A Canadian soldier is on routine patrol in an unfriendly area of Afghanistan when he encounters a landmine.

Now is definitely the time for his training to kick in. But with technology changing rapidly, chances are he wasn't even trained to dismantle it in the first place.

Vancouver-based technology company NGRAIN Corp. believes it has a software solution to help the soldier make the right decision - immediately.

The device on which the software is installed is called a Rugged Personal Digital Assistant, or R-PDA. Using built-in GPS technology, soldiers can use the information stored within the unit to help disarm landmines.

Bayne Stanley, Business Edge
CEO Paul Lindahl's NGRAIN Corp. has produced PDA software that gives soldiers an advantage when faced with locating and defusing deadly mines or repairing complex equipment.

"What makes this unique is that we've really focused on designing a product that lets subject-matter experts take their knowledge and replicate it in a device like this (PDA)," says Paul Lindahl, president and CEO of NGRAIN.

If you can put the knowledge of a bomb-location and disposal expert in a hand-held unit, he adds, it's "almost as good" as having them right there. And its GPS capability means that other soldiers can enter data on known landmine areas, making them more easily detectable by those who follow.

Manufactured by Tallahassee, Fla.-based Talla-Tech Inc., the green box-like R-PDA is thicker than a brick, but lighter than a pocket camera. It has a screen that's about half the size of a slice of bread, along with a pen-like stylus found on BlackBerries and Palm Pilots.

With help from NGRAIN's software, the R-PDA can also house as many three-dimensional pictures as a desktop computer, laptop or computer tablet. Other similar devices have been used in battle zones, but are considered too bulky.

A private firm founded in 2000, NGRAIN has received a $500,000 contract from the Department of National Defence (DND) to shrink three-dimensional data from a computer tablet to a rugged PDA.

"It's all about portability," says Lindahl.

NGRAIN's software allows soldiers to update the DND database immediately if they find previously unknown landmines.

In 2003, two Canadian soldiers died when their Iltis vehicle struck a landmine near the Afghan city of Kabul. Canada is part of a worldwide treaty, the 1997 Ottawa Convention, that bans landmines in 149 countries, but the U.S., China, Russia, Nepal and Burma are among 13 nations that still produce the deadly mines.

The federal government initially provided $100 million to support the implementation of the Ottawa Convention, but has since scaled the fund back to $72 million and announced plans to scrap it completely.

According to Mines Action Canada, an Ottawa-based non-governmental coalition that advocates a worldwide ban on landmines, there are more than 400,000 landmine victims around the world. The annual number of landmine victims is estimated between 15,000 and 20,000, down from 26,000.

Bayne Stanley, Business Edge
NGRAIN Corp.'s PDA software helps soldiers track and defuse dangerous landmines.

Lindahl says federal figures show 12 million landmines are present in Afghanistan alone, and are also prevalent in Cambodia and other countries.

NGRAIN's 3D technology isn't all about mines - the technology has also been deployed to show users how to repair vehicles and airplanes. The company's core software translates the mathematical code behind 3D images into pixels on a screen while ensuring the pictures are still large enough to show soldiers what to do. This process of translating math into 3D objects is known as rendering.

Lindahl says while other technology uses hardware rendering - where images can only be viewed with the benefit of an attached piece of hardware, such as a card that goes into a computer's video slot - his company uses software rendering, which doesn't require such a device.

Like larger computers, the R-PDA also has an Intel processor, and NGRAIN's software ensures the hand-held device's smaller images have the same 3-D quality and high resolution as they would on larger machines, says Lindahl.

Master Warrant Officer Tom Stewart of Canadian Forces J3 Engineer Operations is quoted in an NGRAIN news release as saying the company's software will improve soldiers' safety.

"With NGRAIN, the speed at which interactive 3D content can be produced, distributed and viewed means that Canadian Forces personnel have the tools necessary to execute the mission where and when needed," Stewart says in the news release.

The software allows the user to manipulate the image and look at it from several different angles. The company is also providing similar technology, on a subcontracting basis, as part of San Antonio-based Karta Technologies' $483-million contract to provide interactive 3D training materials to the U.S. Army's distributed learning, education and training products (DLETP) program, to be used by American troops based around the world.

Lindahl says the software will play a key role in future years as experts who know how to work with complex technology begin to retire.

NGRAIN recently moved up to 13th from 18th place on Defence Review magazine's list of the Top 20 Canadian defence companies, and says it has also secured a contract to provide similar technology to an unnamed European aerospace company.

Lindahl says NGRAIN, which formed under a different name in 2000 but re-branded itself based on its technology of the same moniker, has concentrated on serving the defence and aerospace industries because the medical-imaging, oil and gas, and video games sectors declined to invest in prototypes during the company's first three years.

The firm has since licensed its technology on a royalty basis to a firm that provides ore-modelling software to the oil and gas, and mining sectors.

Despite the earlier setbacks, Lindahl believes there will soon be strong demand for his firm's rendering technology within the medical imaging and oil and gas industries.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)