Full body ballistic armor.

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Tasoth
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Full body ballistic armor.

Post by Tasoth »

Article here

From bears to bullets

Inventor hopes to sell armour suit to the military
John Rennison, the Hamilton Spectator

Hamilton-born Troy Hurtubise has developed a feature-filled suit of armour out of high-impact plastic, ceramic bullet protection and ballistic foam.
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Inventor hopes to sell armour suit to the military
By Wade Hemsworth
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jan 11, 2007)

The grizzly man is back, and this time he's ready to take on bullets and bombs.

Troy Hurtubise, the Hamilton-born inventor who became famous for his bulky bear-protection suit by standing in front of a moving vehicle to prove it worked, has now created a much slimmer suit that he hopes will soon be protecting Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan and U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

He has spent two years and $15,000 in the lab out back of his house in North Bay, designing and building a practical, lightweight and affordable shell to stave off bullets, explosives, knives and clubs. He calls it the Trojan and describes it as the "first ballistic, full exoskeleton body suit of armour."

Using the hard-learned lessons of his Project Grizzly experience -- a 20-year odyssey that included a National Film Board documentary, an appearance on CNN and personal bankruptcy -- he's ready to start selling his newest idea.

Already, he says, the suit has stood up to bullets from high-powered weapons, including an elephant gun. The suit was empty during the ballistics tests, but he's more than ready to put it on and face live fire.

"I would do it in an instant," he said. "Bring it on."

Yesterday, he returned to Hamilton to show off the suit, hoping to generate some publicity that will get him the meetings he wants with military and police outfitters.

On Saturday, he plans to wear it to Nathan Phillips Square in downtown Toronto and wait for the reporters. It shouldn't take long to create a stir.

Hurtubise, 43, wore his suit -- helmet and all -- on the four-hour drive down south, partly as a way of making sure it would be comfortable enough in the field. Even sitting on his armoured butt cheeks, he said he was fine.

As he drove his black pickup in his black getup, other drivers gawked and honked. Just south of Huntsville, he was delighted to be pulled over and gave an apprehensive OPP officer a close-up look at the suit.

Once he established that he could see just fine in his helmet and that the guns attached to his magnetic holsters were just props, Hurtubise was free to continue his trip.

The whole suit -- which draws design inspiration from Star Wars, RoboCop, Batman and video games -- is made from high-impact plastic lined with ceramic bullet protection over ballistic foam.

Its many features include compartments for emergency morphine and salt, a knife and emergency light. Built into the forearms are a small recording device, a pepper-spray gun and a detachable transponder that can be swallowed in case of trouble.

Dangling between the legs, that would be a clock.

In the helmet, there's a solar-powered fresh-air system and a drinking tube attached to a canteen in the small of the back. A laser pointer mounted in the middle of the forehead is ready to point to snipers, while LED lights frame the face.

The whole suit comes in at 18 kilograms. It covers everything but the fingertips and the major joints, and could be mass-produced for about $2,000, Hurtubise says.

He said he hopes to earn enough of a living from the suit so he can keep on inventing, but the real reason he did this, he says, is "for the boys."
If it's true that's kinda sweet. The question though, is why would you try to sell on the elephant gun? Wouldn't the KE still cause a casualty in such a wonder suit?
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Post by Brother-Captain Gaius »

That's... that's awesome. The picture just says it all.
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Post by Einhander Sn0m4n »

It's Master Chief! :lol:
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Post by fusion »

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:It's Master Chief! :lol:
In black :D
If it's true that's kinda sweet. The question though, is why would you try to sell on the elephant gun? Wouldn't the KE still cause a casualty in such a wonder suit?
The foam I suppose helps increase the impact time and spread it enough over his body to survive, heck, he has survived a car crash in something simlar, something that has more KE than a elephant gun
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Post by Elaro »

If the military start a top-secret "elite infantry" program to train specially selected infantrymen to use this armour, could Bungie sue for trademark infringement? (Not that they would, of course.)

On another note: Damn, I want one.
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Post by KrauserKrauser »

Everything sounds cool except for a big WTF for the clock dangling between the legs.

Does his penis tell time?

