NEAL UNGERLEIDER | SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

The U.S. Army and DARPA have concluded field tests on next-generation binocular replacements that read human brain signals and have a 91% threat detection success rate. They might just help you control your car with your thoughts too (seriously).

Binoculars on the battlefield are fine, as long as soldiers know what they’re looking at. But when a target’s not so clear or, say, a shopkeeper with a broom could easily be mistaken for an insurgent with an RPG, the eyes–even the conscious, rational mind–might not be the best tool for threat-spotting and quick reaction.

So a new system from military think tank DARPA is instead going straight to soldiers’ brainwaves to spot real threats–from far away, or amid a crowded landscape.

The concept might sound familiar to science fiction readers: Augmenting human soldiers with brainwave-reading computers. The Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System (CT2WS) is a threat detection system for troops in the field that simultaneously scans warfighters’ brainwaves while a camera surveys the area. The binocular replacement system detects a specific kind of brainwave (the P300, which is involved in stimulus evaluation and categorization), combines that info with a camera feed, and processes it all through an algorithm in near-real time to feed back an almost-instant threat assessment. (Think: every cyborg POV shot in every Terminator movie ever made.) Sounds pretty out there, but testing indicates 91% of enemy targets were identified in the field, compared with the 47% spotted by U.S. warfighters in action today who aren’t using the new system.

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Nick Turse - January 31, 2011

Here is the Pentagon’s battlefield vision of tomorrow.

In the future, the power of magnetism will be harnessed to make today’s high explosives seem feeble, “guided bullets” will put the current crop of snipers to shame, and new multi-purpose missiles will strike targets in a flash from high-flying drones. At least, that’s part of the Pentagon’s battlefield vision of tomorrow’s tomorrow.

Ordinarily, planning for the future is not a U.S. government forte. A mere glance at the national debt, now around $14 trillion and climbing, or two recent studies showing how China’s green technology investments have outpaced U.S. efforts should drive home that fact. But one government agency is always forward-looking, the Department of Defense’s blue skies research branch, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

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Katie Drummond | Wired Dangerroom

The military’s scientific fringe has toyed with weather manipulation and geo-engineering for years. Recently, ideas like adding iron to the ocean, or covering the Arctic with dust, have been floated in a bid stave off global warming. But the Pentagon’s also got a long track record of plotting to screw with enemy climates and improve their own operational abilities.

Now, Darpa’s got a new target for geo-hacking science, and if they can make it work, we might see modern firearms making way for weapons of the mythological variety. The out-there research agency is soliciting proposals that would harness control over “the natural mechanism of lightning initiation” by coming up with a way to launch manmade lightning bolts, and prevent or redirect natural lightning strikes — and their accompanying destruction.

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I think he’s nailed it…

Much more convincing than my attempt.

Paul Joseph Watson asks “What Is The Secret Killing Weapon In Iraq?” My guess is Robobugs.

Robert Michelson of Georgia Tech holds a simplified model of the "entomopter," a flapping, four-winged robotic flier.

The hints given by Woodward on Larry King Live, suggest to me, the new weapon likely has an advanced targeting capability. Either it finds and attacks specific targets with ease like never before, or it has capabilities to get close enough to call in the missiles - probably a combination of both.

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