com/articles/m...0,49068,00.html</a><br /><br /></div>This article is an interesting overview of SAIC, the Science Applications International Corp.<br /><br />"Most people have never heard of either Beyster or SAIC -- and that's fine with Beyster, the company's reclusive founder and CEO. Privately held SAIC makes much of the supersecret technology that's at the core of the sleuthing done by the National Security Agency, CIA, and other spook services...About a third of SAIC's business is systems integration for other companies, such as Pfizer and BP, but its heart and soul is spy tech. Intelligence agencies don't list or rank their contractors. Intelligence sources, however, say SAIC was the NSA's top supplier last year and in the top five at the CIA."<br /><br />Check out this picture as an example of what they're doing:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/parekh/news/20030429-Business2-SAIC.jpg" /><br /><br />Yes, those are iPaqs sitting in their cradles. We'll probably never find out exactly what these devices do, but they're presumably some sort of surveillance tool. bdegroodt, who submitted this, thinks they look like Pocket PC-powered BattleBots :lol: What's your guess?

[trachy]

They're probably just office bumper cars. In military circles SAIC is renowned for their motto: "If you're breathin', we're hirin'." ;-)

[Unreal32]

My guess is they are designed to roll into Staples, OfficeMax, and Office Depot stores and emit small concentrated electromagnetic pulses right near the Palm displays. :lol:

[bdegroodt]

They're probably just office bumper cars. In military circles SAIC is renowned for their motto: "If you're breathin', we're hirin'." ;-)

Wow. That's interesting. Having worked with their employees and having some personal friends that work there, I can say that some of the brightest people I know work for SAIC. I've seen some pretty cool stuff come out of that company.

[Cypher]

The bright red color indicates they're not covert :lol:, but they're almost certainly Surveillance/remote sensor devices. My guess would be that they provide at least audio/video fee over a secure network. They may provide other information as well. Quite similar to the "hedgehogs" mentioned in Tom Clancy's "Power Plays" books.

Using an iPAQ is a good idea. It saves a lot of effort creating an embedded processor/system/interface protocol and lets you concentrate on the important aspects of applications programming. OTOH, an iPAQ isn't likely to survive a direct hit by "buzzsaw" :bangin:

[Mike Temporale]

The machine at the front appears to have a camera mounted on it. So I'm guessing that this device might actually be able to look where it's going, and avoid obstacles. 8)

Do I get one if I guessed correctly?? :wink:

[lurch]

I've seen these before! They're for the CIA, and they're a highly ruggedized, 4-season/all-terrain drink-fetcher for the top execs. Word around here is that this project got elevated to priority levels not seen since the "executive parking space defender" from '93

[lurch]

Actually, seriously, you see the wireless card in each iPaq? They're probably rough prototypes for a network controlled vehicle (one of them spy-type vehicles). For a prototype, an iPaq would make a great "quick" controller...

[trachy]

Wow. That's interesting. Having worked with their employees and having some personal friends that work there, I can say that some of the brightest people I know work for SAIC. I've seen some pretty cool stuff come out of that company.

I'm sure there are plenty of bright, innovative people working for SAIC. I just think their hiring practices in the military arena are less than exemplarary. I've worked on a few military bases over the past 10 years and often saw them hire former military personnel that didn't seem qualified. Filling slots to keep them active and generating income comes with a price - diminished reputation.

[bdegroodt]

I don't know why the online version of this article doesn't have the same graphic, but there's a cool one in the print magazine.

Basically, it says these are designed to travel in packs. They communicate over an 802.11 network (Unless the terrorist turns on the microwave oven :D ). There are a couple of jobs. One version is responsible for mapping and creating a 2 dimensional image of the area. The others are controlled by an operator in a safe location via a laptop. They report the location of the enemy and have cameras. Apparently, they replace each other on the fly if one is destroyed by the enemy.

[anthonymoody]

SAIC is a very wild company...almost completely unknown, yet it does about $5 billion, yes that's Billion, in annual revenues. Total military industrial complex stuff.

Interesting tidbit...Network Solutions (ultimately acquired by Verisign), the registry operator for .com and .net (and originally .org) , which was originally granted the exclusive license as the sole registry/registrar for com, net and org for several years before ICANN opened up the market, is an SAIC spinoff.

TM

[D.psi]

bdegroodt wrote:
Basically, it says these are designed to travel in packs. They communicate over an 802.11 network (Unless the terrorist turns on the microwave oven ). There are a couple of jobs. One version is responsible for mapping and creating a 2 dimensional image of the area. The others are controlled by an operator in a safe location via a laptop. They report the location of the enemy and have cameras. Apparently, they replace each other on the fly if one is destroyed by the enemy.

Yeah this goes along with the American concept of Network-Centric warfareThese robots don't have any of the features that you would want in the field (low maneuverability, p'bly small power density, obviously the wrong colour, etc...) . I would guess that these little puppies are more about demonstrating potential algorithms than they are about the actual technology involved. From that standpoint, as previously stated, the Ipaq (or any PPC for that matter) is a smart choice due to the available off-the-shelf options for networking, and low entry cost for a quick prototype system.

You can look at the picture, and see that there are at least two kinds of "robots" here, the one in the front has the camera (and different markings)... We'll call him the Sargent, and then there's the ones in the back we'll call them the Grunts.

The Sargent would probably scout around, and dispatch Grunts to have a closer look at stuff. Obviously we can loose more Grunts, because their equipment fit is smaller (hence cheaper) than the Sargent.

The types of algorithms under investigation could be stuff like automated resource handling, threat assemement, data fusion, data disemination, and distributed information gathering.

[bdegroodt]

2 more tid bits. The ipaq microphones have been adapted to work as sound sensors and the network cards from these prototypes are Orinoco cards. Not like it really matters, but it's still cool to see stuff we have access to (Aside from a few secret algorithms) being used for something pretty advanced.

