The Combined Logistics Command (CLC) will unveil its newly developed thermal imager, base-monitoring system and 3-D maps at the 2003 Taipei Aerospace Technology Exhibition, which opens today at the Taipei World Trade Center.
The portable thermal imager, developed by the Taichung-based 402nd factory in less than a year, is slated to become the armed forces' next-generation night vision equipment but has yet to pass a series of tests.
Night-vision goggles being used by the armed services at the moment employ dated technology and are not very user-friendly. They were mostly developed by the CLC, with key components bought from the US or European countries.
The thermal imager is the first of its kind to be developed by the logistics command and is likely to replace the outdated night-vision equipment.
It provides the user with the ability to see in the dark, displaying the image in black and white on a hand-held monitor.
It can also relay images back to a command center hundreds of meters away via radio transmissions.
A lieutenant colonel with the CLC, who was involved in the development of the thermal imager, said the transmission range could be extended several times depending on actual needs and available budget.
"The thermal imager on display is only a prototype. Its functions could be enhanced according to the user's needs. It might not be the best when compared with models of the same kind produced by foreign countries, but it is certainly the cheapest," the lieutenant colonel said.
"Although it is inexpensive, the quality of the product has been not compromised," he said.
Except for key components like the detector, all other parts of the thermal imager were sourced from the local market, which is an example of the military's efforts toward self-sufficiency.
The detectors for the thermal imagers were bought from France. The logistics unit initially planned to buy from Israel but dropped the idea after considering that China might try to intervene.
Another significant new product that the unit is to showcase at the exhibition is a base-monitoring system developed by the 401st factory, also based in Taichung.
The base-monitoring system features self-tracking capabilities. Older monitoring systems need somebody to manually control the monitor cameras. But the new system is capable of tracking a target automatically, with monitor cameras having been integrated in the design to keep continuous watch on the target no matter where it moves.
The system is intended to be adopted by the armed services as a tool in effectively maintaining security around a base.
The CLC will display another key new product -- a 3-D map based on satellite images. The map looks ordinary, but becomes three-dimensional when looked at through a pair of special glasses.
The 3-D map is aimed at helping field commanders get a clear idea in the shortest time possible about the best position to deploy troops.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater