military gadgets designed by students

[vaskidmark]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/research/5-brilliant-military-gadgets-designed-by-students?click=pm_news#slide-1

A couple of really neat ideas, and some not-so-neat, and one that iirc was "invented" by fire/rescue a few decades ago (not counting the canned air).

The IV warmer seems to be the one that is the most aligned with government waste and the bloating of bureaucracy.  Aren't MRE heaters pretty much ubiquitous nowadays?

stay safe.

[Scout26]

Yeah, but you don't want to boil your IV solutions.  Bringing them up a few degrees especially in a hypothermic situation is key.  That's one thing sucks about Dialysis in the winter.  While my cycler will heat the fluid in the bag on top, if I do manuals they are at ambient temp.  Nothing like having 2.5 liters of 60F fluid poured into your belly.   I'll be over here in by the fire for the next hour or so, until my core temp comes back up.

[MillCreek]

I liked the tourniquet, but were the ground rules of the competition that you could not work on inventions designed to kill people and break things in ever more efficient ways?

[Nick1911]

Interesting they describe calcium chloride as "common salt"

[KD5NRH]

I liked the tourniquet, but were the ground rules of the competition that you could not work on inventions designed to kill people and break things in ever more efficient ways?

Students playing with explosives is generally a bad idea.

[mangle]

That's fun!  The guys in the first slide (Amp my FOB) are from my lab.  It's rather shocking how much you can glean from looking at the currents going into a building.  They can identify different types of lights being turned on in the lab from the main fuse box by looking at transients involved.

The tourniquet seems cool.  I can imagine that being immediately useful.

 

[Jamisjockey]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/research/5-brilliant-military-gadgets-designed-by-students?click=pm_news#slide-1

A couple of really neat ideas, and some not-so-neat, and one that iirc was "invented" by fire/rescue a few decades ago (not counting the canned air).

The IV warmer seems to be the one that is the most aligned with government waste and the bloating of bureaucracy.  Aren't MRE heaters pretty much ubiquitous nowadays?

stay safe.

I've talked to a few vets who leave the MRE heaters behind, as they take up space and weight, and use water they don't want to waste.

[KD5NRH]

That's fun!  The guys in the first slide (Amp my FOB) are from my lab.  It's rather shocking how much you can glean from looking at the currents going into a building.  They can identify different types of lights being turned on in the lab from the main fuse box by looking at transients involved.

I'm just wondering how it actually differs from several products already on the market.  (Kill-A-Watt for individual outlets, a few whole-house versions of it, and some even larger ones commonly built into solar/wind inverters.)

[mangle]

I'm just wondering how it actually differs from several products already on the market.  (Kill-A-Watt for individual outlets, a few whole-house versions of it, and some even larger ones commonly built into solar/wind inverters.)

This is a completely different animal.  They're not just looking at power consumption, but information contained in the current/voltage profiles of individual devices plugged in to the system.  In addition to identifying individual appliances of the same type (IE, refrigerator 1 vs refrigerator 2), they can now do diagnostics and health monitoring for all sorts of systems from that single set of sensors.

[RevDisk]

That's fun!  The guys in the first slide (Amp my FOB) are from my lab.  It's rather shocking how much you can glean from looking at the currents going into a building.  They can identify different types of lights being turned on in the lab from the main fuse box by looking at transients involved.

The tourniquet seems cool.  I can imagine that being immediately useful.

I wouldn't mind more information, but I'm partial to SOFTT-W touriquets. I can deploy them with one hand fairly easily. I do think folks are overly fond of tourniquets, but I understand the reason. If you have a decent knowledge of where the major veins are, pressure works a lot better than a complete tourniquet. Ideally, you'd only tourniquet basically a bleeding stump. OTOH, precision when folks are shooting at ya is hard, and it's easier to train folks to just tourniquet at the arm pit or upper leg.

The doc that trained me told me only to tourniquet if I didn't mind losing the limb. Getting shot at? Tourniquet it right now and move on. Because being shot in the head or having your head sawed off by wogs is worse than maybe unnecessarily losing an arm. Nasty compound fraction while hiking or camping? I'd really try my hand at localized pressure, and only tourniquet if unsuccessful.

Hopefully someday there is a smart combination tourniquet slash pressure bandage that combines the positives of both while being quick, easy, cheap.


And yep. I'm told that it's surprisingly easy to use traffic analysis on electrical feeds. Not usually enough for you to be able to tell what channel a person is watching, but easily enough to tell the difference between a PC or laptop, or CFL vs LED lighting.

[RevDisk]

Mangle is correct. It's traffic analysis, not load analysis. I'd be less than found of it if it was installed in a smart meter attached to my house. There's ways of relatively easily jamming the analysis as well.

[mangle]

Mangle is correct. It's traffic analysis, not load analysis. I'd be less than found of it if it was installed in a smart meter attached to my house. There's ways of relatively easily jamming the analysis as well.

I'd be upset, too, but I don't think you're going to be able to jam the analysis without consuming (and paying for) enough power to drown out the legitimate signals.  Different types of loads look very different on the startup transient, and the steady-state power draw is rather unique as well.  I think they'll easily see past attempts to confuse it (after all, they can see things like seals in pumps failing by looking at the motor current draw) by sheer big data.  Fundamentally, your power consumption is quantized by the number of electricity-consuming things in your house, and by looking at your activities long enough, they'll identify each one individually. 

[RevDisk]

I'd be upset, too, but I don't think you're going to be able to jam the analysis without consuming (and paying for) enough power to drown out the legitimate signals.  Different types of loads look very different on the startup transient, and the steady-state power draw is rather unique as well.  I think they'll easily see past attempts to confuse it (after all, they can see things like seals in pumps failing by looking at the motor current draw) by sheer big data.  Fundamentally, your power consumption is quantized by the number of electricity-consuming things in your house, and by looking at your activities long enough, they'll identify each one individually. 

