WIESBADEN, Germany - Advanced electronics on the battlefield - it's important, say Army leaders, and technology suppliers agree.
"Everything has to get smaller (for troops)," said Pete Kenefick, senior vice president of Thermal Systems with Irvine Sensors Corporation. "The only way to get there is to miniaturize electronics.
"The smaller it is, the less it weighs. It's an essential advantage for us today in theater. Adversaries are using equipment that is 10 to 20 years old. They have the home field advantage. What do our troops have' We have electronic advantages."
In 2010, the Army kicked off its Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications initiative designed to explore the value of digital handheld devices for Soldiers in realms of training, reference and selected operational support.
The initiative comes as more commercial enterprises are focusing the majority of research and development on better, smaller and faster commercial products.
And just as a pilot program kicked off in 2010 introducing smartphones to select Soldiers, Maj. Gen Nick Justice, the commander of the Army's Research Development and Engineering Command, noted the importance of looking at commercial technology for tactical environments.
At the Wiesbaden Technology Forum and Exhibition held April 13 on Wiesbaden Army Airfield, John C. Paul, with Motorola, Inc., showcased the company's temple transducer - a device that uses a receiver positioned on a person's temples which converts received audio from a two-way radio into sound vibrations. The vibrations then use the human tissue and bone to transmit the sound directly into the person's inner ear.
"You hear with your head and not with your ears," said Paul, Motorola territory manager over the U.S. Department of Defense in Europe. "It's a pretty clever idea."
The idea is not only clever but smart, says the company's website, in that it enhances communication and safety by not impairing the user's hearing of the external environment.
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For enhanced unified communications - a concept of unified interfaces for everything involving communication from phones and email to teleconferencing and pop-ups - NEC makes it as easy as a single disk.
"With a CD, you can load through a disk to a server (this unified communications program)," said Gary Gordon, director of technology and business development with NEC, a Japanese company that pulls in about $42 billion a year in revenue.
The unified communication technology impressed Chief Warrant Officer 2 Leondre Darrington, of the 2nd Signal Brigade.
"That's what the boss wants," said Darrington referring to the technology's ability to display when users have logged onto their computers and are in the system.
Kenefick showcased his company's clip-on thermal imagers - devices that attach to night-vision scopes for thermal capabilities. The capability of the device is an important aspect of the product, said Kenefick.
"There's a million night vision goggles. This is a way to extend their life," he said.
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