If so, that is one exceptional penis.
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Post by Lonestar »

Incidentally:
He calls it the Trojan

Good name for something that's suppose to make you safe. :)
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Post by Chiaroscuro »

He calls it the Trojan
Good name for something that's suppose to make you safe.
Yeah... yeah, I was going to comment on that, but I refrained. Let's just say, it reminded me of the "safe sex" practiced by Leslie Nielsen in the Naked Gun movies.
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Post by Darth Servo »

KrauserKrauser wrote:Everything sounds cool except for a big WTF for the clock dangling between the legs.

Does his penis tell time?

If so, that is one exceptional penis.
Not really. One's penis always knows when its time to have sex.
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Post by KrauserKrauser »

Well, as long as they don't let any wooden horses in the gates, Troy was a very well defended city.

It works, just might exhibit a weakness to wooden scupltures of the equine variety.
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Post by KrauserKrauser »

Darth Servo wrote:
KrauserKrauser wrote:Everything sounds cool except for a big WTF for the clock dangling between the legs.

Does his penis tell time?

If so, that is one exceptional penis.
Not really. One's penis always knows when its time to have sex.
I guess his doesn't and needs the help.
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Post by Winston Blake »

I call bullshit. His bear suits may be great, but here are some of his other projects:
Angel Light

Most recently, Hurtubise has supposedly designed the Angel Light, a large device that he claims can see through objects, detect stealth aircraft, see into flesh, and disable electronic devices. Hurtubise says that the design for the Angel Light came to him in a series of three dreams, and that he was able to build it from memory, with no schematic and worked on the first try.

The Angel Light is tubular in shape, several feet long, and is constructed in three units. The light-"centrifuge" unit contains logic devices, black, white, red and fluorescent light sources, as well as seven industrial LASERs. The "deflector grid" unit is made up of a large circular piece of optical glass, a microwave unit, and plasma combined with carbon dioxide. The third, unnamed unit contains eight plasma light rods, CO2 charges, industrial magnets, 108 mirrors, eight ionization cells, industrial lights, and a variety of other electronics.

This device purportedly functions by making walls, hands, stealth shielding, and other objects transparent. It also purportedly has the side-effects of frying electronic devices and killing goldfish, when the 'Angel Light' beam is shone on them. Troy claims to have lost feeling in his hand and became ill, from holding it in the beam. He said he could see his blood vessels and muscle tissue as if he had pulled back his skin. He also claims to be able to read the license-plate on a car in his garage from his workshop, and can see the roadsalt on it.

And he’s done the tests to prove it, with the covert help of scientists at the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hurtubise said.

Gary Dryfoos, a consultant and former long-time instructor at MIT, said "there's a Nobel Prize" for Hurtubise if the Angel Light really performs as described. "There are laws of physics waiting to be written for what he's talking about," Dryfoos said.

After he discovered that it was harmful, he dismantled it. However, Hurtubise said the French government sent agents to North Bay to witness a demonstration of the Angel Light. He said the reps were so impressed with the device they gave him $40,000 in cash to finish it. The French, Hurtubise adds, have also agreed to pay him a “substantial” amount of money to use the technology if it passes rigorous tests in France.

He claims to have acquired a sample of the stealth radar-resistant paneling used on the U.S. Comanche helicopter from someone at MIT. He was directed to install it on a radio-controlled electric car and race it down a simple track out in a field. He pointed the beam down the track, and claims when it drove through the beam it stopped working. He also said he was able to then detect the car on a hand-held radar gun. He also claims to have flown a radio-controlled airplane through the beam, the effects of which caused it to fall out of the sky.

[edit] God Light

According to Hurtubise, his latest invention, the God Light, can make blind men see and lame men walk, and he is backing up his claims with a $20,000 reward to anyone who can prove him wrong. Hurtubise says that the God Light, developed with the aid of a German physicist, (who is unnamed, like most of Hurtubise's collaborators), has already reversed Parkinson’s symptoms in one test subject and shrunk cancer tumors in mice. The device uses 67 lenses and five gases to produce 80,000 lux of full-spectrum light. William Rieken, a PhD candidate at the Chihara Laboratory, at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology, in Osaka, Japan, told Canadian news site BayToday.ca that the God Light will "revolutionize physics and change the understanding of the concepts of science".

