RE: Tank vision systems

On Fri, 4 Feb 2000, Mike Wikan wrote:

> An interesting topic. What you are referring to is "Situational
Awareness"
> (or, SA). the fact is that sensors are not yet as good as being able
to pop
> your head up and look around. Sensors don't give you the "feel" of
your
> environment in the same way that human senses do. They are a critical
tool
> for allowing you to narrow your focus and attack, but by themselves
they
> will get you killed. The Israelis, US, and WWII German tankers all
> constantly fought unbuttoned so that they had less chance of being
> blindsided.
> 
> When you are in a big steel can like an M1 (and I've driven m48s,
m60a1s,
> Sheridans and M1s) it is VERY different from having a look about with
your
> Mk1 eyeball. Get ya killed quick if you don't have excellent SA

a point of reference might be a modern car. the driver isn't sticking
out
of the top, but with big windows and strategically-placed mirrors, has
pretty good awareness; there wouldn't be much improvement from being out
in the open (although sales of convertibles indicate that there are
benefits of some sort to it :) ).

this is very different from a modern tank, which has a set of vision
slits, periscopes, etc, which afford a very restricted view of the
outside; in particular, it is generally necessary to switch from one
thing
to another to look in different directions, whereas in a car or in the
open, you just have to swing your head. i would say that a tank with VR
driven from external sensors, or with a 360 degree wrap-around display
screen, would be much more like the car: the crew could see around just
by
swinging their heads. neural interfaces would be the same but more so -
you don't even have to swing your head.

this still leaves the question of getting out and walking around when
planning a position; if the tank isn't in combat, or near it, i can't
see
a problem with this, but if it is, it should be possible to scout about
without having to send out the loader, and this is where one of Tom B's
little flying gadgets, or some sort of remote-controlled car type setup,
comes in. of course, if you have sensors above the battlefield and good
mapping data, then you can synthesise the scouting walk for VR too, but
it's substantially harder.

tom