5 comments

  • JumpCrisscross3 hours ago
    “Following the 12-day war with Israel in June, Iranian authorities learned that Israel could easily locate their radar systems and take them out, leaving Tehran’s forces blind to the skies above, Avivi said. Unlike the radar installations, the cameras don&#x27;t transmit a signal that Israel can use to locate them, he added.”<p>Damn innovative.
    • ceejayoz3 hours ago
      It&#x27;s a pretty old idea, too.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Acoustic_mirror" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Acoustic_mirror</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cnn.com&#x2F;style&#x2F;article&#x2F;war-sound-locators-before-radar" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cnn.com&#x2F;style&#x2F;article&#x2F;war-sound-locators-before-...</a>
    • itopaloglu833 hours ago
      Might be good for early detection, but unfortunately doesn&#x27;t provide any defense on its own.
      • ceejayoz2 hours ago
        Early detection lets you prepare the defenses.<p>Like getting some MANPADS teams in the route of an oncoming helicopter assault.
  • aftbit3 hours ago
    Ukraine has a sound-based version of this, supposedly using cell phones as the primary hardware element. The idea is to scatter hundreds of sensors along the front in some depth, then use simple on-device models to classify sounds and send an alert when a sound matching a known drone signature is detected.
  • kklisura3 hours ago
    Huh. Reminds me of this video &quot;tracking faint objects like stealth fighters with cheap cameras&quot; [1] and HN post [2].<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=m-b51C82-UE" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=m-b51C82-UE</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=43643207">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=43643207</a>
  • lolbutwait3 hours ago
    Like Elon’s camera based self driving does it also make a lot of mistakes?<p>I bet modern radar can tell the difference between a bird, plane, baseball, and missile, but a camera based one is full of false positives.
    • cogman103 hours ago
      It might, but I&#x27;m not sure how much of an issue a false positive is. It&#x27;s not like Iran has an airforce and it&#x27;s not like there a bunch of civilian planes flying over head.<p>Also, modern radar can&#x27;t always tell the difference between a bird and a plane. Especially when dealing with stealth vehicles.
      • chistev3 hours ago
        A false positive can be a problem if you&#x27;re shooting missiles at things that aren&#x27;t real threats, no? Those missiles cost money.
        • cogman103 hours ago
          It&#x27;s a problem depending on how often it happens. Letting a bomber through that takes out a military installation or desalination plant is worse.
    • oa3353 hours ago
      Widely available image recognition software can tell the difference between birds, planes, baseballs and missiles already.
      • the__alchemist3 hours ago
        Depends. It would be a non-trivial problem when dealing with only 1 - a few pixels, which is likely.
        • ceejayoz2 hours ago
          It&#x27;s not <i>that</i> hard. Planes and birds act pretty differently, even when pixel sized. Doubly so when you&#x27;ve multiple cameras networked all over the area.
  • zoklet-enjoyer3 hours ago
    That&#x27;s pretty cool. We need a decentralized civilian network like that to identify UFOs