DARPA's Video Countdown of Top Technologies of 2014

So the countdown is on … the countdown for a new year, new challenges and new triumphs. During 2015, the nation’s top weather experts are slated to get a new weather satellite. The Pentagon will get a new chief. The Army will get at least four new uniforms. But before we take more of a look at the future, we wanted to highlight a countdown that sums up 2014, posted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Via millions of hits on the agency’s YouTube channel (SIGNAL Media, by the way, also has a YouTube channel), officials at the Defense Department’s leading research arm compiled what was hot in terms of most popular. Based on views, they are as follows:

10—Multifunction RF Synthetic Vision Avionics Backbone (SVAB) Technology Demonstration
Real-time two- and three-dimensional visualizations that would help helicopter pilots navigate safely in conditions of degraded visibility.

9—Fire Line Advanced Situational Awareness for Handhelds (FLASH)
Provides firefighters digital maps via tablets that give them real-time situational awareness via multiple streams of information from airborne sensors, firefighters and commanders.

8—Triumph in the Mundane
Watch as an amputee easily peels a carrot using a high-tech prosthetic arm.

7—Phoenix Orbital Robotics and Satellite Architecture
The program would use technologies to make it possible for robotics to inspect and service space systems, enabling assembly of more flexible, scalable and cost-effective space systems in orbit.

6—Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) Concept
A program to create a new paradigm for more routine, responsive and affordable space operations.

5—Improved quality of life through and advanced prosthesis
Watch the same amputee from another video in the top 10 list as he changes the fingers of the high-tech prosthetic arm to a pinch grip, giving him the ability to open an envelope and pull out a letter—a task he could not accomplish with a hook prosthetic.

4—Ground X-Vehicle Technologies (GXV-T) crew augmentation
Program goals would reduce number of crew members needed for an operation, lower operator workload and provide an easy-to-use technology any soldier can use.

3—A breakthrough in upper-limb prosthetics
Thanks to the moveable fingers and wrist on a prosthesis developed under DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program, an amputee gingerly moves eggs from one carton to another—but does he break any?

2— Ground X-Vehicle Technologies (GXV-T) agility video
Technology gives the platform the ability to quickly activate defense measures, rapidly change speed and direction, and dodge threats.

1—Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) demonstrates first-ever guided .50-caliber bullet
DARPA is making possible the impossible and creating a self-guiding bullet to help military snipers hit moving targets in the most unfavorable of conditions, such as high winds and dusty terrain. The EXACTO program is developing approaches and advanced capabilities to improve the range and accuracy of sniper systems. (Stay tuned for the February print issue of SIGNAL Magazine for more information).