Problem Formulation

Problem Statements

• The Problem: In the close-quarter combat often encountered in modern warfare, US soldiers often must clear rooms one at a time to ensure that hostile combatants are eliminated. This process is dangerous for both the soldier and civilians that may be in the building being cleared; civilians are often killed accidentally in this process, as the soldiers must make split-second decisions to discriminate friend from foe. Decreasing collateral damage in warfare and reducing the number of civilian and soldier casualties is of great interest to the US Armed Forces.
• The Need: Creating a system to see whether or not people are inside the room BEFORE entering it, and whether or not these people have weapons, would allow the soldier much more time to prepare and act appropriately. Ideally, the soldier could scan the contents of the room through the walls, allowing him to determine what is in the room before entering.

• How can we create a design to allow for a error-less indication of someone behind a wall?
• How can we incorporate this design into an easy to use device?
• Size and power
  • Small enough to fit on a helmet
  • Low enough power to run for baseline 10 hrs before charging/replacing power source
• Computational capability necessary on a compact chip
• Dynamic sensor sensing static object
  • current systems work by cancelling static objects and assuming sensor is stationary
• Helmet must still function if power is compromised
• Water, dirt, and relatively heat resistant
• Easy to manufacture

KT Situation Analysis

• Timing:
  • Research indicates recent advancements in through-wall imaging. Interest generated may lead to stiff competition soon.
  • Long history of through-wall imaging interest, but no portable (individual user), low-power solution currently exists
  • The quicker our solution is implemented, the more lives we could potentially save.
• Trend: We should constantly be trying to improve the odds of success of the American warfighter.
• Impact: Reducing collateral damage; saving civilian lives as well as the lives of US soldiers.

KT Problem Analysis

• Who: US Army Soldier, Special Forces
• What: Clearing buildings is a very dangerous task for soldiers; soldiers do not know if anyone is in the room being cleared and if they are friendly or foe.
• When: When driving out insurgents, hostile forces, and terrorist groups from towns, villages, and cities
• Where: War zones, battlefields with close-quarter combat, and urban warfare settings.
• Why: To save lives; to make the job of the US soldier substantially less dangerous in urban warfare scenarios.

Intellectual Property

• Copyrights
  • See Through Walls with Wi-Fi! (Copyright 2013 ACM 978-1-4503-2056-6/13/08)
• Patents
  • Apparatus and method for doppler-assisted MIMO radar microwave imaging (Patent number: 8494615) (Vayyar Imaging Ltd.)
  • Hand-held see-through-the-wall imaging and unexploded ordnance (UXO) detection system (Patent number: US 8593329 B2) (TiaLinx)
  • Moving-entity detection (Patent number: US 7345618 B1) (L3 Communications CyTerra Corp.)
• Trade Secrets
  • Camero holds no patents but has their through-wall detection device techniques kept secret