Tracking Gunfire with a Smartphone
Computer engineers at Vanderbilt University’s Institute of Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) have developed a smartphone-based system for identifying the location from where gunshots are fired. The system is based off a hardware module and related software that can turn a regular smartphone into a shooter location system. The researchers at Vanderbilt University developed in the past, mobile “smart nodes” in a wireless network in soldiers’ combat helmets that can rapidly identify the location of enemy snipers with relatively decent accuracy. The team has since then adapted their system to the smartphone. The system consists of an external sensor module that contains the microphones required to detect the acoustic signature of gunshots and then transmits the information to the smartphone via a Bluetooth connection. The smartphone then uses the incoming information and transmits it to the other modules, then determining the origin of the gunshot by way of triangulation.
Source: Forensic Magazine
Read the full article here.
Citation: (2013). Forensic Magazine. Tracking gunfire with a smartphone. Retrieved April 29, 2013, from http://www.forensicmag.com/news/tracking-gunfire-smartphone
[Abstract by ForensIQ intern, Andrea Williams]
