A lightweight electronic device able to detect the precise location of snipers may soon undergo trials with UK military forces The Engineer has learned.Developed at Foster Miller, a US-based subsidiary of Qinetiq, the so-called Ears system is based on a tiny acoustic sensor that is able to identify the distance and direction of a sniper fire within a fraction of a second.According to a company spokesman the portable, low-power system does this by detecting the sound of an initial gunshot then the Shockwave from the muzzle of the weapon being fired. It then runs this data through an onboard processor and, because it knows how much faster sound travels than a Shockwave, is able to pinpoint the position of the attacker.
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