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The market for people who need a non-visual device to help them detect obstacles, threats, or supply caches is too small to justify the expense (both per-unit a
by shuntress 5y ago
The market for people who need a non-visual device to help them detect obstacles, threats, or supply caches is too small to justify the expense (both per-unit and of development) of such devices.
- dylan604 5y agoJust list military applications of whatever you want developed. They are not concerned with how big of a market it might be. If can give their troops advantages, they are interested.
- giraffe_lady 5y agoI can't really see this having use in a high-tech military. The main differentiator of contemporary technologized militaries is their incredible logistics and coordination capacities, which have a very hard dependency on knowing your own location. They know this obviously and so those systems are robust and redundant already. When those systems and their backups fail you're into like, "hide and wait for help" or even straight up sere training shit, because the entire thing that makes you a powerful force rather than just a guy with a gun is gone. Knowing which way is north is not gonna solve your problem at that point. Knowing "which way to the supply cache" might but if that piece of tech is still working probably so is your normal radio and gps.
- ncmncm 5y agoAnything they have to look at to get informed is a huge burden. Anything that burns up batteries driving a display is a huge burden. Anything that destroys night vision is a huge burden. So, anything that provides them the most essential bits of combat information (e.g. that is the direction back to base) without need to look at it, and using only microwatts, is a huge benefit.
- ncmncm 5y agoHunters complain bitterly about GPS ruining their night vision, and all those gadgets using up heavy batteries. Soldiers have it even worse, carrying, literally, pounds of batteries, sometimes tens of. Anything that works without needing to produce power-burning, night-vision destroying light they have to look at, and weighing them down, is a huge benefit.
- BlueTemplar 5y agoWouldn't they use reflective LCDs ? As low as you want brightness, and tiny power consumption !
- ncmncm 5y agoReflective LCDs are useless in the dark.
- BlueTemplar 5y agoAre they ? I tried to find some information on scotopic visual acuity, but nothing solid... Otherwise, transflective LCDs with red backlight (rods aren't sensitive to red light).
- ncmncm 5y agoFine, but it is strictly better not to need to look. For information more detailed than can be delivered by ambient channels, of course, you need to get it some other way. But audio will often be better than needing to focus on a little display, even if with red backlight.
- robocat 5y agoOne person might be all the market you need, if that one person is wealthy enough. Aside: I think stating opinions as facts is poor form.