Ehhhh. You could always hide loads behind a UPS or capacitor solution. So, yes, you will have more consumption than strictly necessary, but it doesn't have to be a lot. While in bypass mode, I don't know how much it actually distorts the characteristics, but I do imagine it's relatively easy to engineer an UPS that would serve as chaff.

[mangle]

Ehhhh. You could always hide loads behind a UPS or capacitor solution. So, yes, you will have more consumption than strictly necessary, but it doesn't have to be a lot. While in bypass mode, I don't know how much it actually distorts the characteristics, but I do imagine it's relatively easy to engineer an UPS that would serve as chaff.

If you're willing to build a UPS that runs all the loads in your house, yes, you can do that.  But in the surveillance society, I'd bet that would be all the reason they'd ever need to come in and take a look.

[Neemi]

Current info* on tourniquets say they can be on for up to 6 hours before there will be enough lactic acid and other badness built up to render the limb a loss.

Even then, you just loosen the tourniquet for a bit** (and hold pressure on whatever is bleeding) and the limb can be saved.

Tourniquets are back in style for the properly trained.



*per new ENA trauma guidelines

**above my pay grade, thanks

[Boomhauer]

Current info* on tourniquets say they can be on for up to 6 hours before there will be enough lactic acid and other badness built up to render the limb a loss.

Even then, you just loosen the tourniquet for a bit** (and hold pressure on whatever is bleeding) and the limb can be saved.

Tourniquets are back in style for the properly trained.



*per new ENA trauma guidelines

**above my pay grade, thanks

This is correct. A TQ can be applied for a few hours without injury loss.

[RevDisk]

If you're willing to build a UPS that runs all the loads in your house, yes, you can do that.  But in the surveillance society, I'd bet that would be all the reason they'd ever need to come in and take a look.

Na, I was thinking UPS or capacitors to pattern shift load pattern for specific purposes. Probably too much work for too little gain, but it's a useful mental exercise. Then again, weirder things have happened. I've used packet forging software to emulate a heartbeat "from" a down controller to production equipment. That was entertaining.

Current info* on tourniquets say they can be on for up to 6 hours before there will be enough lactic acid and other badness built up to render the limb a loss.

Even then, you just loosen the tourniquet for a bit** (and hold pressure on whatever is bleeding) and the limb can be saved.

Tourniquets are back in style for the properly trained.


*per new ENA trauma guidelines
**above my pay grade, thanks

Much appreciated. Guidance I got was from 2001-2003 era, and admittedly I don't recall how many hours they said a tourniquet could be used without limb loss. They did mention the loosen the tourniquet part to stretch that time out, but stressed that could be very bad if screwed up. Lactic acid and other bad stuff, that it could send a person into shock or potentially kill them.

[AJ Dual]

I wouldn't mind more information, but I'm partial to SOFTT-W touriquets. I can deploy them with one hand fairly easily. I do think folks are overly fond of tourniquets, but I understand the reason. If you have a decent knowledge of where the major veins are, pressure works a lot better than a complete tourniquet. Ideally, you'd only tourniquet basically a bleeding stump. OTOH, precision when folks are shooting at ya is hard, and it's easier to train folks to just tourniquet at the arm pit or upper leg.

The doc that trained me told me only to tourniquet if I didn't mind losing the limb. Getting shot at? Tourniquet it right now and move on. Because being shot in the head or having your head sawed off by wogs is worse than maybe unnecessarily losing an arm. Nasty compound fraction while hiking or camping? I'd really try my hand at localized pressure, and only tourniquet if unsuccessful.

Hopefully someday there is a smart combination tourniquet slash pressure bandage that combines the positives of both while being quick, easy, cheap.


And yep. I'm told that it's surprisingly easy to use traffic analysis on electrical feeds. Not usually enough for you to be able to tell what channel a person is watching, but easily enough to tell the difference between a PC or laptop, or CFL vs LED lighting.

The whole tourniquet/compartment syndrome thing has been way overblown over the years, to the point even MD's fall for the "common sense".

As you said, if there's shooting going on, sitting still, laying down, and having a buddy hold the vein down aren't exactly an option.
Even an hour or more of full application is statistically WAY better than the risk of compartment syndrome or limb loss.  You've got at least four hours before (recoverable) muscle damage sets in, eight before nerve damage. And a little over 12 hours before necrosis of fat tissue starts, and a day before necrosis of the skin.

Hemostatic shock, and just blood loss in general is a much bigger priority. And the individual IFAK and tourniquets that have come out of AWOT, and just the re-mainstreaming of tourniquets, as opposed to their semi-taboo perception, are one of the many great medical achievements to come out of the wars.

(Start about page 9) http://stanfordhospital.org/clinicsmedServices/medicalServices/lifeFlight/documents/Handout_Version_AllBleeding_Stops_Pierog_and_DSouza.pdf

[KD5NRH]

This is correct. A TQ can be applied for a few hours without injury loss.

Does this apply to head injuries?

[MillCreek]

Does this apply to head injuries?

I have often recommended the application of a tourniquet to the neck of our more 'difficult' patients.

[roo_ster]

Students playing with explosives is generally a bad idea.

Au contraire, as a student I thought it a wonderful idea.

[RevDisk]

Does this apply to head injuries?

I did that jokingly during training.
"Private Snuffy stepped on a toe popper, alerting the enemy who is in a static defensive position. How do you react to the ambush, and treat the casualty?"
"Kill the bad guys. Treat friendly WIA by applying tourniquet to the neck." 

[AJ Dual]

You know, you might just be able to do it if it's a scalp wound towards the top of the head and above the ear-line.

Lower down by the neck? That is trickier, I admit.