Man nets government funding for invention
JEROME BURDI, The Saratogian
01/01/2004

GREENFIELD CENTER -- Bruce Hodge looked into a bowl of spaghetti a decade ago and saw the secrets of the matrix. The Department of Defense granted him an initial $285,000 in November for his resistive matrix targeting system patent. If he produces two convincing reports by October, he will be granted a multi-million-dollar contract to make the target system a reality, the Greenfield inventor said. Hodge's 1996 patent is simple in concept: making a target light up where it's hit. But it has endless applications for 'storing target information digitally and forever,' he said. Hodge said after looking at charts of data for a time, he had his eureka moment when looking at the Italian pasta dish and studying the interwoven noodles. He calls it 'successive simulation approximation' because the 'target looks up one of the missing resistors and finds it.' After a projectile enters, a graphic suspension coating of conductive ink placed beneath the target detects the lost resistors. The results may be previewed from a remote video display. Hodge and his wife, Barbara, have been working with the Army's Targets Management Office for two years to get funding. Hodge, who was in the Army's 82nd Airborne, is no stranger to manual targets. When asked what kind of difference he thought his target could make from an insider's view, he said, laughing, 'No one could cheat any more.' Though the Army and the Department of Defense did not return calls for confirmation, Hodge has documents that confirm the grant. Hodge, who made an open circuit computer in the eighth grade, also founded Hodge Podge Consulting and is president and chief technical officer of Dynascript Technologies Inc. -- named after a computer scripting language he invented. He's also a developer at Amici in Albany. Hodge said the 'successive simulation approximation' also could be used by doctors to detect damage on a DNA chain. Another of his inventions, Shock Block, an anti-static device in the form of a keychain, is also a potential contributor to humanity, he said. Its Web site warns of the danger of a potential static spark-ignited fuel fire. 'I have a vision,' Hodge said. 'I can see the things in the future. Stuff I work on is always futuristic.' For more information on Hodge and his inventions, log on to www.brucehodge.com.

©The Saratogian 2005