Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"The answer to the problem of information overload on the Net is reputations… engineer a system called a reputation server."
- Neal Stephenson
 |
| Automatic Sentry Gun | ||
| A sentry gun that could target and decide to fire without any human intervention. |
In the novel, a group of scientists are working in a multilevel underground laboratory; the levels were connected by an open central core.
In this excerpt, it is rather important for Mark Hall to scale the central core to reach a different level of the structure.
| In theory, once inside the central core, you could go straight to the top. But in practice, there were ligamine sensors located around the core to prevent this. Originally intended to prevent the escape of lab animals that might break free into the core... there were automatic guns that fired ligamine darts...
Stone was sitting in the Level V laboratory, watching on the consoles as the computer electric eyes picked up Hall and outlined his body moving up the wall. To Stone he seemed painfully vulnerable. Stone glanced over at a third screen, which showed the ligamine ejectors pivoting on their wall brackets, the slim barrels coming around to take aim... On the screen, Hall's body was outlined in red on a vivid green background. As Stone watched, a crosshair was superimposed over the body, centering on the neck. The computer was programmed to choose a region with high blood flow... The ... dart hit him in the shoulder, stinging as it entered his flesh... Stone watched it all on the monitor. The screen blandly recorded STRIKE and then proceeded to rerun a tape of the sequence, showing the dart moving through the air, and hitting Hall's shoulder. |
| Technovelgy from The Andromeda Strain,
by Michael Crichton. Published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1969 Additional resources -
|
Automatic guns that target and fire date from WWII. The SCR-584 anti-aircraft gun laying radar was a highly accurate system developed early in the war.
Work also started on a suitable gun-laying computer that could use electrical, as opposed to mechanical, inputs for pointing data. Bell Labs delivered an analog computer known as the M-9 Gun Predictor for this role, able to control four of the Army's standard 90 mm M3 guns.
It could detect bomber-sized targets at about 40 miles range, and was generally able to automatically track them at about 18 miles. Accuracy within this range was 25 yards...
In Crichton's 1980 novel Congo, the sentry guns used to protect the camp perimeter against fierce gorillas appear to be laser guided by humans who pick out the targets.
"That's a LATRAP. For laser-tracking projectile," she whispered. "The LATRAP system consists of multiple LGSDs attached to sequential RFSDs."
She told him that the sentries held guns which were actually laser-guided sight devices, linked to rapid firing sensor devices on tripods. "They lock onto the target," she said, "and do the actual shooting once the target is identified."
Compare to the robot gun from Aliens (1986), by Alan Dean Foster; this weapon uses artificial intelligence and object recognition. Also, see the invisible watchmen from Murder in the Void (1938), by Edmond Hamilton and the automatic gun from The Gun (1952) by Philip K. Dick.
Thanks to an anonymous reader for additional information on this item.
The RadLab [Radiation Laboratory] had a prototype radar system running in April [1941]. To test the automatic aiming system, they attached the outputs from the radar to a gun turret taken from a B-29 bomber, removing the guns and replacing them with a camera. A friend then flew his light plane around the area, and on May 31 the system was able to accurately track the aircraft. Work then started on making the system suitable for field use, mounting the entire system in a single trailer with the 6-foot antenna on top. Known as XT-1, for eXperimental Truck-1, the system was first tested at Fort Monroe in February 1942.
(From SCR-584 radar)
He noticed that the guns had an unfamiliar shape - they were somehow too slender, too insubstantial - and that the black cables ran from the guns to squat, snub-nosed mechanisms mounted on short tripods at intervals around the camp.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Andromeda Strain
More Ideas
and Technology by Michael Crichton
Tech news articles related to The Andromeda Strain
Tech news articles related to works by Michael Crichton
Automatic Sentry Gun-related
news articles:
- Robotic Sentry Gun From USMechatronics
- South Korean Intelligent Surveillance and Guard Robot
- DoDAMM Autonomous Robot Sentry Gun
- DIY Robot Shoots You In The Face
| Sleeper Drones Lie in Wait |
| Worm Disrupts Physics Simulations Undetected For A Decade |
| Moscow Attacked By Hundreds Of Drones |
| China's Handheld Electromagnetic Gun |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
'...I saw a nice black heavy-looking cloud sailing by just now, and I can get the electrical machine out in five minutes to draw it down.'
'From a distance it could resolve the cosmic rays reflected from various substances.'
'The answer to the dumb student's prayer.'
'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
