GPS

The Army's soldier suit of the future, once left for dead, appears to be crawling back to life. After 15 years and a half-billion dollars in development, the Army officially cancelled the Land Warrior program, and its collection of electronic maps, GPS beacons, digital radios, and next-gen rifle scopes for infantrymen. All kinds of configurations of the wearable electronics were tried. But the gear always wound up being too bulky to justify the seemingly-modest help it provided frontline soldiers, the Army decided.

During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, General Motors (GM) will showcase one of its latest projects – a vehicle that can operate without a driver. GM indicates vehicles that can park and drive themselves will give passengers the ability to multi-task and will also help reduce traffic congestion, save energy and reduce emissions.

In one high-tech thriller after another, the hero attaches a tiny tracking device on the villain and follows him as a blinking dot on a computer screen. In real life, this kind of technology would be great for tracking pets or kids, even packages or luggage — anything that tends to wander.

It's a memory aid! A robotic assistant! An epidemic detector! An all-seeing, ultra-intrusive spying program! The Pentagon is about to embark on a stunningly ambitious research project designed to gather every conceivable bit of information about a person's life, index all the information and make it searchable. What national security experts and civil libertarians want to know is, why would the Defense Department want to do such a thing?

Predicting where crime would happen next sounds like a wild idea, a concept possible only in the realm of science fiction, like Phillip K. Dick’s short story “Minority Report.” But lately some technology vendors have been combining crime statistics, weather data, geospatial data, and predictive algorithms to create a magical brew that can forecast when and where the next crime wave will most likely hit.

A variety of migrating birds, as well as bats and even hamsters successfully use a 'magnetic sense' to navigate on long journeys. Now, a new type of sensor developed by scientists in the US could make it possible for humans do the same trick. Magnetic global positioning works by matching precise measurements of the Earth's magnetic field with a database of measurements from across the globe.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department selected Omnilink Systems’ advanced wireless offender monitoring solution for the Clark County Detention Center house-arrest program.

Molly Jackson is the teenager every parent would love to have. She's a solid student, holding a 3.5 GPA, and is a member of the marching band and sailing team. And still her dad worries about her safety every time she gets behind the wheel of a car. Greg Jackson, like so many other parents, has reason to worry. Each year 5,000 teens are killed and another 30,000 injured in car wrecks. But now there's a way to monitor your teen's driving. You can watch their speed and know where they've been and where they're going, every time they start the car.

When a Wisconsin man was arrested last October on suspicion of harvesting 18 pounds of marijuana, it was partly thanks to Google Earth.

The era of Robocop - and perhaps of the surveillance society - came a step nearer today with the announcement that Merseyside plods have started trialling a flying police robot.

The scally sky-patrolman, unlike military kill-bots such as the US Reaper, isn't intended for any active role. It is purely an observation platform, mounting CCTV with a range of imaging options.