[nirsinay]

so take the red carts put on them some red covers with black dots and you have a completely innocent looking children’s toy....(cough spy machine cough)...

[bdegroodt]

Wow. That's interesting. Having worked with their employees and having some personal friends that work there, I can say that some of the brightest people I know work for SAIC. I've seen some pretty cool stuff come out of that company.

I'm sure there are plenty of bright, innovative people working for SAIC. I just think their hiring practices in the military arena are less than exemplarary. I've worked on a few military bases over the past 10 years and often saw them hire former military personnel that didn't seem qualified. Filling slots to keep them active and generating income comes with a price - diminished reputation.

Interesting perspective. As everything in life usually comes down to, individuals make the difference. This probably accounts for why I think they are some highly gifted people there and you think they are less than the best. The article covers a lot of information about SAIC and one of the sections speaks to some of the work they have done to make sure their people and the projects are being delivered to client expectations. It must be working. They claim to have gone from a 30% incumbent win rate to 67% since the mid 90s.

[medic119]

SAIC has an office here. When I was in Army Intelligence I would go over there. Some really cool stuff going on.

[trachy]

It must be working. They claim to have gone from a 30% incumbent win rate to 67% since the mid 90s.

Either that, or they're consistently the lowest bidder. ;-) Sorry, just couldn't reisist!

[AKBishop]

Basically, it says these are designed to travel in packs. They communicate over an 802.11 network (Unless the terrorist turns on the microwave oven :D ). There are a couple of jobs. One version is responsible for mapping and creating a 2 dimensional image of the area. The others are controlled by an operator in a safe location via a laptop. They report the location of the enemy and have cameras. Apparently, they replace each other on the fly if one is destroyed by the enemy.

Remind anyone else of the "swarm" from Crichton's new book "Prey"???

[mike6024]

I had to visit their offices over in Virginia a couple years ago for a project I was working on. Their building is stunning as well as the foyer. It made me not want to come back.

[rmasinag]

Hey....I think theyr'e the ghetto/dinasour/ancestral version of the little spiders in minority report. We'll problably never have surveliance machines like in the movie....we can go the nanomachinery route instead. 0X

[davea]

A quote from the reference article:

".. His team has another contract to create software for a battalion of 70 miniature spy robots that operate autonomously and could swarm a building or battlefield -- something like the mechanical insects that hunt down Tom Cruise in Minority Report. "

[trachy]

A quote from the reference article:

".. His team has another contract to create software for a battalion of 70 miniature spy robots that operate autonomously and could swarm a building or battlefield -- something like the mechanical insects that hunt down Tom Cruise in Minority Report. "

Hey, let's give credit where it's due. The spider robots in Runaway were their forefathers. 8)

[jeffmd]

lol.. not to many tech tv watchers here I guess. tech tv rescently had a news writeup and even sectioned off a half hour block rescently for a show about robotics. These little guys were covered in it, how ever they didnt have the PDAs on top at the time.

The project is about AI. The disc you see on the front are ultrasonic so it can sense walls and other objects around it, and theres a video camera mounted on it as well. It's job is to remember terrain to manuver it correctly, and correctly interact with objects and people. One day they will be used for things like office/on site transport, and I can see them being used as un manned spy bots as well, though im not exactly sure how usefull anything like this could be of use as one. if you were an evil terroris organization and you saw even a small match box sized card running around, would you not take notice?

either way, the project still has a ways to go. They finally go them to identify a round ball that a person was playing with on the floor. ^^ was pretty neat how it kinda followed the ball, and slowly inched in kind of like how a cat might respond to a playtoy.

[crazy0000]

I saw this new electronic T.V. show and they had these but without the Ipaqs on them you would just control them from your computer but maybe when you connect your Ipaq it becomes a surveilance [/b]

[bdegroodt]

Roomba 2.0 anyone?

[Ken Mattern]

Wow. That's interesting. Having worked with their employees and having some personal friends that work there, I can say that some of the brightest people I know work for SAIC. I've seen some pretty cool stuff come out of that company.

I'm sure there are plenty of bright, innovative people working for SAIC. I just think their hiring practices in the military arena are less than exemplarary. I've worked on a few military bases over the past 10 years and often saw them hire former military personnel that didn't seem qualified. Filling slots to keep them active and generating income comes with a price - diminished reputation.

Interesting perspective. As everything in life usually comes down to, individuals make the difference. This probably accounts for why I think they are some highly gifted people there and you think they are less than the best.

Alas, it seems that all too often civilians "retire" from their government positions and come back as contractors. They complain about us slimy contractors every day and then they become one. They have met the enemy and they is us. How else can a GS 4 get a job contracting at 75k :roll:

The quality of SAIC work and people is generally very good here. I work with some on occasion and see nothing but good work from them.

Signed:

A slimy contractor 8O

[ctmagnus]

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/parekh/news/20030429-Business2-SAIC.jpg

Hm... The one with the camera has four spots instead of the six the others have, and two of the four are white whereas the bots with six spots have all black spots. Also, the six-spotted bot whose cradle is visible appears to be a 3600/3700 while the camera-enabled one is a appears to be a 36/3700 in a 3800+-style cradle. Coincidence? Conspiracy?

[bdegroodt]

Hm... The one with the camera has four spots instead of the six the others have, and two of the four are white whereas the bots with six spots have all black spots. Also, the six-spotted bot whose cradle is visible appears to be a 3600/3700 while the camera-enabled one is a appears to be a 36/3700 in a 3800+-style cradle. Coincidence? Conspiracy?

Actually, the white dots are little ads for SAIC and a company I can't make out. You can see it better in the magazine.