7/13/2008 - Portable Autonomous Sentry demonstration

Normally, I gather a list of favorite videos that I intend to blog on, and they're put in the order of when I found them. So by the time I actually comment on a video, it's one that I found probably two weeks ago. I am going to make an exception today because this particular video is just so cool.

What could possibly get me so excited? Well, it goes back to the movie Aliens. If you watch the Special Edition DVD, there is a scene where the Colonial Marines have to hole up for the night and they've barricaded themselves because the Aliens "mostly come out at night... mostly." Being badass Marines from the future, they do have some protection: flame throwers, grenade launchers, etc. In this particular scene, though, they deploy what has to be one of the coolest weapons seen in the movies. It's a portable sentry gun that uses a series of cameras and sensors to detect the movement of incoming Aliens and automatically aims and shoots them to bits. It's a great tension building scene, but it always made me wonder if they ever invented a weapon like that.

This also ties into the video game "Perfect Dark", the follow-up to Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64. Goldeneye is considered one of the best first-person shooters ever made, and Rare followed it up with a more futuristic game with, of course, futuristic weapons. Some people will say that the Farsight rail gun was the best weapon in Perfect Dark. I have to disagree and say it would have to be the Laptop Gun. Its primary function as a mini-machine gun was great and very lethal. However, its secondary function is what stole the show. You could throw it, and it would attach itself to any surface and be a sentry gun! You could be in an entirely different area in a deathmatch stage and it would fire at any enemies coming near it. It just does the killing for you! And again, I had to wonder... has someone made something like this yet?

Well, this video has the answer:



Wow. That is one of the coolest things I have ever seen, and I would really like one for Christmas. :) Seriously, the Army should pay millions to the inventor of this portable sentry gun, as I'm sure it would be a great addition to the battlefield (it would have to shoot more than paintballs, of course). I just love the way the "target" tries to distract it and fails.