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Military's New Radio: Laser Beams
One of the recurring challenges for the military is to send a message without anyone else listening in. Communicating via a laser could be the solution.
The Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio is working with Fayetteville, Ark.-based Space Photonics to develop an infrared laser system called free space optical communications. The technology is virtually hack-proof and is able to transmit much more information than other wireless signals.
Its security comes from the nature of the beam, which is so narrow that people cannot eavesdrop on it unless they’re directly in its path. This is a marked contrast to radio waves, which produce "lobes" near the point of transmission that make it possible for a hacker to listen in.
If a person does manage to get into the direct path of the laser beam transmission and then tries to "tap" it, the beam gets interrupted. This immediately alerts the sender that another person may be on the line and trying to listen in. The sender would also likely spot if another party were trying to intercept the beam and retransmit since laser systems work as "line of sight," devices.
"It's inherently secure," said Terry Tidwell, chief engineer at Space Photonics, which recently signed a deal to commercialize its technology and sell it to the Department of Defense.
Along with its security, laser communications also pack a lot of information into that narrow beam. Whereas Wi-Fi signals carry megabits every second, an infrared laser beam can carry thousands of times as much data.
Several companies besides Space Photonics are building laser communications for the military. Among them is ITT Exelis, which got a $7 million contract to finish developing a ship-to-shore system for the Navy, said Gary Tarantino, director of advanced systems and innovation for the company. "We're trying to lock in the design," he said. "To optimize the automation and the corrections for atmospheric interference." By the end of next year, he said, there should be systems in place. It should have a range of some 12 miles, if one station is elevated.
Although air-based laser communications were first proposed in the 1970s, using them was expensive. Fiber optic cable, which started to come into wide use at about the same time, was a cheaper option and had a much longer range. Fiber optics can be as long as the cable, but air-based laser beams have a limit – typically a few miles, though that can be extended to up to 120 miles if transmitted between aircraft at high altitude.
The costs began to come down with the development of cheaper, semiconductor lasers. At the same time, the proliferation of electronic devices, including smartphones, laptops and tablets, drove the need for more data capacity. What’s more laying down fiber optic cables isn't practical for the battlefield. Stationary, small-scale systems were set up in Afghanistan in the mid-2000s at Bagram Air Base. In the civilian market a number of companies built them to give more capacity to cellphone towers, in order to carry more data to thefiber network.
On the battlefield, laying down fiber optic cables isn't practical. But just like civilians, the military found itself needing to transmit lots of data, so it gave the technology another look. Stationary, small-scale systems were set up at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in the mid-2000s.
With all the advantages lasers offer, there were also still problems. One is aiming the beam. Early systems used big receivers, or had the beam disperse so that it was several feet wide at the receiving end. Now a combination of adapting the receiver's optics and gimbals are used, in various configurations.
Space Photonics, for example, alters the orientation of the lenses so that the incoming beam always hits the receiver, allowing the gimbals to turn it to do the "coarse" alignment and the optic to do the rest. Exelis' method relies more on the gimbals. AOptix, which demonstrated a system for the Air Force back in 2010, uses adaptive optics, a method adopted from telescopes, to ensure the beam transmits and receives clearly.
While the 1.5 micron wavelength can transmit reasonably well, even through moist air, dense fog will reduce the range of the signal, as well. AOptix combines their system with radio frequency transmitters as a backup.
No technology is perfect, though, and it looks as though optical communications will keep growing, as tracking systems and signal processing gets better. "You have a generation of technologies that are maturing," said Tarantino.
Source: http://news.discovery.com/tech/laser-communications-121024.html
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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