Lucid Dimensions Announces Next Generation Hostile Weapons Fire Product

Lucid Dimensions, Inc. (Lucid) announced today the release of the Thunderbolt™ HFD System, a life-saving tool which has the ability to instantly detect and locate the origin of hostile weapons fire by using both Infrared (IR) and acoustic sensors. Thunderbolt™, the lowest-cost, highest-performance Hostile Fire Detection (HFD) system on the market today, builds upon the company's prior success in Spherical IR-only weapons flash detection, with the established ShotSense3D™ product line. The addition of acoustic sensors gives the user "eyes and ears" specifically tuned to detect, classify, and locate hostile fire. Sensing both light and sound allows Thunderbolt™ to accurately calculate range to the target and therefore geo-locate the shooter with great precision. In addition, sensor fusion increases the system's ability to reject false alarms, particularly important in high-stress scenarios where false alarms can distract and frustrate users.

Today's Warfighters, Law Enforcement Officers, and First Responders are often in harm's way when actively engaged in their work. For our Warfighters, the threat is often encountered when riding in a tactical vehicle in an ambush situation with no warning whatsoever. Thunderbolt™ provides users real-time actionable intelligence, day or night, including the location and type of hostile fire so that defensive measures can be taken.

Lucid's CEO, Tim Riley, explains: "As a startup in an industry dominated by giants, we've had to learn to do things faster and more efficiently with less resources. Lucid's technology parallels this mindset. We sought to create the leanest and highest-performing HFD system possible for the lowest price. Marrying acoustic sensors with Lucid's disruptive approach to IR sensing was the natural next step in the evolution of our technology. Thunderbolt™ offers our customers the ability to cost effectively geo-locate hostile fire from relevant ranges with a high probability of detection and a very low false alarm rate. This is extremely exciting as it makes previously unaffordable technologies now available to a wide variety of platforms and applications, bringing an added layer of protection for those who courageously put themselves in harm's way for the greater good." 

Thunderbolt™ is a multi-modal (IR and Acoustic modalities) HFD sensor which provides broad protection for a variety of missions including:

• Fixed site Small Arms Fire (SAF) detection and location: urban high crime areas, critical infrastructure, schools, public areas, border patrol
• Vehicle mounted SAF detection and location: law enforcement, dignitary protection
• Fixed site HFD (includes SAF and other threats such as Rocket Propelled Grenades or RPGs): forward operating bases, combat outposts, checkpoints, embassies
• Vehicle mounted HFD: tactical vehicles (Humvees, MRAPs), tanks, robotics
• Maritime HFD: riverine craft, littoral ships
• Airborne HFD: helicopters, UAVs
• Integrated with other systems: radars, perimeter or facility security, command and control

Despite a growing need, many of the government and commercial markets have been unable to acquire and adopt conventional HFD sensors due to their high cost and limited reliability. Thunderbolt™ harnesses the efficiency, power, and speed of Lucid's proprietary approach to IR sensing to detect and locate hostile fire from relevant ranges. The novel multi-aperture approach utilizes low-cost Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) detectors and lenses distributed over a spherical surface. The ultimate product completes the mission of HFD with key added benefits: 1/10th the cost of other systems, 10x the speed, and 10% of the data bandwidth. The Thunderbolt's low cost makes it suitable for deployment for nearly any application where safety from and awareness of weapons fire is required.