Tech

Everything Emits Energy

It all starts with the premise that everything emits acoustic energy.

Everything.

Acoustic energy moves through earth, air, and water as elastic waves, radiating outward from the source that created it. And as it moves it interacts with its environment.

Infinite waves. Infinite interaction. Lots of Information.

Power of Seismic Acoustics

It pays to listen to the Earth and exploit these benefits.

Non-Line-of-Sight

Targets can be detected, classified, and tracked even if they are obstructed visually.

Omni-Directional

360 degree by 360 degree monitoring is persistently maintained 24/7/365.

Concealed

Thanks to being non-line-of-sight, the buried system is difficult to evade or disable.

Scalable

Whether one sensor or ten-thousand, one screen is all you need.

Power of SADAR^®

Our SADAR^® products capitalize on the power of seismic-acoustics for unparalleled performance.

Unprecedented Range

Extending the range to target detection effectively extends time, the time to confirm, the time to react.

Locate & Track

Far far beyond a proximity location, SADAR algorithmically determines a location and its associated uncertainty.

Classify

SADAR benefits from self determined high orders of information processing to better classify targets of interest

Information Simplicity

Easily pass actionable information into a system of systems for alert verification and a layered security approach.

Tactical Geophysics

Deriving Simplicity from Complexity

For more than 20 years Quantum has advanced the state of the art in Geophysical Monitoring at scales ranging from global to tactical, and today, along with our parent Geospace, all of our combined experience and expertise has culminated in a singular product platform called SADAR^®. SADAR isn’t a sensor. It isn’t an algorithm. SADAR is the pinnacle of tactical seismic-acoustic monitoring that detects, classifies, locates, and tracks Items of Interest, automatically and in real-time, at greater range, accuracy, and minimal uncertainty than ever before.

There is no better way to sample the complex acoustic wavefield than with SADAR. None.

Further, it produces additional information layers that traditional acoustic systems cannot, allowing SADAR to cut through the clutter, automatically, and produce actionable information.

In addition to its intrinsic ability, all of our systems leverage Quantum’s deep experience from gathering an impressive, proprietary library of target signatures. One mission’s target is another mission’s clutter.

The geophysical processing “pipeline” that acquires data and produces information, in real-time, is part of a paradigm we call a Science-Based Data Engine.

Land-based Items of Interest

Capable of detecting, classifying and tracking a wide range of land-based potential threats to include pedestrians, vehicles, surface digging as well as facility monitoring.

Water-based Items of Interest

Capable of detecting, classifying and tracking motorized watercraft and shallow submersibles as well as engine counting from significant distances.

Air-based Items of Interest

Capable of detecting and tracking unmanned aerial systems, ultralight aircraft as well as bullet detection and separate muzzle blast detection.

Science-Based Data Engine

The paradigm in which Quantum conducts all of its geophysical monitoring development we call a Science-Based Data Engine. While the interactive seismic-acoustic analysis toolkits we have developed these past 20 years are impressively broad and deep, a Science-Based Data Engine is not a toolbox. A Science-Based Data Engine is a system of hardware and software that acquires raw data, processes that data, and presents results to support a mission based on a thorough scientific understanding of the underlying processes that both produce the raw data and transform it into actionable information. The Engine connotation means continuous streams of complex data are processed, always in real-time or near real-time, yet it is capable of simultaneously accommodating operator interaction, integrating human expertise into an operational system of human, machine, and software components.

We've been developing and delivering Geophysical Science-Based Data Engines for 20 years. Today, we are the single point for a complete geophysical solution. We are the OEM of the Sensors, Data Acquisition, Data Analysis, and User Interface systems.

Data Acquisition

Consists of hardware and software that meets deployment, performance, and lifecycle criteria. This is everything from the sensor to digitizer to quality control to storage. Our parent company, Geospace, is world-class in the manufacturing of these complete systems, whether its a forty thousand channel system deployed a mile underwater or unattended, wireless systems deployed anywhere in the world, we are superior at ensuring the best data are available for analysis.

Data Analysis

Consists of the algorithms that, via a formalized processing “pipeline,” perform signal processing on the technical data and information processing on the derived alphanumeric data to produce actionable results. Our capabilities have repeatedly proven to our select customers to not only be the best, but to literally allow for a change in their Concept of Operations.

User Interface

The power of Acoustics is that thousands of channels monitoring thousands of square miles can literally be reduced to a simple XML string. Thus, we integrate into existing C4 systems with ease, should they exist. Otherwise, our systems offer stratified access into the results, from a straight forward GIS interface or the ability to explore the full Evidence Portfolio of an Event.

System Infrastructure

Underpinning all of the data acquisition, analysis and user interface is the complete range of software, hardware, and data architectures that accommodate system operation and configuration

A Geophysical Processing Pipeline

Detect

Extracting a signal of interest from an infinite background of signals is non-trivial. Fortunately, our speciality is the hard problem, the high noise and highly cluttered environment, the exact environment in which SADAR thrives. SADAR is scalable and capable of increasing signal-to-noise by a factor of five over traditional monitoring systems. But this isn’t just a signal-to-noise problem, and this problem isn’t efficiently or economically solved by an infinite number of humans visually or acoustically interpreting the data. Complex signal processing allows SADAR to detect target signals, even those buried in the noise because our automated algorithms operate in time, frequency, and space, simultaneously. And while algorithms matter, so does a deep understanding of the source physics, the propagation physics, and the sensing physics. All combined, this results in a superior range to detected targets.

Never lose sight of the fundamentals.

Associate

In a sea of infinite signals, deciphering what signal belongs to what target requires an onslaught of signal and information processing, especially with moving targets. This is known as Association. Since elastic waves are slow compared to the speed of light and rarely travel in a straight line, Association requires an algorithm base that operates in the past, the present, and the future, simultaneously. But once the signal detected by multiple sensors is associated with a single target (of unknown identity), the real fun begins. SADAR’s spatial processing plays a pivotal role in Association.

Association, the hidden challenge.

Identify

A signal is excited by something, and that something is called a target (or source) until it is identified, or classified. Classification is a deep science that attempts to do what our brains do every second of every day, which is identify what our ears sense. Our brain can not only determine who is talking, but what they are saying; two classification outcomes. With an infinite dataset to support it, voice recognition and word identification is a well-established capability of today’s technology. Tactical geophysics is not so straightforward. Quantum’s experience covers an impressive range of tactical targets operating in a wide range of environments. This not only improves SADAR’s target classification abilities, but we also leverage it to make SADAR very transportable. After all, how well would voice recognition work underwater? Or through acoustic muffling? Or in an environment heavily cluttered with racket?

Classification requires experience and understanding.

Locate and Track

Location is the science of determining the exact location of the target. But placing a “dot on the map” is rarely sufficient. At Quantum our location algorithms have literally been 20 years in the making and leverage captured error information in order to also quantify and display location uncertainty for any manner of target. Error and uncertainty are of paramount importance in situations where the accuracy of the target location is critical for a successful response.

Most targets of interest do not remain stationary. They move, generally in some direction at some rate, and for some purpose. SADAR systems are fully automated, to rapidly update target location information in real-time, tracking the target movement and advising the system user of same. The movement track is available to support real-time response actions and is available later for forensic purposes.

Uncertainty, the importance of understanding what you don’t know.