- U.S. Special Forces may soon have a strange and powerful
new weapon in their arsenal: a pair of high-tech binoculars 10 times more
powerful than anything available today, augmented by an alerting system
that literally taps the wearer's prefrontal cortex to warn of furtive threats
detected by the soldier's subconscious.
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- In a new effort dubbed "Luke's Binoculars"
-- after the high-tech binoculars Luke Skywalker uses in Star Wars -- the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is setting out to create its
own version of this science-fiction hardware. And while the Pentagon's
R&D arm often focuses on technologies 20 years out, this new effort
is dramatically different -- Darpa says it expects to have prototypes in
the hands of soldiers in three years.
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- The agency claims no scientific breakthrough is needed
on the project -- formally called the Cognitive Technology Threat Warning
System. Instead, Darpa hopes to integrate technologies that have been simmering
in laboratories for years, ranging from flat-field, wide-angle optics,
to the use of advanced electroencephalograms, or EEGs, to rapidly recognize
brainwave signatures.
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- In March, Darpa held a meeting in Arlington, Virginia,
for scientists and defense contractors who might participate in the project.
According to the presentations from the meeting, the agency wants the binoculars
to have a range of 1,000 to 10,000 meters, compared to the current generation,
which can see out only 300 to 1,000 meters. Darpa also wants the binoculars
to provide a 120-degree field of view and be able to spot moving vehicles
as far as 10 kilometers away.
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- The most far-reaching component of the binocs has nothing
to do with the optics: it's Darpa's aspirations to integrate EEG electrodes
that monitor the wearer's neural signals, cueing soldiers to recognize
targets faster than the unaided brain could on its own. The idea is that
EEG can spot "neural signatures" for target detection before
the conscious mind becomes aware of a potential threat or target.
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- Darpa's ambitions are grounded in solid research, says
Dennis McBride, president of the Potomac Institute and an expert in the
field. "This is all about target recognition and pattern recognition,"
says McBride, who previously worked for the Navy as an experimental psychologist
and has consulted for Darpa. "It turns out that humans in particular
have evolved over these many millions of years with a prominent prefrontal
cortex."
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- That prefrontal cortex, he explains, allows the brain
to pick up patterns quickly, but it also exercises a powerful impulse control,
inhibiting false alarms. EEG would essentially allow the binoculars to
bypass this inhibitory reaction and signal the wearer to a potential threat.
In other words, like Spiderman's "spider sense," a soldier could
be alerted to danger that his or her brain had sensed, but not yet had
time to process.
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- That said, researchers are circumspect about plans to
deploy the technology. One participant in last month's Darpa workshop,
John Murray, a scientist at SRI International, says he thought the technology
was feasible "in a demonstration environment," but fielding it
is another matter.
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- "In recent years the ability to measure neural signals
and to analyze them quickly has advanced significantly," says Murray,
whose own work focuses on human effectiveness. "Typically in these
situations, there are a whole lot of other issues (involved) in building
and deploying, beyond the research."
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- It's unclear what the final system will look like. The
agency's presentations show soldiers operating with EEG sensors attached
helmet-style to their heads. Although the electrodes might initially seem
ungainly, McBride says that the EEG technology is becoming smaller and
less obtrusive. "It's easier and easier," he says.
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- But getting the system down to a target weight of less
than five pounds will be a challenge, and Darpa's presentations make it
clear that size and power are also issues. But even if EEG doesn't make
it into the initial binoculars, researchers involved in other areas say
there are plenty of improvements to existing technology that can be fielded.
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- For example, another key aspect of the binoculars will
detect threats using neuromorphic engineering, the science of using hardware
and software to mimic biological systems. Paul Hasler, a Georgia Institute
of Technology professor who specializes in this area and attended the Darpa
workshop, describes, for example, an effort to use neural computation to
"emulate the brain's visual cortex" -- creating sensors that,
like the brain, can scan across a wide field of view and "figure out
what's interesting to look at."
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- While some engineers are mimicking the brain, others
are going after the eye. Vladimir Brojavic, a former Carnegie Mellon University
professor, specializes in a technology that replicates the function of
the human retina to allow cameras to see in shadows and poor illumination.
He attended last month's workshop, but he said he was unsure whether his
company, Intrigue Technologies, would bid for work on the project. "I'm
hesitant to pick it up, in case it would distract us from our product development,"
he says.
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- According to the Darpa presentations, the first prototypes
of Luke's Binoculars could be in soldiers' hands within three years. That's
an ambitious schedule, and an unusual one for Darpa, note several workshop
attendees, who also say they expect fierce competition over the project.
The list of attendees at the meeting ranged from university professors
to major contractors. Spokespeople for Lockheed Martin and Raytheon both
confirmed interest in the program, but declined to say whether they would
bid on it.
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- Once fielded, Darpa indicates the measure of success
lies with the military. According to information the agency provided to
industry, initial prototypes would go to Special Forces. If the military
asks to keep the binoculars after the trials, "that's exactly what
you want here," Darpa wrote. "That's success."
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- Why all the rush? "I have to wonder if they aren't
under pressure from Congress to make a contribution (to the war on terrorism),
or if DOD is really leaning on them to come up with some stuff," suggests
Jonathan Moreno, a professor of ethics at the University of Pennsylvania,
whose recent book, Mind Wars, looks at the Pentagon's burgeoning interest
in neuroscience. Darpa did not respond to press inquiries about the program.
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- Despite the fast schedule, McBride, of the Potomac Institute,
thinks the idea is doable. "It's a risky venture, but that's what
Darpa does," he says. "It's absolutely feasible."
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- http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/multimedia/2007/04/gallery_binoculars
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