A computer engineering team from Vanderbilt University's Institute of Software Integrated Systems has made it possible to use your smartphone to track gunfire. If one were to unfortunately find themselves in some sticky situation for who knows what the reason may be, one could simply use their smartphone to find the direction in which a shot was fired and from where. The technology consists of the use of both hardware and software which can pinpoint the location of a shooter. The hardware uses microphones and clocks to that listen for both the muzzle blast and the shock waves produced by the supersonic bullets in order to calculate the position and direction of bullets. The software will calculate and display the information on a map of the area showing a red arrow as the direction of a bullet which is placed essentially using triangulation. The smartphone version along with the military versions, require multiple 'nodes' in order to accurately pinpoint a shooter so there would have to be multiple smartphone users in the area in order to make an accurate reading. These nodes form a network, of which the data they receive from the hardware, will be shared among the network to make an accurate reading. However, another version was developed which is a bit bulkier, but it requires only two nodes to make an accurate reading, but it can only estimate the range of the shot. This technology is very useful in the military for protection so a more available version would certainly help police departments and other authority units to protect a community and make an area safer.
article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130425213800.htm
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