Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!yale!eagle.wesleyan.edu!nhaus
From: nhaus@eagle.wesleyan.edu
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Pigeon obliteration
Message-ID: <1991Mar29.112612.40949@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
Date: 29 Mar 91 16:26:12 GMT
Organization: Wesleyan University
Lines: 26

Following the engineering/military vein which has been introduced to this
discussion:

  The Navy has a system, called Phalanx, which is capable of locating a target
out of blue sky (not too hard via radar) and pointing its gatling gun in the
appropriate direction to turn it to swiss cheese. There are a couple of
interesting points about this one:

  1. It won't go after birds.

  2. It can find its own bullets in its field of 'vision', figure out by how
much they are missing the target, and correct.

  3. It works very, very quickly in real time.

  I'm not sure on the details, but I am sure of two things: no AI involved, and
it has to be turned on to work (as demonstrated in the P. Gulf a year or two 
ago).

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