Wearable Sparse-Conformal-Acoustic-Networks for Tracking & ID of Urban Targets

The objective of the proposed research is to develop wearable acoustic array technology to enable a wirelessly connected squad of soldiers in an urban battlefield to detect, localize, track, and categorize acoustic target signals. The goal is to give foot soldiers real-time situation awareness, thereby assisting them in attacking enemy targets while avoiding ambush, unintentional civilian casualties, and friendly-fire accidents. Each soldier will be equipped with a conformal acoustic array connected to an adaptive filtering network for localization and enhancement of speech and other acoustic signatures buried in noise. Each soldier will thus become a ``node'' in a wireless smart sensor network. The acoustic information will be shared among neighboring nodes of the network. Each soldier will wear a fast computer to process his or her acoustic data, to supply processed data for wireless transmission to neighboring nodes, and to generate a display showing the location and identification (friend or foe) of surrounding acoustic targets. The research proposed for Phase I consists of seven tasks whose objectives are to develop and demonstrate a single SCAN node, to conceptualize an eight-node SCAN system for development under Phase II, and to provide written monthly progress reports and a final report.