Photographs of the God Light in operation have been published by a local newspaper and on the Internet. The device appears to emit a warm yellowish light. This light, while fairly bright, is not so overwhelmingly bright as to cause the pictures to be overexposed. In at least one of the published pictures, there is also a smaller circular red light, perhaps used for targeting the device. In some of the pictures, the person being treated is wearing goggles, allegedly for safety reasons; in others, the subject just closes his eyes, even while his face is being treated. In addition, a photo showing germinated seeds treated with the device has been published; allegedly, their growth rate was accelerated by an order of magnitude.
This is his 'Angel Light' that makes walls transparent and performs other miracles:
Image

He's also got some magic pastes that are no less 'revolutionary'.
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Post by Hawkwings »

Yeah, but this thread is talking about that awesome armor, not these other things, right?

I really doubt his armor weighs 18 kilos though. My fully loaded backpack weighs more than that.
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Post by Covenant »

http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/media_ ... 007_a.html

There's the video of his armor. And there actually are controlled tests of his Bear Suit, which was fairly indestructable. The thing was not what we would call "Combat Ready," and I've got questions about this here Spartan Mk 1 armor. Yes... you heard his commentary right. He said he looked at "Star Wars" and "Halo" when designing his suit.

God help us all, but some of his wierdass shit works. Yes, the Angel and God lights seem wierd, but the firepaste seems fully functional (and is made out of Coca-Cola among other things), but the bearsuit went through fairly rigorous testing and I have no doubt this suit is capable of surviving hits. I just wonder if the guy inside would be.
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Post by kheegster »

As he drove his black pickup in his black getup, other drivers gawked and honked. Just south of Huntsville, he was delighted to be pulled over and gave an apprehensive OPP officer a close-up look at the suit.

Once he established that he could see just fine in his helmet and that the guns attached to his magnetic holsters were just props, Hurtubise was free to continue his trip.
The look on the officer's face when he pulled over what appeared to be a Halo infantryman must have been comedy gold.
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Post by CaptainChewbacca »

If its as good as he says, and can be mass-produced for $2000 a suit, that's right up military procurement's alley.
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Post by Stark »

If it's as good as he says, surely he'd have a video on youtube of him shooting himself in the helmet.
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Post by Covenant »

Stark wrote:If it's as good as he says, surely he'd have a video on youtube of him shooting himself in the helmet.
My video includes him shooting parts of it with a shotgun at close range.
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Post by Covenant »

At least I believe it was a piece of the armor. The bearsuit was tested against live fire and it worked, the real question is if this lighter suit is capable of stopping bullets at all.

Furthermore, as you can see when he moves around in it, there looks to be open spots against the sides and armpits that could get shrapnel in it.
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Post by Stark »

You just don't get it, do you? He shot a piece of armour. That's hardly a practical test, and it makes me wonder why he won't shoot it when there's a person inside. He got a car to run over him in his other gear, so he's clearly open to risk.
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Post by Marko Dash »

it may do just fine with pure KE, but what about ap rounds?
If a black-hawk flies over a light show and is not harmed, does that make it immune to lasers?
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Post by Norade »

I guess that even if it can't stop AP, it'll be better than nothing. That is if it can really do what he claims it can, if not that's just so much dead weight in battle.
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Post by Covenant »

Marko Dash wrote:it may do just fine with pure KE, but what about ap rounds?
I assume an AP round will go right through the thing. I think it's also open to shrapnel. Stark, he IS claiming to be open to testing the thing against live fire, with him inside. I have no doubt he believes his suit to be viable. I'm only defending his intentions and his previous successes making giant blobs of armor that he can fit a man inside--certainly not the suit itself. :P I don't think he's a crazy crackpot. I think he's a crazy inventor. Just because we haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't do it, just means we should withhold judgement! I hope it does what he says it does, cuz it probably wouldn't matter anyway, that thing's no good for combat! :P
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Post by Norade »

...Cuz it probably wouldn't matter anyway, that thing's no good for combat! Razz
How do you see it as being no good in combat? It looks to me as if it has a decent range of motion, and if it weighs as little as he says it does it shouldn't slow them down very much once they're used to it. Also assuming that it does work the way it's supposed to, but doesn't work in combat I could almost see it have a niche market with overly cautious security guards.
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