Digital Scryer

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In February of this year IBM issued a patent for exo-armor that would allow you to dodge bullets. Unfortunately they’ve since pulled the patent. I still think that this is remarkable.

Their patent was a combination of high accuracy sensors (to detect high velocity projectiles in flight, and calculate their exact trajectories) and exo-suit technology (if you happened to be in the path of said projectile, the exo-suit would shove you out of the way faster than you could react). Their logic was that sniper bullets come from far enough away to give the sensors and suit enough time to move your butt to safety. Sound like Neo to you?

I’m Getting My Butt To Safety!

I think the only limits to this would be processing speed, which wouldn’t be a limit for long. There are so many immediate ways I could see to enhance this as well. Terahertz wave (and other) detectors could be used to track ALL firearms in an area, and a computer algorithm could be used to track all of their potential trajectories.

The sensors could then be used to tell if the guns were in people’s hands or not, and behavioral algorithms (which AFAIK have already been developed) could be used to tell if the person holding the gun was acting aggressively.

Couple that with the ability to read the movement of a trigger finger, and you could have the person dodging a split second before the gun is actually fired; starting to dodge after the trigger was pulled, but BEFORE the hammer came down. This would greatly shorten the range, allowing you to dodge even point blank in ideal conditions.

All Conditions Are Ideal For Me

With advanced enough algorithms, you could even have this thing letting you dodge attacks in hand to hand combat and make it look effortless. Jackie Chan’s suit from The Tuxedo comes to mind.

IBM, Now With 56% More Tuxedos.

Thanks to TechFragments.com for the original heads up.

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There have existed over time people with various “super” abilities. Things that really defy the norm. This article is first in an ongoing series cataloging these abilities.

Microscopic Vision; Defined as the capability to see things that are very tiny, often portrayed in comics as a “zooming in” effect like focusing a microscope or telescope. I was able to find 2 case studies of people with microscopic vision.

First is the case of A. Schiller, a convicted forger serving time in Sing Sing in the late 19th century. Schiller died in prison and when they searched his body, on his person they found seven ordinary straight pins. Six of these pins had silver heads and one was gold. On the heads of each of these pins, which were 47/1000ths of an inch or 1.17 millimeters in diameter, was written all 65 words of the Lord’s prayer.

500x Magnification

These words were only viewable to the layperson (read: person without microscopic vision) under a microscope with 500x magnification. These feats took Schiller 25 years, using a tool that’s so small it’s invisible to the naked eye. He supposedly went blind from the effort, meaning he probably couldn’t see anything unless it was right in front of his face and possibly very tiny. Truly amazing works of art.

The second is David Pay, the rice writer. I first saw David on an old episode of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not years ago, and was able to find this Youtube clip of that episode:



David writes on rice without any visual aids at all, no small feat. The difference between him and Schiller up there is that he doesn’t seem to have visual problems at all. No glasses or anything. While I don’t think David’s work is as tiny as Schiller’s, it’s still very amazing. He even started to work on his own version of the Lord’s prayer on a single grain of rice, and mentions that with smaller, higher quality tools, he’d be able to write even smaller.

In the latter part of the video clip in Spanish, he writes the entire alphabet on a rice grain in 25 seconds though his record is apparently 17.

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So I was stumbling through the net today when I came upon this old article about defending oneself against an armed or unarmed opponent using only a walking stick or umbrella.

It’s a pretty lengthy and detailed guide about kicking butt and taking names old school style. “Macguyver” fencing with what you have handy is a fairly effective practice to use when people challenge you to fisticuffs.

They’re fighting, really.

All in all this basic lesson is great for the elderly or the Penguin, or any of us captains of industry who still carry canes about anymore. I really like it.

WARK!

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Hey all, I’m looking for some things to write about on this blog. Seeing as how there are a HUGE amount of sci-fi and comic book movies coming out recently I figured I’d take requests on doing relevant posts.

So if you have a question about how a super power would work in real life, or a piece of sci-fi technology, or a superhero or whatever, email it to me and I’ll do my best to answer it in its own blog post here on Digital Scryer.

You can reach me at brent@digitalscryer.com

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