In Boston last week, a crowd gathered in the noise-filled, two-story atrium of the Boston University Photonics Center to watch a man simulate gunshots by banging on a well-dented metal panel. Each time he repositioned himself -- on a set of stairs, for example -- and struck the metal, a small, suitcase-sized robot would instantly swivel its cigar box-shaped head and aim two clusters of bright-white LEDs at the metal panel.

The robot's all-important head, named the Robot Enhanced Detection Outpost with Lasers, or Redowl, is the creation of a team at Biomimetic Systems in Rosindale, MA, led by Socrates Deligeorges, and professors at BU. It's the most recent of several new technologies to help troops quickly identify the source of enemy attacks.

BBN Technologies of Cambridge, MA, for instance, has already sent more than 100 Humvee-mounted devices to Iraq for detecting gunshots. Their system includes a two-meter mast with a half-meter microphone cluster, and weighs about 25 kilograms. Radiance Technologies of Huntsville, AL, sells another gunshot detection device, a box about the size of the BU robot, but weighing nine kilograms.

This is an extremely cool use of technology and could end up saving lots of lives. I've always been impressed with the principles behind how hearing works. We are capable of locating the origin of sound and, when we concentrate can even isolate certain sounds out of a whole range of noise. These scientists have created a device that can pinpoint the origin of gunfire and automatically target the source.

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