Comparing Body Armor, Bullets, And Baseball
Researchers at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering are working on developing better armor. They used handguns and ordnance gelatin to judge how fast and hard bullets struck body armor, and used standard statistical methods and neural-fuzzy rule-based techniques to calculate possible injury.
“We studied how it would feel to get shot while wearing armor or bullet-resistant vests,” says Professor of Electrical Engineering Bart Kosko.
The researchers think that new nanomaterials may substitute for bulky trauma plates in armor, perhaps producing lighter and more flexible armor–or even “smart” armor that can sense bullets coming, alter itself to meet conditions, and report a soldier’s injuries and vital signs.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from Law Enforcement Technology (09/04) Vol. 31, No. 5, P. 128 .