Harris, the owner of Orem-based SpotterRF, developed a portable radar device that has received the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense. He was invited to demonstrate the Spotter M600C at the Stiletto Maritime Demonstration Program last month for the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command.
"The Department of Defense on a regular basis does investigations into new technology," Harris said. "They invite groups that might be applicable and test in real world situations."
The point of the radar is essentially to allow people to see around corners and into areas where traditional radar cannot reach. That allows military users to both move and deploy with a greater knowledge of the type of situation they are entering. During the demonstration, the Spotter M600C was set up remotely on a tripod at the mouth of the harbor. Several vessels traveled into and around the harbor. The radar communicated movements to the military vessel about a mile away, giving sailors real-time detections on a map that displayed the location, distance and speed of the target.
"We were their remote eyes where they didn't have coverage," Harris said. "Ships have large radar dishes limited by line of sight areas without view. We were in a port area where the entrance wasn't visible."
The military ship was able to get the advance alerts needed and deploy to take care of the problem. According to Harris all a person would need is a small tripod and a radio along with the M600C radar.
"Warfighting needs are rapidly changing, and our interest is in looking at mature technologies and future capabilities that could be transitioned to fill an operational need sooner than later," Dale Shiflett, NECC's deputy assistant chief of staff for strategy and technology, said in a news release. "Using the Stiletto Maritime Demonstration Program allowed us to look at the realm of possibilities for new and improved technologies. What better way to do that, than to have both the warfighter and the system developers in the same environment using the systems and having discussions on how it could work better."
Brock Josephson, SpotterRF's team lead for the demonstration, said, "The M600C was very effective at detecting all vessels coming in and out of the harbor. The system even detected and tracked a drifting jet ski."
Weirdly, you switch into macro mode by turning a ring on the lens; it snaps into a new position. I ruined more than one great photo because the lens ring had accidentally wound up in macro mode.
Superwide shots are effortless, since the RX1 inherits the Sweep Panorama feature of Sony’s other models; as you swing the camera around you, pressing the shutter button, it snaps away, creating a 270-degree, automatically stitched, usually perfect panorama in real time.
Video is gorgeous, too: 1080p high definition with stereo sound. There’s a miniplug input for an external microphone, too.
Clearly, this camera is intended for professionals or nearly pros. It’s built like a tank, all metal, with markings etched and not just painted on. Its shutter is completely silent. Its hotshoe accommodates various expensive accessories, including optical or electronic viewfinders.
It offers every kind of manual control, and you can customize it to the hilt; its scene mode dial offers three positions for storing your own memorized settings. There’s an aperture adjustment ring right on the lens, and there’s a dedicated exposure knob on the top.
Unfortunately, there are also some aspects that will drive you crazy. Focusing can be slow — in low light, really slow; as a result, this isn’t a great camera for sports, pets or children. There’s no stabilization for still photos, either. And you can’t play back stills and videos consecutively. You have to dive into the menus to switch from one form of playback to the other. That’s common to other recent Sony cameras, and it’s idiotic.
As the state has sought to profit more from the game, the Legislature has lifted most of the original restrictions, allowing it to expand from restaurants and bowling alleys to bars and large stores, and authorizing play almost around the clock.
The remaining restrictions prohibit businesses that do not serve alcohol from offering Quick Draw unless they occupy more than 2,500 square feet, and require players to be 21 years old in venues serving alcohol. (In other states, the minimum age is 18.) Removing those rules would allow small stores to offer Quick Draw, and would be likely to generate more sales in New York City, where per capita revenues are low compared with the rest of the state.
While the ZIP codes with the highest earnings tend to be in New York City — the neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, is tops in the state, doing almost twice the business of the second-place ZIP code, northwest Staten Island, according to lottery figures — that is because city neighborhoods are far denser than those upstate.
The proposal would also allow players as young as 18 to play Quick Draw in bars, even though they cannot legally drink there.
“The restrictions have proved cumbersome and unnecessary, and have substantially reduced the amount of earnings that would otherwise be generated by the game,” reads the governor’s memo.
Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz, a Brooklyn Democrat who chairs the Assembly’s Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Committee, warned in a statement that the age change could result in a generation of new addicts. About one million New Yorkers have already been identified as “problem gamblers,” he said, noting that Quick Draw has been called “video crack.”
